The best piece of feedback I ever received as a content writer was when a client told me, "Your writing doesn't just inform—it makes people feel seen."
That statement stuck with me because it reminded me that good marketing isn't just about clever words or SEO rankings; it's about understanding your audience deeply and speaking to their real needs, emotions, and experiences.
It pushed me to go beyond generic content and write with more empathy, clarity, and purpose, which ultimately led to better engagement and stronger brand trust.
Diana Royanto, Content Writer, Milkwhale
The best feedback I ever received was, "You made it make sense." It came from a sales executive after we launched a campaign that broke down a complicated infrastructure solution into a story the customer could actually see themselves in.
That comment stuck with me because it validated something I've always believed: effective marketing isn't about sounding smart; it's about being understood. Especially in B2B tech, where solutions are complex and stakes are high, relatability is everything.
When your messaging feels clear, human, and aligned with the buyer's reality, you earn trust—and that's what ultimately moves the needle.
Kelly Nuckolls, CMO, Jeskell Systems
The best piece of feedback I ever received wasn't sugar-coated.
It was: "You're trying too hard to sound smart—and it's costing you clients."
At first, it stung. But it was the wake-up call I needed.
I realized I had fallen into a trap that many marketers do: trying to impress instead of trying to connect. My messaging was polished, but it wasn't personal. It was clear to me—but not to the people who needed it most.
Since then, everything I create runs through one filter: Would this make my ideal client feel seen—or just sold to?
The shift was immediate.
Engagement rates went up.
Lead conversions shortened.
Clients started quoting my messaging back to me on sales calls—because it actually spoke to where they were, not where I wanted them to be.
Here's the truth most people don't want to hear: If your content needs a second read to be understood, it has already failed.
Clarity builds trust. And trust is what closes the gap between stranger and buyer.
The best marketing doesn't make you look smarter. It makes your audience feel safer.
Lisa Benson, Marketing Strategist, DeBella DeBall Designs
The best feedback I ever received as a marketing consultant at Gotham Artists was straightforward yet transformative: "Stop trying to impress clients with credentials—just help them envision how you'll solve their specific problem."
Early in my career, I spent too much time highlighting how great our roster of speakers was, assuming reputations alone would close deals.
However, after hearing that advice, I shifted my strategy entirely—focusing every pitch on exactly how our speakers would enhance events, solve audience challenges, and deliver memorable experiences.
Instantly, conversations became more productive, relationships deepened, and my approach evolved from promoting speakers to partnering in clients' success.
Austin Benton, Marketing Consultant, Gotham Artists
The best feedback I ever received was, "You made it simple without dumbing it down." It came after presenting a strategy to a non-technical founder who had felt overwhelmed by jargon-heavy pitches in the past.
That comment stuck with me because it reminded me that clarity builds trust. Good marketing isn't about sounding clever—it's about making your value obvious. Since then, I've made it a point to cut fluff, focus on outcomes, and explain things in plain language, no matter how complex the tactics are behind the scenes.
Dan Taylor, Partner, SALT.agency
The best feedback I ever received about my marketing work came from an unexpected source: my teenage son.
When long-form content was trending, he remarked, "People don't want to read all of that." He was right. It reminded me that regardless of marketing trends, you should never forget the reader. We began structuring content to provide quick, high-level answers at the beginning, dividing it into sections so people could easily find what interested them, and offering alternative ways to engage, such as videos, for those who prefer watching to reading.
Trends may change, but one principle remains constant: respect your audience's time. Make it easy for them to obtain what they need, in the way they prefer.
Deborah Forrister, Search Strategist, Envoca Search Marketing
One of the best pieces of feedback I ever received came from a client I was working with on an eCommerce campaign. They said, "What I love about your marketing approach is that you don't just talk about the product--you talk to me."
This feedback made me realize the importance of speaking to the customer's core needs and emotions. It wasn't about just pushing a product, but creating a connection with the audience by understanding their pain points, desires, and motivations. That moment really shifted my focus toward customer-centered marketing. I started prioritizing storytelling that resonated deeply with the target audience, and it made all the difference in terms of engagement and conversions.
My advice? Always remember that people don't buy products; they buy solutions to their problems or ways to fulfill their desires. Speak to their needs first, and the rest will follow.
Georgi Petrov, CMO, Entrepreneur, and Content Creator, AIG MARKETER
I've received two pieces of feedback about my marketing work, one earlier in my career and one within the last year. Both, together, have helped me form my general philosophy of the space. The first came from an old mentor: "It doesn't matter if you like it - you're not the customer." The second came from the best boss I've ever had: "There's no such thing as a marketing emergency."
