Rule #25

Don’t get too defensive about creative feedback.

Easily, this is the toughest rule to put into practice if you’re in the marketing field. So much about the service we provide is based on informed experience and education. The tangible product only reveals itself after it’s been deployed. It’s hard to present your recommendations to a client and have them question detail after detail. The feedback certainly feels personal, even if it’s not intended as such.

I could go on at length about how different the creative process is compared to something like interpreting data on a spreadsheet, but in our role it’s important to mine feedback as insights to a puzzle you didn’t know what missing a piece.

Sometimes this feedback is harsh and rough, but seldom is it intended that way.

Clients often have difficulty expressing their concerns in marketing terminology, so it’s important to ask probing questions that reveal the real, underlying issue. Sometimes what is expressed as a ‘showstopper’ can be solved with a minor tweak, so do your best to accept the feedback openly and without reaction.