By Kim Leary
The short version
- Everyone can see marketing, so everyone has an opinion on it. Nobody red-pens the finance team’s spreadsheets.
- Every round of opinion costs time, nerve and, in the end, results.
- Most marketers try to manage the feedback. The feedback isn’t the problem. The lack of anything to judge it against is.
- Some feedback is just feedback. Look at what it’s about.
- Agree who it’s for and what it needs to say, once, with the people who hold the red pen in the room. Then judge the work against that, not against taste.
- One room, one day, and everyone who holds the red pen in it.
The stat is too big. The post is too long. Can we try a different colour. You explain that the stat is big because it’s meant to stop people scrolling. The answer comes back: “I just don’t like it.”
So it changes. Then it changes again. And what goes out is the version nobody objected to, which is rarely the version that would have worked.
Why it happens
Everyone can see marketing, so everyone has an opinion on it. Nobody red-pens the finance team’s spreadsheets.
Marketing is the one function where the work is visible to everyone and the thinking behind it is visible to no one. So the feedback lands on what people can see: fonts, colours, length. “It’s just a quick post” ignores the research before it and the work after it.
Underneath, it’s usually one problem. The business has never agreed, in writing, who it’s for and what it needs to say to them. Without that, taste is the only thing left to judge by, and taste can’t settle an argument.
What it’s costing you
Every round of opinion costs time, nerve and, in the end, results.
What doesn’t fix it
Most marketers try to manage the feedback. The feedback isn’t the problem. The lack of anything to judge it against is.
“Get the MD involved earlier.” Earlier opinions are still opinions. You’ll just have them sooner.
“One more round will get it right.” Rounds don’t converge without a reference point. They just get blander.
“We need a better designer.” A better designer still can’t win an argument that has no agreed answer.
“My job is to keep everyone happy.” Your job is to reach the buyer. Keeping everyone happy is how you end up reaching nobody.
Is it the feedback or the direction?
Some feedback is just feedback. Look at what it’s about.
It’s probably normal feedback if:
- It catches something wrong: a fact, a date, a claim you can’t back up.
- It settles after a round or two.
It’s probably a direction problem if:
- The comments are about colour, length and fonts, and they change every round.
- Two senior people send back opposite changes.
- Nobody can point to anything written down that says who the work is for.
If it’s mostly the second list, another round won’t settle it. Agreeing the direction will.
What fixes it
Agree who it’s for and what it needs to say, once, with the people who hold the red pen in the room. Then judge the work against that, not against taste.
Work should be judged on how it performs, not how it looks. Our brand strategy workshop gets everyone with a stake in the answer into one room for a day: your audiences, your value pillars and what to say to each of them, written down. From £2,800 + VAT.
If it’s the look that keeps getting argued over, brand identity starts with that same workshop and then a Look and Feel workshop, so the design is judged against a decision, not a mood board. Packages from £5,555 + VAT.
And once it’s agreed, brand assets and design systems turns it into templates and rules, so there’s less to argue about in the first place.
What happens on the day
One room, one day, and everyone who holds the red pen in it.
Before the day, we read what you’ve already got: the site, the deck, the last campaign and whatever sales is actually sending out. You tell us who needs to be there, and we’ll say if anyone’s missing.
On the day, everyone writes before anyone talks, so the quietest person is heard before the loudest. We map your audiences and what each one needs to hear. Then we place your tone of voice on a set of scales against a competitor you name, so the tone stops being a matter of taste.
Afterwards, you get it written down: your direction, audiences, value pillars and messaging framework. That’s what the next round of feedback gets held up against.
It works with a big room, too. Energy & Utility Skills had twenty stakeholders and four sites, and settled it in a single strategy day. There’s a fuller walk through in what happens in a one-day strategy workshop.
Keep reading
- When the CEO shouldn’t be in the room (and why that’s okay)
- Why your team can’t agree on what you do
- Is it a marketing problem or a product problem?
Questions about stakeholder feedback on marketing
Get them to agree, before the work starts, who it’s for and what it needs to say. Then feedback can be checked against that, instead of against personal taste.
Because there’s nothing agreed to judge the work against. Each round swaps one preference for another, so it never settles.
On the direction, yes. On every font and colour, no. Agree the direction together, then trust the people doing the work to deliver it.
There’s no right number, which is why we don’t set one on a website. They aren’t unlimited, but when the thinking’s done first, the work doesn’t need many. If the rounds keep coming and the comments are still about taste, the problem is upstream of the work.
Against what was agreed, not personal taste. Is it for the buyer we agreed? Does it say what we said we’d say? If it does, colour and length are the team’s call.
Move the date if you can. A decision made without the person who can overturn it tends to get overturned. The CEO’s role needs thinking about before the day, and there’s more on that in when the CEO shouldn’t be in the room.
Free resource
Why your positioning still isn’t working. Four quick tests to find out whether there’s anything agreed to judge the work against.
The one thing to do next
Strategy workshop
Everyone who holds the red pen in one room, and your audiences, value pillars and messaging agreed and written down by the time you leave. From £2,800 + VAT.
