The acronyms have evolved, and you should too.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know how drastically our buying habits have changed. We all shop like consumers now, so the lines between consumer and business buying have blurred considerably. Still, the old acronyms were useful in helping us categorize communications…except that they never did much to help us understand the people in the second part of the equation.

"Do more with less." It's not just a polite request—it's expected from everyone, all the time. Consequently, we all have a slash-this and slash-that in our job titles. Which means that no matter your background, if you’re in marketing, you’ll be asked to assign, comment on, and approve creative work at some point. 

When presenting creative to our client partners, we often hear the following questions from them: What am I looking at? What should I react to? What kind of feedback are you looking for?

If those questions sound familiar, follow our five rules to get the best creative work from your partners and team—without spending a ton of time on back-and-forth emails or rounds of revisions. (Fortunately, a degree in graphic design, fine art, or creative writing is not required.)

A few months ago, I was up to my eyeballs in a demanding project for a historic retailer. I was pouring myself into it, staying up late, bringing my kids to after-hours meetings, racing to meet weekly deadlines—and honestly, I figured I was failing.