In my decade's worth of experience in the marketing world, both in agencies and with internal teams, I've found an endless supply of two things: opinions and urgency.
I attribute the former to the nature of what marketers do... we make product information digestible to target markets so that people are incentivized to buy. In making it digestible, we open it up to interpretation from our peers. That's why I like to remind copywriters, "Every person in this meeting can read." You're going to get opinions because you made it so that people understand what they're seeing and therefore they naturally form opinions about it. This is where part one of the philosophy comes in: "It doesn't matter if you like it - you're not the customer." If the feedback I receive is centered on what will resonate with customers, then I take it seriously. If it's a preference, I don't.
After opinions comes the second most popular trend in the marketing world - urgency. This is the avoidable part of the job. Good firms, agencies or internal teams, will forecast and set reasonable expectations for delivery. I work in a great firm that does that now, and as a result of careful and dedicated planning, we are seldom racing against a deadline. However, it's common that agencies need something done right away. That's when you should use the second piece of advice: "There's no such thing as a marketing emergency." If that email to promote a sale doesn't go out today, nobody dies. The world won't end because you didn't launch a paid social ad. If you're working with clients who are always submitting urgent requests, it's your manager's job to help you mitigate that and set boundaries. If your manager is the one pushing the urgency, it's time for a new manager.
All in all - I think the biggest and best piece of advice I've ever received in my work in marketing came from a coworker in 2020, and it perfectly summarizes what I've talked about here. During a stressful moment, he said, "Hey, we're just making Facebook squares." Remember that. Keep perspective. That'll help you prioritize and succeed.
Jack Nations, Marketing Manager, Colibri Group
The best feedback I ever received was, "Stop trying to sound smart—sound human." I had been cramming fancy jargon into campaigns, thinking it made us look legitimate, but it just made people tune out. Once I stripped it down and wrote as if I were talking to a real person across the table, engagement exploded. People don't buy from brands that lecture—they buy from brands that get them. Plain beats polished every time.
Justin Belmont, Founder & CEO, Prose
A co-marketer once told me, "Your brand voice feels inconsistent across platforms, confusing our audience's perception." That feedback hit me harder than I expected. At the time, Agility Writer was still new. I was writing every tweet, email, and landing page myself, but I wasn't being intentional about tone. One post would sound sharp and direct, another would slip into formal SaaS speak, and then the website would sound like it came from a different team altogether.
That one sentence shifted how I viewed everything we were putting out. Now, every piece of content goes through one lens. I stopped guessing what the tone should be and committed to one consistent voice that reflected how we speak and what we stand for. I scrapped the idea of sounding polished and made clarity the priority. I built a simple internal guide with three tone anchors and used that to rewrite the site, our onboarding flow, and every outbound message. No more switching styles between channels. That change made it easier for people to connect with us and know what to expect.
Adam Yong, SEO Consultant & Founder, Agility Writer
One of the most insightful pieces of feedback I received was when a client pointed out that our SEO strategy felt less like following trends and more like building a sustainable presence. This made me realize that, as marketers, we often focus on quick wins and the latest algorithm changes, but we can overlook long-term goals. It's not just about rankings or traffic spikes; it's about creating a brand that feels trustworthy and rooted in its audience's needs.
This feedback made me shift my mindset from chasing trends to focusing on creating content that truly aligns with what the client's audience is searching for, even if it's a slower, more methodical approach. I began to prioritize building strong foundations for SEO efforts that wouldn't be wiped out by the next update. The results were noticeable in how clients started seeing consistent growth and engagement, instead of just brief bursts of activity. It was a reminder that the best success doesn't always come from short-term gains, but from thoughtful, sustainable growth over time.
Sean Clancy, Managing Director, SEO Gold Coast
The most valuable feedback I received was concise and straightforward: make the work useful. Not flashy. Not clever. Useful. This insight transformed my approach to everything. It compelled me to think beyond the campaign itself and focus on how the work supports real action. If it didn't help someone make a decision, move faster, or remove friction, it wasn't worth doing. This reset my priorities and helped me filter out the noise that often dominates marketing discussions.
I began aligning campaigns with what people were trying to accomplish, such as buying, selling, trading, and learning. I simplified messaging, shortened workflows, and sought input from those closest to the customer. The goal wasn't to gather opinions, but to sharpen the work. I wanted the campaigns to move with the team, not around them. I created space for honest conversations. I replaced assumptions with direct feedback and observed results improve without adding complexity.
