Insights on How to Run Successful Competitions

Grow the impact of your initiatives with tips on how to best manage, market and grow your awards, competitions and more!

  • Sharing Four Lessons from Running a Business

    Sharing Four Lessons from Running a Business

    Ten years have gone by quickly, and we are still learning. After a decade of building Zealous, we thought we should share some of our top lessons.

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  • Establishing the perks for your competition

    Establishing the perks for your competition

    The only reason applicants will take the time to submit is that there’s something in it for them. Defining what’s in it for those selected, and understanding what you have available to you, could allow you to run a competition on a very tight budget, and still make a great success of it.

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  • Streamlining what you ask for from candidates

    Streamlining what you ask for from candidates

    Asking candidates for the correct information when they submit is a fine art.

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  • Defining the purpose of your programme

    Defining the purpose of your programme

    Purpose is powerful. It allows you to inspire people to take part and measure your goals effectively once your program ends. Without a clearly articulated purpose, marketing your offering and getting candidates to submit will be an uphill struggle.

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  • 6 Submissions Platforms for the Creative Industries

    6 Submissions Platforms for the Creative Industries

    Choosing the right process whilst taking entries could save you hundreds of hours of admin. To save you a little time we’ve compiled a list of the best submission platforms serving the creative eco-system at this time.

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  • Trends for Running Competitions in 2021

    Trends for Running Competitions in 2021

    Much has changed in 2020. For that reason, we’ve compiled our top tips on things to take into consideration when planning & running a successful competition in 2021.

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  • Top sites to list your writing competition on

    Top sites to list your writing competition on

    Boost submissions to your writing contests by listing them on these amazing sites.

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  • Creating opportunity in adversity

    Creating opportunity in adversity

    our months ago, the rules that governed society turned inside out. This left communities isolated, lead to freelancers losing their income and forced organisations to reinvent themselves. Cambridge City Council Supporting communities by commissioning talent With schools closed, parents working from home and the elderly under lockdown, families have either found themselves alone in isolation…

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Free Guide

Double your entries in 2025

Run more efficient awards, competitions, grants, open calls, juried exhibitions with our absolute guide to taking submissions
  • 5 mistakes to avoid when organizing awards, competitions…
  • 10 tips for marketing your program
  • Easy strategies to engage with judges
  • Pricing strategies for your competitions
  • Reduce friction with candidates

Take submissions in minutes

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Zealous earned the "Top Performer" badge on Sourceforge for submissions management
Zealous awards platform has the "Happiest Users" based on Crozdesk  users.
"Voted "Quality Choice" by Crozdesk for best entry management platform
Slashdot honoured us with their top performer badge for our submissions management solution.
5-star rated awards management platform on G2, according to our users
GetApp users award our submissions platform 5 stars.
Capterra users rate the Zealous online awards management platform a perfect 5 stars.
Our users rate Zealous 5 stars for our submissions management platform on Sourceforge.
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