Done is Better Than Perfect

Perfection is an illusion, or some might even say it’s a delusion.

It’s okay to strive for perfection. The problem is it isn’t very practical. We humans are flawed in many ways, and these flaws permeate in pretty much everything we do.

In the business of advertising, which includes copywriting, the need to get everything perfect is almost like a disease.

In fact it is a disease. It’s called analysis paralysis.

Medication
No known medication exists for Analysis Paralysis, it just takes guts.

Strategies are rehashed, every piece of copy reworked and designs needlessly redone many times over. Often even before the ad, website or campaign sees the light of day.

Don’t get me wrong, most of these revisions are necessary. It’s part of producing good, if not great work. But overanalyzing things, using assumptions or past performance just hinders the act of producing great work.

Sometimes, when all else fails, and when you are not too sure if something is going to work; the best thing to do is to put it out there.

Let the intended audience do the analyzing for you. After all, that piece of communication is for them. Then gather the audience’s behaviour and tweak accordingly.

No, focus groups are not going to do you much of a favour. Research has shown focus group participants to be favourable towards a brand or product because they are paid for their thoughts. Nobody wants to bite the hand that feeds them.

So get whatever you’re working on done, put it out there and see what happens. If it bombs, try again. If it seems to be working, make it better.

Done is better than perfect.

Apparently, they have that phrase pasted at a corridor in Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto.  You may remember, Facebook was very crude when it first started, but now is in the leading edge of social technology.

If Mark waited to get everything perfect, we’d be still stuck with Friendster or worse, actually meeting people face to face.