Navigating Incredibly Vague, Not at All Helpful Feedback as a Content Creator

It happens to everyone, eventually.

You create content that meets the brief (or two-sentence verbal summary) you received. It sparkles with details that you are positive will resonate with your audience, and you’re proud to put your name on it.

You send it off to your editor, client, or boss with a note soliciting their feedback. Finally, you get a reply ping in your inbox!

You open up the email and scroll down to the first comment field. They’ve selected a few words leading to a data visualization and left a note saying “simplify.” Further down, they leave another comment that says the piece doesn’t speak to audience X—which is not the audience they asked you to address.

Internally, you visualize?Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

So, you take a deep breath and reply patiently to the comments, noting your initial brief and any other instructions and asking for clarification. And wait for their reply. Rinse and repeat until you eventually understand what the heck it is they want you and your content to do. Which inevitably is not at all what the initial brief outlined.

Ugh.

In the spirit of helping people give better feedback to content creators, I’m compiling a list of all the least helpful, most annoying, and exceptionally vague standalone comments that content marketing creators receive and what reviewers can (and should!) be commenting instead. Here’s my start:

• Spice this up
• Make this more visual
• This doesn’t speak to our audience
• This wasn’t what I was expecting
• We need more of a story here
• I don’t like it
• Can you take another go at this?
• This color needs to be more affluent
• We would never say that

What would you add? Leave a comment and let me know!

Cheers,

Erika

Coming Up on #ContentChat

Content Chat is my weekly?chat focused on sharing expertise and ideas amongst the content marketing community. Join the conversation on Mondays at noon Pacific / 3 p.m. Eastern. Be sure to mark your calendar to join the #ContentChat community and me for these upcoming guests:

• Today on #ContentChat, we were joined by Amy Fair , content marketing manager at?SpyCloud, to discuss how content marketers can market themselves to find their next role. Amy and the community will share real-world examples of how a robust and engaged network can help your job hunt and ways you can use your content marketing skills to elevate your profile.
• There is no #ContentChat next Monday (June 19) as we celebrate Juneteenth.?You can learn more about Juneteenth and its importance in this?New York Times article or through History.com.

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Our friends at the Marketing AI Institute are looking for two marketing managers to oversee media, content, and events and its academy. These entry-level roles will work under the fabulous Cathy McPhillips , chief growth officer, and Mike Kaput, chief content officer. These are two perfect roles for anyone eager to get on the cutting edge of AI!

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Are you hiring? We can help!

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Can’t Miss Marketing AI Event Series (FREE For MarketingProfs Pro Members)!

By the end of summer, you can be a pro at using AI to optimize your content workflows. MarketingProfs is hosting an eight-week series starting June 21 that will cover everything from the legal pitfalls of AI (and how to avoid them) to how to write like robots can’t. I’m honored to present on July 26 about how to make AI your brand voice ally and apply a standardized voice across your entire organization. Get all the details and?register here.

ICYMI

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93% of marketers already use generative AI, with nearly 20% using it 5+ days per week! Text generation and search are the current top use cases, but teams are understandably concerned about accuracy, quality control, and data privacy. Dig into more findings about how marketers use generative AI in this new survey from Norwest Venture Partners (disclosure: former client).

Overcoming Change Fatigue In Content Marketing.

Marketers are burnt out. The pandemic forced us to reinvent our strategies, and new technologies—we’re looking at you, ChatGPT—require us to evolve to keep pace. So how can marketing leaders help their team members embrace these changes and bring excitement back to their work? In this #ContentChat recap, Jenny Magic ?and Melissa Breker ?explain how to overcome change fatigue in content marketing, drawing from their new book?Change Fatigue. Listen to the recap here, and grab your copy of their book today!

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Until next time, stay safe and be well!

Cheers,

Erika