A Short Look At Your First Impression

We all know the importance of making a good first impression—it’s the number one rule of networking.

Firm handshake. Eye contact. Winning smile. Fetching business card.

In the world of business, we tend to think our face-to-face introduction is the relationship’s opening volley, but would you believe that most first impressions are made long before we ever lock hands?

We’ll give you a minute to figure that one out.

(cue the Jeopardy music)

Need a hint?

It’s your online presence. Read: Your website.

Imagine this. Science says it takes just one-tenth of a second for us to judge someone and form our first impression face-to-face. With a website? Try one-twentieth of a second.

That’s right. ONE-TWENTIETH.

That’s a sobering fraction.

And the worst part? One bad impression can keep them from ever coming back. Miss the opportunity to impress, and visitors might be out of your site before they even know what you offer. Slow load time, lack of navigation, and crazy colors can all play a factor in your website’s first blush.

So…million-dollar-question: how do you dazzle with your digital hello?

We can talk about this stuff for days (nerd alert). But in the interest of time and first impressions, here are a few tips to get you going:

1. Remember our post about white space? Yeah. Have a lot of it.

 

1. Keep your images professional and up to date. No one wants to see your head shot from the 80’s. We promise.

 

1. Look like you know what you are doing. Are you a website company? Your home page better be impressive. Are you a professional consultancy? Better look professional.

 

1. Two words: User Experience. Give them a reason to explore the rest of your site.

 

1. It’s not about YOU. The visitor wants to know how you can help THEM. Show them just that.

 

Wanna talk more detail? Or see numbers 6-10? Give us a call.

We’ll do our best to make the first tenth of a second count.