At lunch today, my favourite writer told me a story about a client of ours whom she worked with while I was on vacation. She’s writing his brochure. After initial direction was approved, then a couple of back-and-forths between them, he took the draft to his advisory board for 
feedback. He got so many and such varied responses his head was spinning and couldn’t sleep that night.
We encourage clients to run their creative by an advisory board or, even better, ideal clients at exactly the stage our client did. However, if you simply say “what do you think,” the question is too open-ended. Here are some tips on how to get the most useful input.
This applies to anything from logos, to web design to any kind of content.
Give Them Some Background
Tell them who the audience is, how it will be used and what you were trying to achieve. For example, it’s going to a specific audience like financial controllers in large corporations (very different than the head of HR at a smaller company). It will be handed out at a tradeshow and you’re hoping to get meetings out of it. Also, tell them what specific result you are after, if applicable, like getting them to call directly versus sign-up through your website.
It helps to give a bit of background on your discussions with the creative team involved as well, like what led to the format or approach taken This may eliminate a lot of questions that can have you second-guessing yourself. Like ‘why didn’t you just do a tri-fold brochure’? You could pre-empt it by saying ‘we discussed doing a tri-fold brochure but realized it would be inserted into large folders and we also wanted to email it so…’
Consider sharing some of the market research that was done to help put it in context, like ‘client interviews indicated what’s most important to them is ______’
Create a List of Specific Questions
What about the piece is important to you – that a certain message get across? That people 
take a specific action at the end? That it builds a feeling of trust and stability or makes people feel warm and fuzzy? Use this as a guideline to come up with specific questions. Like, ‘did it make you feel warm and fuzzy?’ Same goes for concerns you have – ‘or did it seem too corporate’.
Also think about what you are sure of and don’t intend to change when framing questions. If you definitely like the design but are not sure about the colour, ask them specifically ‘what do you think of the colour?’ Tell them what message you are trying to convey and ask them if they get that from the design or copy. If not what did they get from it?
Broad Questions Are Okay
‘If you had one impression from this piece what was it?’
However, you may want to have follow-up questions ready. If you want it to convey that your services are delivered quickly because of the technology you’ve developed, and they got that, you could ask something like ‘but does it make our service sound cheap because it’s so fast?’
Make the Most of Your Community
Asking for feedback from people who represent your ideal clients or peers you trust for business advice is a great idea. Just prepare for it and know you may get some conflicting 
input. Don’t be reluctant to ask – most people feel privileged that you value their opinion.
Social media provides additional ways to get objective, anonymous and/or professional feedback. You can ask for feedback via the major channels like Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are also great places, both free, like Get Satisfaction or User Voice and professional/paid like EntreBahn (full version coming soon)
PS. It’s a great way to get a little social media exposure too.
Then What?
The best thing to do is gather the feedback and go over it with your creative team, who should be completely open to that. We’d discuss each bit, hold it against the creative brief and objectives, decide what’s important and what’s not, and make some executive decisions.
Except those same experts are often getting paid $500- $1,000 an hour (or more) to do client work. And if the marketing budget includes internal time…things can get really expensive, quickly. Or if the professionals in the firm don’t think blogging helps build business, the challenges can be even greater.
one of the most easily accessible lines of communication a company has, providing exposure to people that actually care about what your experts have to say. People that could easily become future clients.
outsource). Get your support team to find appropriate pictures. If all else fails, have your expert verbalize their opinions and have someone else write them down. Don’t forget to enhance the blog for search. That too can be outsourced.
mbrace. The chemistry between the writer and the designer needs to be on the same wavelength, otherwise the creative process will end up being stilted and often times ineffectual.
rtable writing speeches and presentations than advertising, brochures, web sites or TV scripts. Art directors are the same: some are extremely good at advertising, some are good at publications and others skilled in the e-market, but very few can do it all.
d they start ignoring it. Meanwhile, if they also see an ad, an update pops-up on LinkedIn, then notice you’re speaking as an expert, or spot your brochure on a colleagues desk, then get the newsletter again; suddenly you are top of mind for whatever you do. Plus, you provide more opportunities for them to sell you to decision makers and more ways to refer you (ex: send your newsletter to a peer). You provide more opportunities for them to see your brilliance and understand all of what you do.
s great for bringing people into your funnel – the most fun projects for Rapport actually. However, if you succeed in bringing people in, then what? You need to have other points of contact ready to go to keep them engaged and coming back, or leading them to your pre-sale action step. For this particular client once she brings them in en masse, she needs to build trust with them to move to the next step in the buying cycle, so we have to make sure mechanisms for doing that are there to support the initial big effort.
to do and then plan and budget for them over a quarter, if not a year. An action plan really makes things much less daunting.
t as effective as they should be and recognizing a lack of consistency in look and language from one item to the next. But, they haven’t really identified and built their brand character yet.
The why is important so you can start to identify specific characteristics. Maybe the graphics are really impactful, the headlines are compelling, etc.
Terri suggested in her post 
For some, getting rolling with social media, is mission critical. But for many, social media can undermine other marketing efforts that could be far more effective for the organization. For those selling to other businesses, this is particularly true. Clients are busy. Really really busy. Research we have done on behalf of our clients shows that, particularly at the executive level, people can’t even begin to keep up with their business email, let alone reading articles, going to webinars and conferences and doing the other things that are necessary to keep ahead of the curve in their given field.
Design presentations used to be made in person, art mounted on boards and accompanied by a detailed rationale. Concepts had reason and were sold to the client so that they understand the nuance and logic of a concept, beyond just liking it or not. What designers work on in the studio – which can be many different ideas – is the basis for what’s eventually presented, but should not be seen outside. The designer and/or creative director must review all ideas and choose the one that suits the clients needs best, then develop that version for the presentation. 
Clients don’t usually know much about why a design works or why it should be executed in a particular way, or how to avoid letting personal taste intrude on decisions. It easily leads to numerous rounds and a design with what they admire as their personal stamp, but which may well make the design not right for the company and its audience. They just don’t get the great results they could if left up to the experts.
Being a good designer takes more than knowing how to operate a computer. It takes talent, knowledge and skill. Experienced designers know what makes for good, effective business-building design! That’s why the designer has to sell the merits of creating the right fit for the future of the company not the individual. By telling the client what it takes, and presenting what the designer believes is the best option, taking client comments into consideration without letting personal ideas over-ride good design that fits the need, builds confidence and rapport between the client and the designer.
ortant to them?
ers.
