Best of Business Awards (Vermont Business Magazine): How Voting Works & How to Win

One survey, 100-plus categories, 75,000 votes

Three numbers carry this program: more than 100 B2B categories, a fixed January 1 to March 1 window, and 75,000-plus votes in the most recent cycle. Put together, they describe a poll built around volume and breadth rather than a single marquee category. A Burlington law firm and a St. Johnsbury insurance agency show up on the same form, filed under their own category, both counted toward that same 75,000-vote total.

That scale is worth naming because most statewide readers'-choice programs split into narrower regional or city-level ballots. Vermont Business Magazine doesn't. Everything runs through vermontbiz.squarespace.com/bob-awards-survey as one document.

What isn't published in the record checked for this guide: a category-by-category breakdown of that 75,000-vote total, or a fixed list of categories that never changes year to year. Treat vermontbiz.squarespace.com as the live source for the current cycle's exact category roster.

A B2B ballot, not a consumer readers' choice program

Vermont runs more than one statewide-flavored voting program, and mixing them up costs a campaign real reach. The BOB Awards survey is aimed at business-to-business categories, banking, accounting, manufacturing, insurance, legal services, and similar commercial fields, voted on by other businesspeople and readers of a trade publication.

How that differs from Vermont's consumer readers' choice ballots

Programs like the Rutland Herald Best of the Best and Seven Daysies ask ordinary consumers to name their favorite restaurant, shop, or local service. A dentist's office or a plumbing company fits naturally into one of those consumer ballots but has no obvious place in the BOB Awards' B2B category list, and the reverse holds too: a commercial insurance broker rarely shows up on a consumer readers' choice page.

A business weighing which Vermont program fits should pick by category type first, not by geography, since the BOB Awards already cover the whole state in one form.

Why the single-form structure changes campaign timing

A per-business vote page rewards a sharp, well-timed push near the close. A single combined survey form rewards something closer to steady reminders across the full window, because a supporter who fills out the form once has, in effect, cast every vote they're going to cast in one sitting.

That has a practical consequence for outreach. A message sent on January 3rd competes for the same attention as one sent on February 27th; there's no reason to wait for a late surge, since nothing about the mechanic rewards a last-week rush the way a per-category deadline might. Spreading two or three reminders across the eight-week window, rather than saving everything for the final days, matches how this particular ballot actually works.

For general mechanics on running a readers'-choice or award-style campaign, award-style vote campaigns covers ground that applies to a single-form survey like this one just as much as a per-category ballot.

Vermont's business geography, from Burlington to the Northeast Kingdom

Chittenden County, anchored by Burlington, is where most of Vermont's commercial density sits, and a category like banking or professional services will naturally draw a heavier volume of nominees from that corridor. But the survey doesn't weight by region, so a Rutland accounting firm, a Bennington manufacturer, or a St. Johnsbury insurance office in the Northeast Kingdom all compete on the same statewide category page.

Stowe and the surrounding ski-economy towns bring a distinct cluster of hospitality and tourism-adjacent B2B categories that a purely urban Vermont poll would miss. White River Junction, sitting on the New Hampshire border, pulls in businesses that serve both states' customers but still enter under Vermont's own category list here.

Word travels fast between Vermont's business community and the trade press that covers it. A business claiming a BOB Awards placement it can't actually back up risks that credibility with exactly the readership it's trying to reach.

What a business can honestly do, and where the limits sit

Real clients, real colleagues, and a survey link sent more than once across the January-March window are the whole legitimate playbook here. There's no per-business vote page to share, so the outreach message points at one shared URL and asks the recipient to find and complete the right category inside it.

A vote-promotion service can help a business reach people who already have a reason to support it, timed to land inside that eight-week window rather than after it closes. It can't guarantee where a category lands once every other nominee's supporters have also filled out the form, and it can't substitute for a category description that accurately matches what the business actually does. See how online contest votes work for the general mechanics, and read is buying votes legal before committing budget to any push tied to a publication whose readership overlaps directly with a business's own client base.