My Tactic to Save Time on Revisions: “Tell Me What I Don’t Like” 

Ever spent hours carefully (if not painstakingly) writing detailed feedback on your team’s copy, only to get back revisions that still don’t hit the mark?

As a manager for many years, I’ve spent countless hours giving feedback that outlined exactly what was wrong and how to fix it only to get locked into what seemed like a never-ending cycle of revisions. 

Not only was this exhausting for me, but my team wasn’t getting better at their job.

That’s when I decided to ditch the micro-management in favor of a simple yet effective approach that I like to call Tell me what I don’t like.

The best part? It doesn’t save time and fix immediate writing problems. It helps develop team members into stronger, more independent writers.

TLDR: 

• The goal: Speed up work velocity and save time on content creation
• The tactic: Use the “Tell me what I don’t like” approach
• The result: Reduce the number of rounds of revision to 2

Step 1: Highlight what you don’t like

When reviewing written content from your copywriter, simply highlight the parts you don’t like. This saves you time because you can quickly scan the copy and mark areas for improvement without writing detailed feedback.

Using this approach also prevents you from accidentally influencing your copywriter’s writing style with your own preferences. 

In my experience, when managers give specific rewriting instructions, copywriters often end up mimicking their manager’s voice, rather than using their own.

Step 2: Ask the copywriter to identify possible problems

After highlighting what you don’t like, send the copy back to the copywriter and ask them to point out what you didn’t like and why.

This gets them to think critically about what they’ve written. And by making them do this, you help them foster better judgment about what makes good content.

The problems they might identify can range from technical issues to strategic concerns.

This could be grammar mistakes, awkward phrasing, or bad word choice, which are more likely to be an issue with non-native speakers than native. Other issues are deeper, such as content that misses the target audience’s needs, equivocal language, or copy that doesn’t support your go-to-market strategy.

As a result, your copywriters learn to think like managers and editors. So instead of just fixing surface-level problems, they begin to consider how their writing impacts the business.

Making them identify these problems also helps them avoid making the same mistakes in future copy.

Step 3: Give a nudge if the copywriter gets stuck

Sometimes your copywriter might struggle to figure out why a highlighted section isn’t working.

When this happens, you can guide them with targeted questions rather them giving them a direct answer. This keeps them in charge of the problem-solving process while helping them hone their analytical skills.

If they’re stuck, you’ll want to ask questions that focus on different writing principles and elements, such as:

• Is the grammar okay?
• What’s the point you’re trying to make here?
• How does this section support our company’s goals?

The key is to ask questions that lead your copywriter to discover the problems on their own.

After all, your goal is to develop their critical thinking skills, not give quick fixes. If you simply tell them what’s wrong, they’ll fix the immediate problem but they won’t know how to spot similar issues in the future.

That being said, nothing stops you from sharing high-impact copywriting hacks that will help them get their message across more effectively.

Step 4: Tell the copywriter to rewrite. Repeat from Step 1 as needed.

After your copywriter identifies the problems, ask them to rewrite the highlighted sections. Each round of revision should help your writer better understand your standards and expectations.

The power of this method is its iterative nature.

It’s not a quick fix but a learning process. Your copywriter might need several rounds to get the copy right, especially in the beginning.

While this might get a bit time-consuming at first, each cycle strengthens their skills. 

Over time and more iterations, your copywriter’s writing skills should improve, and you’ll see better-quality first drafts and faster revisions. This means you should find yourself highlighting fewer sections and spending less time on revisions overall.

Result

This tactic has helped me cut the number of rounds of revision from 5-6 to 1-2.

This works because the copywriter is encouraged to invest more cognitive resources and think critically about what they’ve written.

As a result, the copywriter learns to:

• Make intentional improvements when correcting their copy
• Avoid certain repeated mistakes
• Think critically about how they write
• Adapt to writing different types and styles of content
• Self-review their content before submitting