I sometimes ask myself, do I do good work? But to answer that I need to know how I define 'good work'
The main reason I publish anything is because I hope that by sharing my own mental journey it might help someone else arrive at a conclusion more quickly. I’m going to try to answer the question what is good work?
for context and caveat,
- I am mostly talking about good work in my own experience i.e. marketing & communication
- I’ve been inspired to write this because we (DS.Emotion) have done a piece of work that I think ticks all the types of good, and that’s a bit like finding a unicorn
The 7 types of good work
1. Good quality
By this I mean the least subjective measures of quality such as industry best practice. Sometimes this feels like basic work (like well hi-res images, responsive websites, interesting copy) but it’s mind-blowing how much work gets published that is genuinely terrible. It should look good, read well and work on whatever medium it’s supposed to work on.
2. Good business
Good business means you get paid for the work you do, make a profit and don’t damage your reputation (or soul) trying to get it done. It’s pretty simple stuff but loss-leaders, sprats & mackerels and, of course, cash-flow mean that’s not always the way.
3. Good morally
This is a complicated one, but I’m going to go with the any piece of work that, if you mentioned it at a wedding or barbecue, people wouldn’t wonder if it was the right thing to do.
4. Good for the client
All marketers claim that the work they do is good for their client but a lot of them don’t have any evidence to show why it’s good and don’t measure the impact they have. Good for the client is when you know it’s going to make a positive difference to their organisation.
5. Good for you
Simple. You enjoyed doing it and are proud to publish it.
6. Good for the consumer
This might be the hardest good of all. Most marketing is designed to get the consumer to buy or do something they hadn’t planned to do. It might be very hard to prove (and most agencies don’t try) if your target audience follows your customer journey, they’ll end up better off.
7. Good for the public
A lot of people just don’t have anything to do with your marketing campaign because they aren’t your target market. But, guess what? your campaigns still affect millions of lives. More drinks means more plastic, more phones means more energy, more cars means more road-deaths. A lot of campaigns have downsides, but some genuinely do make the world a better place.
A unicorn, rocking-horse cross
I think it’s unrealistic to expect to do work that is all these kinds of good.
Frankly, if you’re doing work that’s two or three kinds of good, you’re doing better than most. But, keep your eye out, and don’t lose hope because every now and then one comes along and it’s pretty f*cking special!