Business
Marketing Online: Is your web site helping or hurting your business?
There are two
powerful psychological principles at work when a
potential customer or client visits your web site.
The
first is the law of first impressions and the
second is the placebo effect.
First impressions
have an indelible effect on our perception of a
person or a service. While you may think
that once someone "gets to know you" that their
perceptions will change, Harvard psychologist
Nalini Ambady asserts that your first impression
will be your only impression, regardless of the "accuracy" of
your first
assessment.
To measure the
effect of first impressions, Ambady asked college students to view a
2 second video clip of a professor teaching
She then asked the students to watch a other
longer clips. After viewing each clip, each student was asked to evaluate the professor.
Ambady divided the students into two separate
groups. One group saw clips depicting the
professor as a warm, caring and knowledgeable
educator. The other group saw clips which depicted
the professor as cold, uncaring and incompetent.
After
evaluating the professor via video, the students
then
took a class with the professor. At the end of the
course, the students were asked again to fill out
a formal evaluation.
What we all want to
believe is the students, once they actually
experienced the professor's teaching style, would
change their evaluations. In other words, it
would be nice to learn that despite being fed a
"wrong" first impression, that the students would
use their own personal experience to overcome that
incorrect negative first impression.
Unfortunately, that's not what happened.
The study proved
that more information didn't change the student's
perceptions of the professor. Despite the
passage of time and the opportunity of the
students to gather and experience better and
more accurate information, the study clearly
illustrated that first impressions are actually
embraced more fiercely than anyone ever suspected.
First
impressions actually become self-fulfilling
prophecies.
Which brings us to
your business, your marketing both online and
off.... and your web site. Of all your
marketing materials, your web site is the one that
is most likely to be there making a first
impression on potential clients and customers.
Your web site's presentation, graphics and message
leave indelible first impressions upon your future
potential customers and clients..
While first
impressions play a powerful role in the success of
your online marketing strategy, when you combine the law of
first impressions with our second factor, the
placebo effect, and you'll see why a carefully
constructed web presence can literally make or
break your business.
The placebo effect
is a well documented phenomenon where expectation
shapes our experience. Give people a pill
and tell them it will make them feel better and
even though there's no medicine involved, in the
majority of cases people do feel better.
The placebo effect
extends well beyond the realm of medicine.
In the case of your web presence, your web
presence will literally create the expectation of
the level of service your potential clients come
to expect. Poor graphics, confusing
navigation, broken links all combine to create an
expectation of the services you provide. One
Virtual Impax client saw an increase in sales of
over 480% in just one quarter by just changing the
quality of the graphics on the web site.
Traffic didn't increase, but sales did.
The placebo effect
extends well beyond the web into every facet of
your marketing. You never have a second
chance to create a great first impression.
You must pay close attention to every contact
point your business has with the general public.
From business cards to stationary to your web
site, there's no getting over a poor first
impression.
Is your web site
helping or hurting your business? Is it
making a great first impression?
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