Now I apply the same lens to every project. We track what matters: engagement, repeat action, and speed to result. We discard what doesn't. Marketing should be functional. When it is, it earns attention without forcing it. This feedback didn't just make me a better marketer. It made me more useful to the people I work with, and that's the aspect that endures.
Alec Loeb, VP of Growth Marketing, EcoATM
The best piece of feedback I ever received was from a client who said, "This is the first time marketing has actually worked for us."
They had cycled through four agencies before me. Everyone ran ads, built funnels, and launched emails. However, nothing came from it. There were no consistent leads. No sales they could tie back to the campaigns. Just more spending and more reports.
I came in, rewrote their offer, cleaned up the targeting, and pushed one campaign. Within two weeks, they were getting daily sales calls. Not traffic. Not vanity numbers. Actual sales conversations. That feedback hit because it wasn't a compliment. It was disbelief. They were so accustomed to marketing not working that when it finally did, it caught them off guard.
Josiah Roche, Fractional CMO, JRR Marketing
In my experience as a marketing strategist, the most impactful feedback I received came from a client who said, "Your campaign didn't just increase our leads—it made our brand feel human." This remark highlighted the importance of authenticity and emotional connection in marketing efforts. It taught me that beyond metrics and KPIs, creating a genuine resonance with the audience can lead to more meaningful and lasting engagement. Since then, I've prioritized storytelling and relatable content in my strategies, ensuring that our campaigns not only perform well but also foster real connections with the audience.
Bowen He, Director, Webzilla Digital Marketing
"Your visuals are stunning, but the message is lost" was the best feedback I've received about my marketing because it forced me to confront something I was avoiding. I had put so much energy into creating clean, polished campaigns that I overlooked whether the content was actually saying anything. The designs looked beautiful. The colors matched. The layout was balanced. But none of that mattered because people weren't engaging or responding.
After that, I changed how I approached every campaign. I stopped starting with visuals and began with the message. Before touching design, I would write out what the offer was, who it was for, and why it mattered. I kept asking myself if someone scrolling fast would get the point in three seconds. If not, I rewrote it. Once that was clear, the visuals became a support act, not the lead. This shift impacted how we build product pages, how we structure ads, and even how we write promotional emails.
Eunice Arauz, Founder, Pets Avenue
"If you weren't paid to write this, would anyone care to read it?" was the most brutal yet transformative feedback I've ever received. It came from one of our long-term clients during a quarterly strategy call. I had just sent over a batch of SEO blog drafts for review. He skimmed one, paused, and dropped that line without hesitation. He wasn't being difficult. He was being honest. The post checked all the expected boxes like keywords, structure, and brief, but it didn't invite anyone in. It didn't say anything that made you want to keep reading after the headline.
That shifted how I think about content. I stopped approaching it like something that just needed to be published and started treating it like something that needed to be read. I rewrote that post the next morning and told the writer working on it, "Write this like you're talking to someone who's actually interested. No filler. No empty phrases. Just say something worth reading." We kept the information but gave it personality and flow. The version we published pulled stronger results across the board: more clicks, more time on page, better conversions. It made sense because people connected with it once it finally sounded like a person, not a formula.
Since then, I ask myself that question every time I write or review content. If I wasn't paid to write this, would I still want to read it? If not, it needs more work. It's as simple as that.
Danilo Coviello, Digital Marketing Specialist & Founding Partner, Espresso Translations
The best feedback I ever received came right after I'd finished a full PPC audit and completely restructured a client's campaigns. We broke everything down into tight, purpose-driven ad groups and custom audiences, so every pound spent went exactly where it needed to.
The client, who'd just left a huge agency, was genuinely surprised they'd never seen this level of clarity before. He asked, "How is it that a big-name agency couldn't do what you just did?" I told him it wasn't about budget or brand, it's about focus. At large agencies, the people presenting in meetings often aren't the ones making the changes, so what gets promised and what actually gets delivered can be miles apart.
Hearing him say, "You're the first to actually connect the dots, and it shows," was everything. It reminded me that real results come from rolling up your sleeves, owning every detail, and never outsourcing your accountability.
Jhonty Barreto, Founder, Seo Engico
One of the best pieces of feedback we ever received was from a client who said, "You made me understand my business better than I ever did before."
This feedback resonated with us because it demonstrated that our work extended beyond merely running advertisements. It signified that our strategy, the questions we posed, and our method of explaining data helped them perceive their brand more clearly.
It reminded us that exceptional marketing isn't solely about clicks and sales. It's also about assisting the client in growing with greater confidence and clarity. This type of impact is what we strive for in every project.
Evgeni Sandev, Paid Ads Consultant, Epic Switch Digital
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