(This article is about how quickly to publish new website content, not ‘how often’, which is slightly different.)
So, we’ve all been there.
You’re about to publish a new blog post, article, or other piece of content and you just can’t seem to get it perfect. The more you tweak and edit, the more you second-guess yourself.
Is this really the best I can do?
Or on a specific day you run out of time to work on it, and promise yourself that you’ll come back to it, but you never do.
Stop.
It’s time to take a step back and remind yourself that when it comes to content creation, speed is more important than perfection.
Why?
Your target audience is out there on Google right now researching the products or services that you sell. They need education from a trusted source. And if you’re not providing the help and advice they need, your competitors will be.
Of course, that’s not to say that quality isn’t important.
It is.
But there’s a difference between publishing something that’s well-written and something that’s well-written and timely.
When in doubt, err on the side of speed.
I used to manage the inhouse marketing for a renewable energy company.
In around 2006/7, after a project got behind schedule, the boss gave me one of the best bits of advice I’ve heard.
It was simple…
“Perfect is the enemy of the good.” – a variant of “the best is the enemy of the good”, from Voltaire, the 18th century French philosopher.
It summed it up well I thought.
I had to get quicker at getting things done.
And I’m not the only one, there’s a whole self improvement industry helping people to get things done.
If you’re like many people, you probably strive for perfection in everything you do.
You want to make sure that your product or service is the best it can be before you put it out into the world.
And while there’s nothing wrong with that, there is such a thing as being too perfectionistic.
When it comes to publishing new website content, for example, speed is more important than perfection.
Here’s why:
Your audience doesn’t care about perfection.
They just want helpful, relevant information that solves their problems.
If you wait until your content is 100% perfect before hitting “publish,” chances are you’ll never actually publish anything.
There are many companies and people who do publish content for their users, and yet still have 10s or even 100s of blog posts that remain in draft, and videos unedited.
So much content rotting in the content graveyard.
You can your business has invested resources in your content, you need to make sure it gets published.
If you’re okay with putting out content that’s 80% perfect, you’ll be able to publish a lot more — and your audience will be a lot happier as a result.
What determines how quickly you should publish?
As a general rule of thumb, you should spend enough time in the editing and proofreading stages to make sure that your content is error-free and meets your standards for quality.
But how long should you spend in the editing and proofreading process? Is there such a thing as spending too much time on a piece of content?
The answer to this question depends on a few factors.
1. Your Audience
First, you need to consider your audience.
Whoever your audience is, are they craving to be educated?
Of course they are. If you’re not educating them, your competitors will be.
If you’re in B2B or B2C, buyers are on average, 80% through their purchasing journey before they reach out to speak to you or a salesperson.
The buyer is in control.
It’s not like 15 years ago when the buyer needed to be educated by your salesperson. Whatever your industry, whatever your business sells, whether you’re B2C or B2B, whatever your product or service, your target audience are researching on Google, or other search engines.
They are. Trust me.
If you’re not publishing enough of the right content that answers your buyers’ questions, they will go to your competitors’ websites to seek out the answers.
It’s your competitors who are getting involved in the conversation, not you.
Publishing the right content in the right quality is key.
The quicker you can get content online, the sooner your audience will be able to consume it.
Also, as soon as it is published you can use the content in your sales conversations with your prospects. This will make it a whole lot easier to earn trust.
i.e. send them a link in an email so they can read it in their own time, and come to their own conclusions away from any sales pressure.
You’ll want to spend enough time to make sure your content is error-free. You want to become the trusted educator in your space, so you don’t want to lose credibility.
2. Consider the type of content you’re creating.
If it’s a blog post or article, then you can afford to spend less time in the editing and proofreading stages. Mainly because you can easily update the content.
Of course, if you’ve got a big email list that you send your content out to, it needs to be error-free, but you must not make perfection slow you down.
However, if you’re creating something like an e-book or white paper, then you’ll want to make sure that everything is well honed before you hit publish.
But as long as you’ve got your facts correct, don’t be a perfectionist.
Also, consider the nature of the content.
Is it time-sensitive? If so, you’ll need to move quickly in order to ensure that it’s relevant when it goes live.
3. How much time do you have?
You need to consider the amount of time you have.
One of the most important resources when it comes to moving from ‘draft to publish’ is time.
The amount of time you have available will dictate how quickly you’re able to complete the necessary steps to get your content live.
If you only have an hour or two to dedicate to writing and editing, it’s likely that it will take longer to produce high-quality content than if you had a full day or more.
Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule – some people are able to write very quickly and still produce great results – but in general, more time equals better quality.
That’s why I advocate that businesses at least have an inhouse content manager, where their content efforts cannot be diluted by other tasks in the business. If the person managing your content has other roles in your business, the amount of content you can publish will always suffer — beware, it happens all the time.
4. What resources do you have?
Another key factor is your people.
In order to move from ‘draft to publish’ quickly, it will help to have at least one other person (or multiple people) involved in the process.
This could be someone who helps with the initial writing, someone who edits the final piece, or someone who designs and formats the post for publication.
The more people you have working on the content, in theory, the faster it will be completed.
However, it’s important to note that too many cooks in the kitchen can sometimes lead to problems, so it’s important to find the right balance.
And if we’re talking about being able to get content out there quickly, and avodiing perfection (see what I did there), the people who get content out quicker are often those working alone.
You write the content, review it, improve it a little.
Hit publish.
Good enough.
Then enhance it later.
After a while, the quality content in your learning centre will be significant.
If you’re creating the content on your own, then again, the amount of content you can get out will be limited. Unless your whole job is about content creator, other things will get in the way and slow your output.
Imagine how quickly you could get content out on your own versus if you had more of the right people involved. Or people who were completely devoted to content creation and publishing.
