At an event I spoke at recently, a question was asked of me: “Does content matter?”
Ooh….
Hells yeah it matters! With a caveat…
Content for content’s sake is garbage and a waste of time. Content that is purely self-serving and sales-oriented is also icky. But content that adds value, educates, enlightens, inspires, motivates, challenges, raises awareness, absolutely fricken matters. And that’s what we should all be aiming to create. Content with an impact.
Do you get nervous whenever you have to send something out, worrying that it won’t be exactly right?
Do you cringe every time you’re about to press publish on Facebook?
Do you muck around with your sales pages, your marketing materials, your emails to the point of spinning in circles? Or even worse, to the point of not sending them out at all?
You know that there is no such thing as perfection when it comes to creating content for your business, right? It is simply impossible to get to this mythical point called ‘perfection’ because the truth is that you can continue to make changes and improvements for ever! Creative work will never be perfect, but at a certain point, you must just decide that it is done.
An old CEO of mine once said: “Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress.” I didn’t realise how true that was until I started my own business. You see, it’s always easier to let go of the content when it’s not your baby that it relates to. Not that I was ever sloppy or slapdash with my content previously, but when I was writing for other brands, the attachment simply wasn’t as high as it is with my own; it was easier to let it go at ‘really good’ versus ‘outstanding’.
It’s perfectly normal and understandable for any business owner who has vested endless energy and effort into getting every little detail of their business just right, to want to get every single word perfect. What I’m going to suggest however, is that you may need to lower your standards a bit. Now, I’m not saying to put out low-quality content by any means, but if your standards are so high that you never actually reach them, you are in fact inhibiting your own growth. How will anyone get to know, like and trust you if they never hear from you? How will prospects understand where you position your services if you don’t talk about them? It is important to strike a balance and have standards that are achievable.
Perfection paralysis is a real thing. But it’s not a good thing if you want your business to expand.
Here are 4 considerations that may help you to embrace imperfection.
Author, Brene Brown, summed up this irony beautifully in her book Daring Greatly: “Perfectionism crushes creativity – which is why one of the most effective ways to start recovering from perfectionism is to start creating.” Perfectionism can cause us to stop creating before we even get started simply due to fear that we won’t live up to our own standards. Ridiculous but true! And the more we do this, the more it continues to occur. The reality is that self expression and creativity are inherently messy and imperfect.
Take the example of painting. In our culture, most adults refuse to pick up a brush and paint a picture because they think they can’t create something worthwhile. Head to any kindergarten or preschool however, and the room will be filled with enthusiastic painters, all creating their own masterpieces freely and excitedly. They have not yet learnt the meaning of perfectionism. Their messy, imperfect paintings are beautiful!
Building relationships with people is the primary purpose of business content, therefore, when creating content it may help to think about it like a conversation. When you talk to someone you don’t plan every word you are going to say ahead of time. You may hesitate or struggle for words but that doesn’t reduce your ability to connect with that person. In fact, showing some ‘humanness’ and imperfection often makes you more relatable. Remember the old saying ‘nobody is perfect’? Well it’s true! So stop trying to be. If you’re aiming to provide a flawless image in your business comms you may actually be doing damage to your brand. Why? Because you raise questions and concerns amongst your readers about the possibility of perfection. You alienate them by making them feel less than worthy, which is the opposite of what you want to do with your content.
Short-term content pieces, such as emails and blogs, unfortunately don’t get read all the way through by up to 70% of viewers. Sad but true! Most readers skim read these pieces of content. So, as far as perfection goes, it may help to realise that your audience is NOT nit-picking your content nearly as much as you are!
As business owners we should always be trying and testing and measuring new things. As entrepreneurs and innovators – that’s what we do! Inevitably, it won’t all land perfectly. Viewing this as ‘failure’ however, is not useful to anyone. Rather think of it as R&D – research and development. The more you try things out, the more information you uncover, which helps you to do it better or differently next time. And since nothing is ever perfect, everything is a test!
Stop aiming for perfection, and start seeking out the beautifully imperfect. It is there that you learn and grow.
Let me know if you struggle with perfection….I can help.
Your words have a huge impact on those that hear them or read them, particularly those who look to you for leadership. The power of words goes well beyond their explicit meaning; do not underestimate the implicit and intrinsic too.
Words can be used for good or evil; the great orators of our time are testament to this. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Adolf Hitler, Bob Hawke, Barack Obama, Donald Trump. Love them or loathe them, those who choose their words carefully, and craft clever messages, can whip individuals or entire countries, into frenzied action.
You know those days when you’re sat in front of the computer wringing your hands, or nervously staring at your phone, wondering what to post about next on your Facebook page? And you get that prickly feeling of anxiety in your chest, that bile rising in your throat, that rush of heat to your head because you have abso-frickin-lutely NO idea what to write about next? Well don’t panic, don’t fall apart, we’ve all been there before…and there is a solution! The answer lies in the blog content you have already written.
If you’ve been doing a good job of your blogging – writing articles that answer the questions of your target audience, positioning yourself as an expert in your field, offering valuable ideas – then you already have a plethora of posts for social media just waiting to be extracted. Did you know that???? Look no further than your own backyard and you will find SO much great information that you can simply break apart and repurpose for social media.