Even if you’re supremely talented and good at what you do…

Even if you develop a bulletproof creative brief, the kind that details your target audience’s bedtimes…
Even if you only work with ideal clients, on ideal projects, to achieve goals you both agree on…
And even if your clients adore you, and you practically invented Cascading Style Sheets, along with coining the term “Paradigm Shift”…

You’re going to get what feels like negative feedback.

The emotional response to negative feedback is usually much worse than the feedback itself. The more you care, the more it hurts when they don’t say, “OMG YES!” Or, “You just nailed it on the first try. Can I pay you double?” They don’t call, they don’t write, they don’t even send flowers. They hate it! They must!

A week passes, and you finally get one tepid email back. Something like, “Hmmm, let me think about this.” Or, worse, “I have a few concerns.”

The floodgates open:

• Does this mean I’m not good enough?
• Is my work really that bad?
• Do they hate me?
• Are they wrong?
• Maybe I’m the one who’s wrong!
• No, I’m the expert! I can’t be wrong!

Once the shock wears off, you start asking yourself more useful questions:

• Is this something I need to push back on?
• Is there a way we can work together to produce something better than either of us could have achieved on our own?
• Where is the truth in what they’re saying, and what is the easiest way to incorporate that?

Yes, you could draw their attention back to the goals of the piece, and to the target audience, and to what they’re trying to accomplish. You could whip out the creative brief and remind them in the nicest, most professional way possible why you’re really right and they’re really wrong.

Or, you could head it off from the outset by guiding them to give useful, constructive feedback.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a specific feedback checklist so they didn’t draw a blank when you asked for their reaction, so they didn’t forget about you entirely, or give vaguely unsettling feedback that made you cry?

Now you have this handy checklist—the antidote to “what do you think?”

Using this checklist makes the feedback process feel less like you flinging your draft over the castle walls and waiting for the client to fling it back in hopes they haven’t lit it on fire, and more like a collaborative exploration. You’ll both enjoy the process. You’ll also get better results.

My Delicate-Flower Marketing Feedback Checklist

The Antidote to “What Do You Think?”

Overall

• When you think about your target audience and your goals for this piece, do the structure and copy work together to accomplish these goals?
• How do you feel as a result of reading the copy? Are there any parts that sing, that really make you say, “Yes!” Which ones? Are there any parts that confused you, that you had to read twice, or that just didn’t feel or sound right?

Structure

• Does it follow a logical structure?
• Is the structure consistent?
• Is the structure efficient? Are the words arranged in a way that saves the reader time? Is the layout clear and crisp so the message is easy to track?
• Are there any awkward passages or transitions?
• Are additional changes needed once copy is integrated with the design?

Substance

• Is it accurate?
• Is it complete? Does it convey all the information it needs to convey? Would the reader need anything else to evaluate your message and act on it?
• Is there any information I can delete?
• Is the writing grammatically correct and free of spelling, capitalization, word order, and sentence-structure mistakes?

Persuasiveness

• What objections are coming up for you that are not covered in the copy? Would you get in touch anyway, or would you need all your objections to be answered?
• What questions do you still have after reading this that might stop you from taking the next step?
• Did I explain all the features and benefits clearly and persuasively?

Tone & Style

• Does the style, tone and vocabulary fit the target audience?
• Are the strategy and tone consistent?
• Is it clear and easy to read? Is there any ambiguity or guesswork, or does the reader get the meaning?
• Is there a call to action?
• Does the copy convey a positive image of the company? Does it ultimately give the reader good feelings?

In the next post, I’ll talk about how you can position the feedback conversation so it feels less like Meeting the Parents and more like Building a Sandcastle with Aunt Lucinda.