Strategic Design | marketing & branding thoughts by Nick Rice

Another wonderful post (an oldie but a goodie) from Seth Godin via Core77.

How to give better feedback.

Synopsis:

1. No one cares about your opinion
2. Say the right thing at the right time
3. If you have something nice to say, please say it
4. Give me feedback, no matter what
   

Giving good feedback is all about putting yourselves in the shoes of your audience. It's not about your personal feelings or your favorite colors or what you think your boss will like. When you approach everything from the POV of your customer (hopefully based on research) your opinions don't matter. It's what's best for your audience.

Here's a good hierarchy for reviewing marketing materials. Start at the top and answer the hard questions first.

1. Does it meet the stated strategy?
2. Does it succinctly convey ONE value proposition?
   
3. Is it visually interesting? Does it make you stop and want to learn more?
4. Does it meet your branding guidelines?
5. Can it be developed within the stated budget and timeframe?
6. Is it legally appropriate?
7. Is it free of typos and grammar mistakes?

Notice that copy editing comes last. A lot of people want to dig right into spell checking as opposed to making sure the collateral is on target and effective. It's easy but it's not appropriate to do first. Having the ability to better review materials will increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

technorati tags > marketing, review process, strategy, seth godin, opinion, research, core77, guidelines