Make first impressions count

by Angela Taffs | May 25, 2015 | Sales and Marketing

Have you thought lately about how your business is packaged and how that packaging affects the first impressions people have of your business? Oh, but I don’t need to I hear you say, I don’t sell products, only services.

Well, this is where you might be going wrong. Everything that represents your business needs to have thought and consideration put into how it is packaged or presented and what impression it gives to your potential customers.

This can be in the form of marketing material, your website and you personally.

What first impressions do you get from packaging?

Take luxury products in a department store.  What stands out about the packaging?  It is usually of a higher quality and both looks and feels good.  So if you are in the luxury product or a professional industry such as a solicitor, consultant or interior designer, all your business presentation needs to represent this.

Your business cards should be of a higher grade paper and feel good to the touch.  This can have a subtle subconscious effect on the user that will help them with how they perceive your company. If you have inferior, cheap, flimsy business cards, the user may subconsciously think you offer an inferior business also.

Your website should also be considered as packaging for your business.  If it is a quick cobbled together effort with poor layout, you may well lose out to your competitor who has spent a bit more time, effort and money in getting theirs right.  If you go to the newsstand and see a magazine that looks cheap and poorly done, you don’t expect the quality of the content to be as good or professional as one if the top magazines.  Your website has the same effect visually.  If yours looks poor quality and cheap, people will be deterred from reading further no matter how good your offering is.

How do you package yourself?

And think about you.  You need to package yourself to represent your business.  a lady selling wedding dresses who wears a stained badly fitting tee shirt and too tight jeans with her stomach hanging out over the top is unlikely to inspire confidence in a bride who wants to be advised how to look her best on her special day (unfortunately this is a real life example I came across).

Don’t let your branding deter your ideal client

We have spoken about luxury branding here and you need to make sure if you are not looking for top end clients that you don’t create a brand that makes you look out of the price range of your target market.

I made this mistake myself with a previous business.  I had a property staging company that dressed homes for sale at an affordable price that would help attract buyers and secure a sale more easily.  I got my branding wrong and my business marketing looked more suited to an interior design business which my target market thought they would not be able to afford.

I have known someone refuse to contact a gardener for a quote as they believed he would out of their price range as he drove a brand new range rover.  He wasn’t expensive and would have been better off driving around in a small van on his business travels.

So think carefully about how you package your business and the perception that packaging has on your potential clients.  Make sure the first impressions your packaging gives out are the right ones for your business.