The Zero Second Impression
7/4/2013
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Remember the
"good ol' days" when business owners weren't sure if they needed to
have a cell phone. Maybe not, but today even farmers have cell phones,
satellite imagery and GPS navigation systems for their tractors to know what
fields to harvest when. The same is true with business owners and websites. A
few years ago I can remember that some businesses thought they didn't need one
and although, I do still hear that from time to time, it is getting pretty rare
to find a business owner that thinks that way today.
It use to be
said that you have 10 seconds to make a good first impression. The assumption
is that as a business owner when someone came into your establishment or you
spoke with them on the phone that you had 10 seconds based on your body
language, tone of voice, appearance of the location and many other factors to
make a good first impression. Of course, all that is true in personal
interactions for the first time, but in many cases a personal interaction is
not the first interaction your potential customer or client has had with you.
It's very likely that they "googled" you and looked at your profiles
online and visited your website. So in reality by the time they've met you an
opinion has already been formed. That is what I like to call the "zero
second impression".
In my opinion
the single most important factor to help establish a good first impression
online is still your businesses website. It does not have to be a massive site
or have complex functionality to help establish a good brand identity. Websites
can cost from hundreds of thousands of dollars to a few thousand dollars and if
you have some basic technical skills just a few hundred dollars with tools like
WordPress. So now there are no excuses not to have a nice looking well
maintained site.
Websites are
today's storefronts. They should be clean and well maintained. No good store
owner would sweep their window displays on establishing their business and dust
them or change displays once every 5 years. Keeping your website fresh with
imagery and content is also good for search engine ranking.
It's
important to remember that your website is your calling card to the search
engines and thus your potential customers. There is no reason not to have one
and to keep it fresh and maintained so that you can make the best zero second
impression possible.
Mat Maynor
Mat
is co-founder and chief strategy guy of Big Vision Media Group. /] He has nearly 20 of experience developing branding
and marketing strategies for companies ranging from Fortune 50 to
start-ups. Connect with Mat on twitter
@thinkstrategy and
Facebook.