First impressions count

Would you attend a key business meeting in your pyjama top and breakfast-smeared joggers?

Would you cold-call a company potentially critical to your livelihood and address your lead contact by his major rival’s name?

Would you knowingly pitch to an audience with a large amount of spinach stuck in between your teeth?

First impressions are formed visually within three seconds of meeting a person, and more often than not, they stick. Of course things go wrong – nobody’s perfect, and after all, spinach does have a tendency to linger between the canines. In person, with the right amount of humour and luck, hopefully unfavourable initial opinions can be swayed and relationships saved.

The problem with the web however, is that vital first impressions – formed within six seconds of visiting a site – are less likely to change. Faced with badly presented text, lacking in inspiration and brimming with typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, most surfers would simply move on to the next search engine suggestion. With one click of the mouse, the possibility of changing that opening impression is lost forever, as is the potential business.

It’s true that not everyone is concerned with the exacting idiosyncrasies of the Queen’s English nowadays, but a poorly proofread site simply looks unprofessional and lacks credibility. After all, if the company concerned seemingly cannot be bothered to cross its Ts and dot its Is, then what else might be pushed aside in favour of a rushed job?

For a further insight into how much online revenue is lost due to poor spelling alone, read Spelling Mistakes ‘Cost Millions’ in Online Sales.

Anyone for spinach pie?