Working in digital marketing comes with a high price tag, creative feedback. As a content creator, it can be disheartening when asked to change a creative decision. Here are a few tips I’ve learned and implemented to help soften the blow of creative feedback.
1. Take Your Time
In the beginning, make sure that you are taking your time. Dot your “i”s and cross your “t”s. Make sure that you are presenting your best in the beginning. This will set you up for success as feedback comes in.
Even if you know that things in the design will change, presenting a quality first draft will allow the person giving feedback to see what you are capable of creating. It shows that you are paying attention to detail and they may soften their response by acknowledging the quality.
2. Be Open to New Ideas
Just as you want the client or your superior to be open to your ideas. You have to be open to theirs. It’s a two-way street. You should also be open to different interpretations of the idea.
Be willing to see things from their side and work together to create something that you both enjoy. If you can show that you’re willing to be open, they may return the favor and you’ll be able to create a great relationship and make some magic in the process.
3. Don’t Take it Personal
Sometimes when someone critiques your work, it can feel like a personal attack. You’ve spent time and energy creating something worthy to show, only for someone else to come along and poo poo it.
Unless they are actually trying to insult you, (trust me, you’ll know the difference) try to not take it personal. They are only trying to bring their vision to life, not destroy yours.
4. Have an Explanation
This one can be a little tricky to explain, but if you have an explanation, it helps soften the blow. If you can explain why you made something the way you made it, the critique may feel more helpful than hurtful.
If someone doesn’t like your execution but they understand what you were trying to do, they can help steer you in a direction that can satisfy both of you. Again you have to be open to different ideas and help.
5. Save and Evaluate
Something that has ultimately helped me with future projects is to save the progression of the design. Saving every draft and version along the way to the final creates a road-map of that project. It also serves as a template for what the decision maker does and does not like.
After the project is complete, review all the versions with feedback to help you create a nice starting point going forward. If you can learn from your creative feedback in the past, it will most likely set you up for faster approvals in the future.
Conclusion
Working in content creation is fun. It’s creative and nice to see things actually come to life. However, when working for someone else, you’ll always have to deal with feedback and different opinions. Learning to deal with this feedback in a positive way is essential to thriving in this environment. I hope the tips above are a good starting point.
Originally published at https://larryg.co on May 6, 2019.
