First Impressions Count
By Jennifer Stewart
Posted Saturday, September 4, 2004
If you're in business, your aim will be to sell a product or a service. So, how do you go about convincing your potential customers to buy from you rather than from your competitor?
You must instill confidence; confidence in your ability to deliver what you have promised to deliver, whether that is a $5 tea towel or a $50.000 company review.
Personal Communication
When you are dealing with customers or clients face to face, you rely on making a good first impression in order to win their confidence. Studies have shown that lasting impressions are made in the first three or four minutes of contact. We spend the rest of the time we know the person - whether it's half an hour or a lifetime - reinforcing or modifying that initial impression.
I knew I could trust him, from our very first meeting. He seemed such a charming person; I can't believe I was so taken in. These face to face encounters rely on a number of factors to create the first impression:
- physical appearance - size, shape, age, colouring, sex
- dress
- smell
- eye contact (or lack of it)
- body language
- gesture
- facial expression
- voice- tone, pitch, inflection, pace
- words
- surroundings
So, we're using four of our senses - sight, sound, touch, smell - to make a judgment about the other person.
Written Communication
But what happens when you have to rely on only one sense - sight? What happens when all you have are words?
Consider the unfortunate baker who advertised:
TRY OUR HOT PIES. YOU'LL NEVER GET BETTER!
When doing business on the Web, you must make sure that the message you mean to convey, is the message your readers receive.
So always have someone else read your final copy before you let it loose on the world. It's so easy to miss these ambiguities yourself - after all, you wrote it, so you know what you meant to say - others may not necessarily interpret a sentence as you intended (as with our baker above).
K.I.S.S.
I know this principle has been done to death - but there's no better way of remembering one of the most basic rules of communication - Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Author Mark Twain once worked as a journalist and was paid seven cents a word for his articles. His rule for successful writing was expressed clearly when he said, "I never write metropolis for seven cents, because I can get the same price for city."
Avoid the temptation to show off by using big words, when little ones express the same concepts and take less time to read. Sentences should be short (a maximum of 25 words - around 18 is better) and every sentence should have something worthwhile to say. If it's just there to pad out the page, delete it. Don't use qualifiers unless absolutely necessary (absolutely is an example of a qualifier - it doesn't add anything new to the sentence - delete it). Avoid Basic Errors...
How many times have you left a site before you even knew what it was offering because the first words you saw were something like this:
Click hear to recieve grate free stuff. Its you're only chance to get infromation wich could of saved you heaps if you'd of known wear to find it before.
Most recent word processor programs have spell checkers and many also have grammar and punctuation checkers - use them!
Nothing will create a bad first impression quicker than careless mistakes with basic language. Why should I trust you with my money, when you don't even care enough to check your spelling?
No Second Chances
Remember - you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Do everything you can to ensure that it's a good one!
About the Author
Jennifer Stewart offers professional writing services for web pages, press releases, advertising material, business reports, content for autoresponders, technical booklets and articles for newsletters. For those who want their own writing double-checked for accuracy, Stewart offers proof reading or full editing. Website: (http://www.write101.com) Free writing tips: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@onelist.com?subject=Tips
