Many of us can agree, first impressions are very important. The first impression made can be a crucial factor to your success as an individual, business, team, healthcare provider, sales professional, website or brand. A first impression is made within 50 milliseconds to 7 seconds. Be sure you make a good impression!

First impressions are typically made within 50 milliseconds to 7 seconds

A study conducted by the Princeton University concluded that particular personality traits, including trustworthiness, competence, and likability, could all be determined in just 100 milliseconds – equating up to three to four times faster than the human eye blinks!

First 50 milliseconds is all it takes to make a first impression of a website

It will take less than half the time for someone to judge your website. In fact, it has been determined by multiple studies that a website will be judged in 50 milliseconds or less. That’s right, 50 milliseconds or less.

According to an article published in Behavior and Information Technology, your website has 50 milliseconds to make a first good impression.

78% Sales Reps Surveyed based website credibility on Web design with a whopping 96% stating their First Impression of a website was design related.

A sample survey was sent to a few of our medical sales rep network members with 5,751 total qualifying respondents. 78% responded they based credibility of the website on the web design. As well as, 88% responded they searched the internet prior to making a decision. Interestingly, 96% responded their first impression was design related.

Relevant content and the social status of a business remains critical to making a good impression.

It takes about 2.6 seconds for a visitor’s eyes to finally land on the area of your website that has the biggest impact on their first impression. Notably, this is according to a small study using an eye-tracking software conducted by Missouri University of Science and Technology.  Amazingly, the study results showed users focused 5.95 seconds viewing the Social networking links to sites. As well as, 5.59 seconds on the site’s written content.

We offer numerous articles on the significance of Branding Medical and Healthcare Websites with Content, whether you are using Social Networks for branding and building traffic, or whether your are working on various efforts to enhance your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) results through creative Pull Marketing efforts by providing interesting content and pulling in visitors to your website. Making a good first impression while Branding and Social Media for healthcare providers is also important.

First impressions matter in everything we do

There are voluminous articles available across the internet for making a good first impression if you are a sales professional. As a result, this article is focused on making a first impression when marketing your website. However, it will also provide you guidance for launching a campaign for Email Marketing in the Medical and Healthcare Industry. Think about it, the first impression in email marketing starts with the subject line. The subject line may be the reason to open or delete your email message. First impression. In fact, regardless of what type of website you are building, first impressions matter. This holds true for social networks or networking communities to medical product websites to Building Job boards.

A first impression of a website depends not only on relevant content but also the user friendliness of the website.

This includes visual aids and speed time to load, and the graphical user interface or GUI capabilities. There have been additional studies such as the Performance Testing of GUI Applications (Milan Jovic, Matthias Hauswirth) providing additional evidence of the significance of a first impression. This abstract focused on a broader goal of GUI testing to include the validation of performance in addition to functional correctness.  GUI allows users to interact with electronic devices such as mobile phones, iPads or other electronic devices and it can be a very important part of software applications. This is critical when considering an impressionable impact of websites but also medical product software applications.

12 Tips to Help you Make a Good First Impression:

  • It takes 50 milliseconds to 100 milliseconds for the first impression. For this reason, make it a good impression!
  • Keep communications relevant, while offering real value whether your first impression is in person, a website, marketing collateral or email marketing.
  • Professional presentation offering visual aids – visual appeal. For websites, be careful of too many images or other issues that negatively impact your loading time. In today’s technologically advanced lifestyle, no one likes to wait for pages to load (open up). Most of us tend to have “Click – click and move on” attitude.
  • Do not count on a second chance to make a good impression. If you’re the type that thinks you’ll have another chance on the next go-around – change your attitude. Make the first impression a good one and build from there.
  • User friendliness or interactive capabilities are critically important, particularly if you are building a website or introducing a product. This is also true for in person, be friendly, professional and helpful – again, add real value.
  • Consider the “bounce rate” of a website and its significance. (How quickly does a visitor leave your website or stay on a page.) A higher bounce rate may mean the visitor has not received a good impression or the clicks to additional information are not user friendly, or perhaps the information you are providing is of little value. Most recognize a bounce rate of a website as a very serious focus point for improvements and you should too. Consider a bounce rate concept whether you are conducting in person meetings, email marketing campaigns or providing marketing collateral. Make a good impression, offering real value.

Google releases will have an impact on your website

  • Recognize the value of one of Google’s releases, the Mobile Geddon and what impact it has. Mobile readiness certainly has a significant role, at least according to Google, but we suspect you would agree. Consider how often do you use mobile access and imagine limited interactions. Keep up with any subsequent releases by google.
  • Network. Get involved in social networks whether you are an individual, business, team, healthcare provider, sales professional, website or brand. Utilize networking and social platforms for exposure, credibility, expanding your network, increasing your ‘following’ and much more. Imagine a marketing company with under 100 followers on their LinkedIn company page or Twitter account? Everyone starts with low numbers. Get involved now to grow your numbers. How often do you check the social status of a company or brand? What are your thoughts if you see low followers?
  • Know your space. Knowledge is power. Obviously, we can’t possibly ‘know it all’ and you shouldn’t be afraid to admit it. Therefore, continue to learn and grow. Know your competitors and know your matrix position. Again, Add value.
  • Under-promise and over-deliver. Remain humble. What more needs to be said on this?
  • Metrics: Use, understand and continuously strive to improve your metrics – analytics, closing ratio, results from efforts. Whatever analytics or metrics you use, learn from the results. Expand. (Try more than one and compare.)

“Grow big quietly as not to tip off your competitors.” MedCepts

Bonus Tip:

Try not to make your own impression OF others on the first introduction. Do your homework first, get to know the company or individual – explore further. Give them a chance, wouldn’t you want the same?

 

 

 

Additional resource for Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications