Are you good at receiving notes on your content? When your supervisor, client, or even colleague, tells you about changes they want made to your content, how do you handle that? This is one of the most important (and least discussed) skills to cultivate as a content creator. As a writer and podcast host at a digital marketing agency, I get notes all of the time. Talking to others in the field, I’ve found this is a muscle that not all content creators have stretched, to use an analogy.
The better you are at taking notes and suggestions, the better your content is going to be. This doesn’t just mean listening (although that’s crucial), it also means being able to interpret what you’re being told even if the person telling you the note isn’t entirely sure what they mean.
These tips won’t just help content creators, of course. They’re beneficial for those who work or with anyone else.
What to Always Remember
None of this is personal. It’s never personal, not in the slightest. You and the person giving you the note want the exact same thing: for the content to be better. You both want the content to be as good as it can be. To be able to truly take a note/suggestion and use it to make content better, you must always remember that you and the person giving you the note are on the same side.
As you’ve no doubt heard many times, “content is king.” As a monarch, content is demanding. Content must be fed, day after day. As such, it can become a bit of a grind. I’ve found that many of the best content creators have cultivated a sense of wanting notes, wanting suggestions, even if it does lead to more work. Why? Because it will make the work better as well as easier in the future.
Case in point: for many of my clients, I end up doing multiple drafts of their initial blogs, the first drafts of their service and city pages, etc. Sometimes that takes several drafts. But, in the end, all of that work pays off and makes things easier later on.
First, the client is happy that they have been heard, that the content more accurately matches their branding, company, and so forth. Moreover, their content becomes easier to create once I know the voice, the tone, what they want emphasized, and so forth.
One Question to Ask
When taking a note/suggestion from someone, there’s one question you always want to ask yourself: “What is the note behind this note?” To phrase it another way: “What are they really saying?”
To use an example from earlier in my content writing career, clients would occasionally say some version of: “I want shorter, tighter sentences.” Something like that.
That surprised me. It did so for many reasons, not the least of which was that many of my sentences were often shorter. When I looked at the work, when I thought about it, I realized that the problem was that my paragraphs were too long.
By making shorter paragraphs, it made the read easier. Then, people who were professionals in their fields but not professional writers were better able to read and understand the content. Now, I practically never receive that note from a client.
As a content creator, it’s your job to not just create the content but to understand how it’s perceived. Your first audience, almost invariably, is the client. Once you know exactly what they’re looking for and how to “finetune” the content for them, then and only then is the content ready to post for the rest of the world.
How to Respond
When someone gives you notes/critiques about your content, you want to respond the right way. That means responding in such a way that both strengthens your connection/relationship to the client/supervisor giving you notes, yes, but also that makes the content better.
What I often think of is some version of “Yes. And…”
Have you ever seen or done Improv comedy? If so, then you probably know that the most important thing the performers can do is to cultivate an attitude of “Yes, and…” with their other performers. That way, they can work together, they can create something that many people can enjoy.
The same is true with your content.
When your supervisor/client makes a suggestion, I agree 99% of the time (because they’re usually right). Then, I also make sure to add the “and.” Sometimes, that “and” is: “and I’ll make sure to remember that going forward,” or “I’ll make similar changes all throughout your content.”
This doesn’t mean that you should fail to stand up for yourself, to not believe in the content you created, or anything of that nature. If you feel necessary, explain why you did what you did, and what led you to create that which you created.
That said, being able to take suggestions and notes from your clients and supervisors alike is an important, important skill for building better content today and tomorrow.
A Digital Marketing Agency for Your Content and More
As a content creator here at Website Depot, I’m just one part of an entire team. Our team consists of web developers, web designers, social media professionals, videographers, SEO strategists, and so many others. I love being a part of a team that works cohesively, where we all build each other up (in addition to the projects we work on for our clients).
To schedule a free consultation, you can message us through our site or give us a call.