Your First Impression
You’ve heard the saying ‘You only have one chance to make a first impression.’
Well, have you considered how your business is making first impressions? They happen wherever you attempting to reach out to your customers or other group of interest. Website, brochure, stationery, signage. We all have experience making decisions about who to use/buy from. What influences our decision process? Say you are looking to buy a widgit. You do your research and visit 5 sites selling the widgit you want. Pricing, you find, is relatively similar among the sites. So, what factor influences your decision most? You might look for user reviews or recommendations, but how can you really trust those? Your answer most likely is the appearance of the business and the impression is gives. You pick the business that represents itself in the most professional, trustworthy manner.
Now take that personal customer-side experience and apply it to your website (or printed materials). What’s the reaction? Do you come across the way you want to? How about compared to your competition? Do you stand apart? Is your USP (more on that in a later post) evident?
Finessing your image should be a constant effort and there’s always room to improve if your goal is to make that first impression which closes the deal at the end.