The Right and Wrong Ways to Give Feedback to Creatives (with Examples)

August 8, 2019August 15, 2019 ~ Patrick Icasas ~ Leave a comment

“This copy sucks.”

“Your photos are terrible.”

“What the @#&% were you smoking when you designed this?”

As a marketing project manager, I understand that a creative asset needs to be reworked multiple times before it can be considered suitable for publication, and that multiple internal and external parties need to be able to voice their opinions.

As a writer, however, I understand that I am a trembling, person-shaped toothpick-tower of insecurities. I am in constant fear that the next round of edits will break my heart, shatter my pride and drive me to drink.

I exaggerate, of course (but not by much).

I’ve heard many marketing managers defend themselves for being “tough,” “brutally honest,” “efficient” or even “professional” (hint: it’s not), and they almost always end up with creatives whose output is listless and bland. In a word: safe.

At best, poor feedback is unhelpful and won’t help make the asset better. At worst, you risk killing a person’s motivation to either work on the project, or work for you.

There are much better ways to give feedback–feedback that helps the project move forward, helps the creative improve their skils, and helps them know your own (or the client’s) creative preferences.

I’ve included examples of the wrong and right way to do it below:

1. Edit the work, not the person

I get that deadlines are stressful, and the client is up in your business, and that you’re still working on the same thing after the fifth round of revisions. But there is no excuse for going all Gordon Ramsey on your creative team.

Restrict your comments to the work itself. Never comment on any aspect of the person’s personality, appearance, upbringing, racial background or education. That’s called getting personal, and that’s a quick trip to HR.

Yes: “I think the layout looks too busy.”

No: “That shit looks as chaotic as your hair.”

2. Be as specific as possible

Want to know the quickest way to anger a creative? Give vague feedback.

Generic comments don’t help the creative fix your problem. What it does do is ensure that the next version will:

Have the same problem
Go completely in the wrong direction
Be a complete waste of time
All of the above.

Examine your reaction to the work and break down what is causing the issue. What is the source of your dissatisfaction? What would you change to make it better?

Yes: “The stock photo looks dated.”

No: “This is bullshit.”

3. Tell them the problem, not the solution

Are you a designer yourself? Then maybe don’t tell the person with an art degree how to fix a design problem.

It’s human nature to want to pitch in helpful ideas. But unless you have relevant experience in that role yourself, your attempt to “helpfully instruct” will just lead to more problems. Worse, you won’t even see them as problems because they’re your suggestions, and you’re automatically biased towards your own opinions.

Also, recommending a single course of action stifles creativity and eliminates possibilities of a much better solution.

Yes: “That font is hard to read.”

No: “Use Comic Sans size 52. It’ll really make the CTA pop. AND USE ALL COLORS OF THE RAINBOW.”

4. Don’t do the work for them

Sort of related the previous point, however offenders in this case take it to a whole different level. These are the type of people who will “take matters into their own hands” because if you “want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”

One of the worst project managers I’d ever met would literally sit at the designers desk and point out where the designer should retouch an artwork. Down. To. The. Pixel.

Yes: “Here are the edits. Let me know when you’re done.”

No: “I thought it needed a fresh set of eyes so I redid the entire logo. No need to thank me.”

5. Stay goal-focused

You’re not doing this asset to make someone happy (well, not only that). You have a larger business objective to serve.

As a marketing manager you should always be ready to question the direction you’re given in service of the larger goal. Doing so increases the chances of you contributing to the bottom line and proving marketing’s value.

Yes: “The writing’s good, but it’s not going to convert.”

No: “Yes! More dank memes!”

6. Make it a conversation

The best collaboration happens when two people are, you know, collaborating.

One-sided conversations or directions are narrow by their very nature. If something doesn’t work and you can’t quite pin it down, talk to your creative about it and see what you can do to get the creative juices flowing. They will be able to give input based on other projects they’ve worked on and, even if that doesn’t work, at least they’ll understand where you’re coming from.

Yes: “How can we make this more informal?”

No: “Substitute the “Greetings” for “Yo, wassup.”

7. Allow them to push back

You hired the creative for their expertise, knowledge, and skill. If they have an opinion on your edits, then it’s worth listening to.

You might not always agree with their opinion, or be able to act on it (especially if the edit is client-driven), but give them a voice anyway. They will respect you as a leader and you may even learn a few things along the way.

Yes: “Good point, let’s do another version and see what the client likes more.”

No: “Shut your pie-hole and get to work.”

8. Give them their space

Creatives aren’t an assembly line that can pump out deliverables to a set timeline. Just because I can type at 63 wpm, doesn’t mean I’m actually working at that speed.

