It’s the moment you dread. The moment you email the first draft of content to your stakeholders and ask for feedback. It’s the point you fear your perfectly drafted masterpiece might be picked apart and end up as a shadow of its former self.

You aren’t alone in your dread. Digital agency Sticky Content surveyed the content industry and found over half of respondents said getting feedback was their biggest challenge to getting content live.

So how can you improve matters? How can you make the sign-off process plain sailing? Here are six ideas.

Start off on the right foot

If you find your work being picked apart by multiple stakeholders, not all of whom should really have a say, a DACI could help. A DACI formalises whose voice takes priority and whose is for input only. Here’s what it stands for:

D = Driver. The one person responsible for corralling stakeholders, collating all the necessary information and getting a decision made by the agreed date. This may or may not be the project’s full-time owner, depending on the decision.

A = Approver. The one person who makes the decision.

C = Contributors. They have knowledge or expertise that may influence the decision — i.e., they have a voice, but no vote.

I = Informed. They are informed of the final decision.

Not only does this help you, it also helps your stakeholders. For example, your fellow marketing colleagues might be the ‘Informed’ on a piece. Knowing this, they know they can safely just glance at a piece not find time to give detailed feedback. Similarly, your legal person might be a ‘Contributor’. It means they’re being asked to read for legal points not tone of voice or content, so they can read with their expertise in mind and nothing more.

Set the DACI at the start of a project and remind people of it every time you circulate anything.

Sense check before you start

If you’re working on a big project, it can help to get buy-in on your approach early on. It could save a lot of work going down the drain later on if everyone hates it or there’s a very good reason your approach shouldn’t be used.

Ben Davis, editor of the Econsultancy blog, explains why doing this is important:

Having work rejected is obviously a waste of time and can reduce morale. Having that work rejected when it was merely a concept would have saved money and frustration.

However intimidating it may be to interact with a sponsor/manager, it’s essential that regular contact is established. Even if this person doesn’t demand to see concepts and is only interested in the final work, it pays to present the work in various states of undress.

The reasons for this are manyfold. If a sponsor agrees with a concept, they are much more likely to feel they have a stake in the finished work. They may still reject the finished article but are more likely to do so with some constructive criticism.

Presenting multiple concepts to a sponsor allows them to assert their own tastes, they can look at your ideas subjectively and select their favourites.

This allows sponsors to feel they are dictating play and the execs are supporting them. If a sponsor is spoon-fed finished work, they may spit it out merely for lack of choice. Make management feel they’re ordering a la carte.

Keep the end goal in mind

Important too is to define and agree the end goal — and then keep it in mind throughout. As Brianna Hansen, content marketing manager at Wrike, says:

Scope creep occurs when revisions change the content so much that it fails to meet its original goal. This can be a product of too many cooks in the kitchen or not knowing which editorial approvals are necessary to move forward.

Everyone has different goals and KPIs. When too many people are involved in the feedback loop, agendas can easily get crossed and end-goals are often forgotten. Make sure the goals you agreed on at the beginning are the driving force behind every decision made during the content approval process.

Have stakeholders involved from the beginning so everyone can agree on goals and approvers from the get go. During the creation process, occasionally check in with the stakeholders to make sure everything is on track to meet its original goals. This minimizes confusion or pushback when it’s time for approvals.

Assert your expertise and define the feedback you want

When you’re sending a draft for approval, don’t just send it. Instead, take time to set it in context. (In fact, copywriting supremo Joanna Wiebe recommends presenting copy face-to-face so you have complete control over the feedback.)

Start by reminding people of the end goal.

Tell people about the research you’ve done to inform the copy — this demonstrates your work is grounded in cold, hard facts and isn’t just creative writing or fancy wordsmithery. It also makes it harder for people to say they just don’t like something without backing it up with robust counter-facts.

Define the feedback you want. Doing this not only helps you, it also helps your stakeholders because they’re clear what’s expected of them. Joanne Wiebe recommends asking for input on:

• accuracy
• consistency
• tone of voice
• legal aspects.

Don’t be afraid to push back

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification if you don’t understand or agree with something. Your stakeholder might have made a good point but expressed it badly, in which case it’s important for you to understand it. On the other hand, if you accept an unwise amendment unthinkingly, you might be affecting the effectiveness of the piece, so it’s important to unpick it and agree a way forward. As Ben Davis says:

It can be a scary thing to do, to ask ‘why?’ but without asking you won’t know how to improve the work and the sponsor won’t engage with the work as seriously as they should.

Put your ego to one side

This last one is a tricky one. Even after 15 years as a copywriter I still get nervous every time I send copy to a client — and I still hate getting feedback other than “It’s great — we love it!”. But I find it helpful to try to be rational about feedback. After all, the client and I both want to get the best possible result from the piece.

I try:

• to be humble and accept when a client has valid point or a better way of saying something — I don’t have the monopoly on brilliant ideas or wonderful writing
• to not sweat the small stuff.

Take a deep breath

The sign-off is the final hurdle your content piece has to jump. It’s then ready to get out there and do its job. And by putting some or all of these tips into practice, I hope that the sign-off isn’t as traumatic as you’ve come to expect.