The value of honest feedback

I was watching a television advert on my local Tasmanian station last night advertising a gorgeous tropical looking resort.

My husband and I both instantly looked at each other and said it looked awesome. We waited to see where it was. No location was named. We had recorded the program we were watching, so we rewound the advertisement back… still no location.

We then Googled the address only to find out it was in Bali! As gorgeous as it was, having to Google it to find out the location (and instantly finding 10 other ways to book accommodation there) was, I’m pretty sure, not what the travel agency had in mind while running the advert.

It reminded me how easy it is to get so caught up in a concept that you miss the obvious. I’ve done it myself getting a few thousand brochures printed, only to find out they didn’t have important information on them.

So the next time you’re working on an important piece of marketing get some fresh eyes to take a look at it and give you some feedback. Form your own little advisory committee of people (with some preferably outside your industry) who will run their eye over something and give you their (honest) feedback.

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started her first business at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Now Kirsty does lots of fun things which you can read about here. Her favourite current projects are Elephant Property, a boutique property management agency, Baby Teresa, a baby clothing line that donates an outfit to a baby in need for each one they sell and ReallySold, which helps real estate agents stop writing boring, uninteresting ads.