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Waiting for perfection results in lost opportunities
As a perfectionist myself, I know it is hard to hit the publish button on a web page or post. I research, write, proof-read, edit, re-write, proof-read … you get the point. However, waiting for website perfection can actually hurt a small business.
When all we had were print media for our marketing and sales tools, we had to ensure everything was perfect because once it is printed, you can’t easily change it and the cost of doing so is prohibitive.
The beauty of marketing on the web is the fluid nature of the channel. We have the ability to evolve our web presence as we evolve our businesses. We can write and publish our content and continue to strengthen our messages as we learn what our target audience wants or needs. We can create offers, try them and if they don’t work, change as necessary. We are no longer on that elusive quest for website perfection where every page meets the high standards we set for ourselves. Plus website perfection may be completely unachievable because you need to continually update, change and freshen your content in order to stay relevant to your market and to the search engines.
Don’t wait for perfection! Take action, stop procrastinating and get your message out to your target audience. Keep working your message and offers until they produce the results you want.
Just to be clear, I am not saying that it’s OK to use bad grammar or publish content with many typos. It’s also not OK to publish content that is not targeted, doesn’t include a call to action and leaves the reader confused. You still need to project an intelligent, professional image.
What Do You Lose by Waiting for Website Perfection?
- Lost opportunities – The longer you wait, you miss opportunities to be found. Search engines need time to index and move your pages up in the rankings. Search engines also need content to use to determine what the page should be ranked for and whether it is quality content. By waiting, search engines can’t get started indexing your website and you let your competitors beat you by getting there first and getting higher rankings.
- Lost revenue – When you get found, you have better opportunity for people to hire you / pay you for your products and services. It is better to put up your pages live and capture revenue opportunities by connecting with those who connect with your content. You can then get feedback and tweak, adding images and elements to the page to have a visual attraction.
Website Evolution is Inevitable
You are never sure what will resonate with your target so experiment. With WordPress, making changes to your content, your message, and how content can be laid out is easy. Move things around, reword your call to action and juggle your widgets to see what happens. Spending a lot of time and money on creating the “perfect website” before you know what your target audience will connect with is just not worth it.
My advice to small business owners is to get out there and become visible. Use your website to research what works, what your target audience wants and adjust as necessary. Waiting for website perfection before you venture out onto the Internet does not have any advantages and in fact, will cost your business in the long run.
Leave perfection to the Olympic athletes. The perfect performance and perfect score is their goal and for those competing, it is expected. For those of us running a small business, our main goal is to grow our revenue and profits.
What is your view on waiting for perfection in your business?