When you set a creative to a task, leave them be. Micromanaging will just stress them out and force them into doing work just to get you off their back, and not because they think it’s good.

Yes: “How much time will you need for this?”

No: “I want this done by the time I’m back from lunch.”

9. Explain what you like

Don’t be a Negative Nancy all the time. Yes, you have to communicate changes and improvements to whatever creative gives you, but you should also tell them what you and the client like.

Not only does this make the creative feel better about the work, but it also reinforces desirable design trends and habits, and encourages them to take risks and surprise you with new ideas.

Yes: “I really like those Kirby Dots you put in the background.”

No: “It’ll do, I guess.”

10. Consolidate feedback

I totally get that a project needs to be approved by multiple people before it gets published (including you), but just because feedback gets to you piecemeal, doesn’t mean that your creative has to suffer through the same thing.

There are a bunch of reasons to consolidate feedback:

Edits from different people might contradict each other. Resolve that before handing it to the creative
You might be taking bad suggestions from someone you should be ignoring. I was once told to ignore edits from a CEO who was only included “to make him feel involved.”
Drip-feeding edits slows the creative down. Instead of banging out the edits in one go, he has to open, fix, save, publish/render, and upload multiple times.
A constant stream of tiny changes is frickin’ annoying.

Side note: This is how you get filenames like *_final1.pdf, *_final2.pdf and *_final-final.pdf

Yes: “I marked the PDF with all of the edits from the client’s team.”

No: “Disregard the edits from yesterday. I have a new round of edits from the big boss.”

11. Be direct and honest

From all the above tips, you might think that I am telling you to treat creatives with kid gloves; to be careful of their feelings and avoid upsetting them. Treat them like the special snowflakes that they are.

Nope!

Be a straight-shooter. Tell it like it is. Don’t dance around the point. Tell them exactly what you need to tell them and be honest with your assessment of their work.

Just don’t get personal or emotional when you do.

Yes: “I know you put a lot of effort in this, but you’re gonna have to do it all over again.”

No: “Yeah, um. Maybe it needs, um. A bit more work? BUTI’MNOTTELLINGYOUIT’SHORRIBLEIT’SACTUALLYPRETTYGOOD.”

Bonus: Have your team’s back

Your team will be much more open to your feedback if they’re confident you will back them up when needed.

Defend their work to the client or stakeholder. Protect them from terrible design decisions. Insulate them from unnecessary meetings. Be mindful of their creative sensibilities and encourage their career growth.

In other words: be an awesome boss.

Up Next: Why Isn’t Sales Using My Marketing Leads?!?!?

Should Marketers Hire Freelance or Full-time?

August 1, 2019August 7, 2019 ~ Patrick Icasas ~ Leave a comment

We’ve already established that marketers need help.

But what form should this help take? Are marketers better off hiring freelancers? After all, over 59% of businesses are already hiring freelancers to support their operations.

Or should marketers look for full-time employees instead? People who can grow within a team over a long period of time?

Before we can answer this, let’s take a closer look at the key differences between full-timers and freelancers, as well as their benefits and risks. We’ll use a handy acronym I call S.C.A.T.G.R.A.L.

… Okay, maybe that needs more work.

Anyway! Off to the differences:

Skill/Experience

Who is more likely to be able to do the job, especially if it requires specialized skills like SEO or graphic design.

Full-timer: Depends on a career employee’s job history, but employees are more likely to have had on-the-job training or may have been sent to paid courses by their employer. Risk is that maybe they learned all the wrong things at the job, or are lying/mistaken about the experience they gained in previous roles. I’ve known people who had jobs with fancy titles that essentially did nothing.

Freelancer: The best ones have specialized in a single service type or market for years, and have built up a long history of clients. Their portfolios and client list are usually sufficient to gauge skill. Watch out for freelancers who talk a big game but are actually just new and inexperienced. Stay skeptical until they’ve proven themselves with actual work.

Cost

What will hiring this person do to your budget?

Full-timer: Oy. Hiring a full-timer is expensive. A full-time employee is going to take a huge chunk out of your marketing budget, and that doesn’t even take into account benefits and equipment. Try to cheap out on them and pay lower than the going rate, and your new hire won’t last very long. They’re also expensive to fire due to severance pay. Consider this an investment rather than an expense.

Freelancer: Hiring a freelancer is normally cheaper than a full-time employee, but there are also larger projects that cost more. Generally, you have to pay for the level of service you expect (e.g. more money = better service), but price doesn’t automatically equal quality. Screen your freelancers carefully. Low-balling your freelancers at ridiculous prices ($5 per blog post anyone?) is a no-no, though.