5. Consider your own personal preferences.
As I’ve mentioned, some people are perfectionists and want to spend a lot of time making sure their content is absolutely perfect. Others are more laid-back and are comfortable hitting publish even if their content isn’t 100% polished.
There’s no right or wrong answer here; it’s all about what works best for you and your business.
But…
…if you don’t get quicker, you could seriously harm your chances of helping your buyers by leaving them with a lack of help and advice.
You need to create a lot of good content if you’re serious about:
- becoming one of the top educators in your space.
- attracting more buyers to your website, engaging more visitors, and getting more customers.
Be speedy.
Write good content.
Publish quickly.
Perfect is the enemy of the good.
An example of the ‘less than perfect’ approach
Whether you sell services or products, are B2C or B2B, there are lessons in all examples, so take a look for them here:
Imagine you sell cars, and you hear from the manufacturer that there’s a new model set to be released.
Let’s assume there’s no content embargo.
Not long after you hear, the news will leak out somewhere on the web, and consumers will also be searching Google. If you haven’t written about the new model very early on, you’re lose some of the opportunity.
If you don’t appear in the Google search results for the new model, will your competitors show instead? Whoever covers the subject in the best way, will have the best chance to attract those switched on buyers.
Now of course where Google is concerned, this isn’t black and white. A big authroity website, one of the big online brands, could publish content later on, and overtake everyone else in the search results, but you never know until you try. Remember, no one controls Google, not even the big brands.
Content on your website is all about helping people, so write about the new car on your website. Help your target buyers.
Are you doing your target audience a disservice by not talking about your products and services early enough, or in enough detail at any time?
What kind of content could you publish for a pre-launch product?
As soon as you hear about the new product, you could publish a product page with the minimal information that you do have.
Don’t worry even if your page has content like: “check back for updates as we get nearer to launch“. I’m sure you have access to some information that will be helpful to your audience. Even if it’s a little bit.
Don’t be a perfectionist.
Also, don’t be afraid to publish product photos, even if the photo is a placeholder (with “new product photos to come” written on it).
This new content will start to give users (and Google) the idea that you could be a good website to come to now or when the website is launched.
If you’re doing People-first SEO the right way, you’re educating Google that your website is one of the better places to go for information about this car.
Why would Google send people who are searching for the new model anywhere else? Of course you have to work hard on making your content better as soon as you have the new information, to keep ahead.
How soon is too soon with writing content about products that haven’t been released?
Take the iPhone example. People write about iPhone and Android new smartphone rumours. I’m sure there’s a case for publishing site content very quickly with the limited information you have about a product.
You could have a rumour page devoted to the specific model.
You could publish a product page for the new model, even if you have hardly any information. Just be clear with your audience about the current situation and that more information will follow.
You could even have a form field for site visitors to enter their email address to get email updates on the new product, giving your site visitors all the information they need as news is released.
There’s a word of warning.
Displaying an email form on your product page screams a bit of perfectionism.
If you’re lacking the resources, just get the page published without the form, don’t let obstacles get in your way, you can always add it later.
Whether you sell products or services, B2B or B2C, the above is an example of thinking differently. The internet is full of quality content that is published quickly and is pretty decent, but are you or your competitors doing enough?
Empty your mind and get helpful content on your website quickly.
Quality over quantity
Choose quality over quantity when it comes to content.
But as long as the content is good enough, speed to get content published is more important than perfection.
You can then come back later to improve the published page as you get new information about the car.
Perfectionism is a form of procrastination.
If you’re constantly striving for perfection, you’re likely just using that as an excuse to avoid taking action.
By definition, perfectionism is “the tendency to set excessively high standards of performance for oneself and others and to hold unrealistic expectations.”
If your standards are too high, you’ll never be able to meet them—and that can lead to feelings of frustration and inadequacy.
So instead of striving for perfection in your website content, focus on taking action and getting things done.
The results will speak for themselves.
I wrote and published this blog post in about 30 minutes.
I’m sure some could do it quicker.
But that’s not bad.
The plan is to keep coming back here to enhance the post so that it does an even better job at helping my site visitors.
But it’s not bad for a start.
After it being published, I came back later in the day and enhanced the structure, did some more editing and added some more helpful content.
Harness the pressure of your website visitors
It’s amazing how much quicker you are when you’ve already published the content.
Once you hit the button for the public to see, you’re under pressure to enhance the content because people will be reading it.
Just remember that the first article (How quick should we hit publish for new website content) which I published on this page, was still pretty good, but not perfect.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
It’s time to get that content created…
Quickly.
Get writing.
And filming.
“Those that win, are those that take action and pick up the pace.”
I’ll leave the final word to Nigel Botterill, owner of the Entrepreneurs Circle (EC), Birmingham, UK.
The Entrepreneurs Circle is a members only organisations for entrepreneurs wanting to get more customers through marketing.
A few months back I went to the EC’s Annual Convention at the ICC in Birmingham, UK. The two days were a delightful volcano of marketing rocks and nuggets.
But no matter how much people love the content at such conventions, it can be very hard to get people to take action after the event.
For many, once those convention workbooks close, the business doesn’t move forward that much before they reopen their workbook at the next convention a year later.
So a week after the convention, Nigel rightfully sent this to his members:
“If you were with us in Birmingham on Sunday morning you’ll remember me talking about how people, money and success are all attracted to speed. When you move fast, things happen. Remember, perfection is over-rated and the businesses that win big are those that take decisions swiftly and ‘decide to go’.
So, next time you feel like going over those notes again, taking a walk to think through your big idea for the fiftieth time or put that campaign on hold because your copy isn’t quite right, remember – that those that win, are those that take action and pick up the pace.”
Nigel Botterill, owner of the Entrepreneurs Circle (EC), Birmingham, UK