Why Your ‘Ugly Ladder’ of Marketing Experiments Will Outperform a Perfect Plan You Never Launch
Most of the best marketing I’ve ever seen didn’t start out polished.
It usually wasn’t the carefully worded copy that had been revised over and over.
It wasn’t the campaign that stayed in planning mode until every detail felt “just right.”
And it wasn’t the social post that lived in drafts while everyone debated the perfect angle.
Most of the best marketing I’ve seen didn’t start out polished. It started as a best guess: a clear, professional first attempt designed to learn what resonates. But it shipped. And that’s what mattered.
That’s why I love this graphic: two ladders.
One is beautifully designed, but it only has one rung.
The other is crooked and uneven, but it has enough rungs to climb.
The lesson? The ugly ladder gets you somewhere. The perfect ladder doesn’t.
And if you’re an early-stage founder, your marketing often works the same way.
The Myth of the Perfect Plan
It’s natural to want the perfect plan before you put yourself out there. A campaign with the right words, the right design, the right timing.
The catch? There’s no way to know what “perfect” looks like until you launch something and start learning. You’ll never know what marketing works until you put it in front of real people.
That’s why so many founders get stuck in endless cycles of tweaking copy, debating creative, holding off until things feel “ready.” But the real answers don’t show up in the planning stage. They show up in the market.
The best marketing plans aren’t imagined into existence. They’re built by making the best-informed decision you can today, putting it out there, and then refining as you see how people respond.
Perfect plans don’t get you traction. Learning in motion does.
Experiments Aren’t Wasted Effort
This is where the ugly ladder comes in.
Every small experiment, every rung, gives you information you can’t get any other way:
A landing page with no sign-ups tells you your offer needs refining.
A social post with little engagement shows that angle didn’t resonate.
An outreach email that gets one good reply shows you who’s paying attention.
None of that is wasted. It’s progress. The myth that trips founders up is believing that marketing should deliver results instantly. Run a campaign, get the leads, boom: pipeline.
But marketing isn’t magic. It’s a process of learning. And each rung on your ladder, even the wobbly ones, gets you closer to traction.
The Early Signals That Matter
This is something I wrote about in another post — how to know if your marketing strategy is actually working, even before the leads show up. It’s worth repeating here, because these are the rungs that prove you’re climbing:
Your messaging is sharper. Fewer “So what do you do?” questions.
Your traffic is warmer. More branded search, direct hits, and referral clicks.
Your engagement is higher. People are sticking around, clicking, and signing up.
Your funnel is stirring. Light inquiries, exploratory calls, organic referrals.
Your team is aligned. Everyone’s talking about the brand the same way.
You’re adjusting faster. Launching campaigns feels easier, because you’re not waiting for perfect.
If you’re seeing any of these signs, your ugly ladder is doing its job. If you want the full breakdown, you can read the original post here: Is Your Marketing Strategy Actually Working? Here’s How to Tell
How to Build Your Ladder
The hardest part usually isn’t coming up with ideas, it’s getting stuck in endless rounds of reviews and tweaks, chasing a level of “perfect” that doesn’t exist.
The truth is, your marketing can (and should) be polished without being perfect. Clear, professional, and ready to ship is enough to start learning.
Here’s how to keep yourself moving:
Pick one channel and commit.
Don’t spend weeks weighing options. Choose the channel where your customers already spend time and make it your testing ground. LinkedIn, a simple ad, an email, just pick one and start.Set a short deadline.
Give yourself days, not weeks, to get something live. A polished landing page, a thoughtful post, a clean email. Not perfect, but good enough to represent you well and gather feedback.Define what you want to learn.
Instead of overthinking every word, ask: what’s the single question this experiment should answer? Does this headline resonate? Does this offer get clicks? That becomes your “done” line.Ship, learn, repeat.
Once it’s out there, capture what happened, take the insight, and move on to the next rung.
Each rung doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be polished enough to stand, so you can keep climbing and learning.
The Takeaway
You don’t need perfect to make progress. You need polished, clear, and out in the world.
Every piece you ship: every post, every email, every landing page, is a rung on the ladder. Some will be sturdier than others, but together they create your true path towards growth.
The perfect plan only exists in hindsight. The only way to get there is by making the best-informed decision you can today, putting it into the market, and learning as you go.
That’s how you build your ladder. Not in theory. Not in endless drafts. But rung by rung, in real conversations with real customers.