Note: headcount is sometimes dictated by management, and might have nothing to do with your own marketing budget.

Availability

Are these people going to be around when you need them?

Full-timer: That’s a no-brainer. You’re paying them to be in your office (or online remotely) 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. They are completely devoted to your business during those hours. They will also be able to help out with a bunch of tasks that might not be directly related to their job description (within reason).

Freelancer: Freelancers value you and will want to make you happy, but they also have other clients that they need to keep happy. Any work you do will have to be scheduled according to their workload. If you have an urgent need, you’ll have to pay a rush fee or have a retainer arrangement or something similar.

Training

How fast does it take to get them productive?

Full-timer: A new hire with the same level of skill as a freelancer will still need to be trained on the company product/service, internal procedures, brand guidelines, and other supplementary functions of their role (e.g. reporting to management, working with internal teams). They will also need to be trained on whatever systems and apps you’re using. According to Training Industry Quarterly, it takes 1 to 2 years for a new hire to be fully-productive. But then again, they will learn fast if they have access to the right internal resources and industry specialists.

Freelancer: Freelancers turn productive much sooner. You just need to brief them on the essentials of the job (brand guidelines, personas, target keywords, etc) and let them loose. Much of this is because their role in your team is very limited and they don’t have to worry about most of the stuff full-timers do. They also have experience bouncing between brands and can pick things up quickly. Freelancers that specialize in your particular industry might be more difficult to find and more expensive, however.

Growth

What will an extended working relationship do for this person (and you)?

Full-timer: If you pick the right hire, the full-timer could easily grow into the role and beyond, developing into much more than their original function. Full-timers that show potential can be given increased responsibility and may even be promoted into more senior roles in the company.

Freelancer: Over time, your freelancer will know your brand like the back of your hand, and will be able to predict what you need and when. Working with them will be a breeze, but they’ll only ever be a freelancer.

Reliability

Can you rely on this person to get the job done? And get it done right?

Full-timer: Hard to ghost someone when you work in the same office. Marketing managers have the advantage here, because they are around the full-timer all the time and can ensure they are at their desks performing the job you’re paying them to do.

Freelancer: They are most likely off-site and have other priorities. The freelancer is working with the best of intentions, but there are many circumstances you will not be able to control as a manager. I myself have occasionally been ghosted and ignored by freelancers I hire (come on people, don’t pretend it doesn’t happen).

Accountability

What can you do when the shit hits the fan?

Full-timer: It’s easier for marketing managers to hold employees accountable for their work due to the close proximity and the nature of the relationiship. Monthly reviews, corrective action and performance metrics help keep your employee effective at their job.

Freelancer: Freelancers sometimes oversell their services and skills, and you have little recourse if they underperform. You can try to manage them and provide feedback, but the problem persists you don’t really have any other option except to fire them and find another freelancer.

Loyalty

How likely are they to stick around?

Full-timer: Full-timers are more likely to stick around long-term for a stable job. Provided, of course, that you have a good working environment, you’re a decent manager and you use their skills effectively. Easy, right?

Freelancer: Freelancers aren’t total mercenaries. Yes, they have no ties to you and could conceivably quit whenever they feel like it. But if a freelancer finds a good client, they will try to keep that client around for as long as humanly possible.

So basically…

Ultimately, the decision on hiring a freelancer or a full-timer depends on three things: budget, timeline and goals.

Budget is the biggest factor by far, and I’ve met many marketing managers who resort to hiring freelancers only as a stop gap until they can afford someone full-time. On the other hand, marketing managers who need to hire a large number of creatives can only do so at scale if they hire freelancers, as a team of in-house creatives would be hideously expensive.

It takes a long time to find and hire a full-timer, and in that time deadlines still have to be met. Freelancers are pretty much grab-and-go, and you can easily fold them into the timelines of whatever projects you have going on.

Companies who need immediate help, like startups, might be able to make the most out of freelancers in this manner. Agencies who don’t have a consistent amount of work to keep a full-timer busy could also leverage freelancers this way.

Lastly, you have your own goals for the projects and the team. Do you want to grow your fledgling marketing empire? Or are you intending to build an internal agency composed of rotating freelancers? Sometimes they do both (one primary employee supported by a team of freelancers).

I can’t dictate the right answer to you. It all depends on your own situation. But if you want to talk through the problem with someone who won’t insert a sales pitch every second paragraph, send me an email or a DM and I’d be happy to talk through the problem.

Seriously, no sales pitch.

Next Post: 12 Ways to Give Feedback to Your Creatives (Without Making Enemies)