It has always been said that first impressions are important. From first dates to job interviews, you only have one chance to give the right impression. Now, how does this work online? How does this work for my business? Whether you’re a roofing contractor or a lawyer, you HAVE to pay attention to how your consumer sees you. Before the digital age it was easy to control your first impression. Until recently, most first impressions came from commercials, print ads and radio advertising. This was great for business owners because they were the ones creating the ads that the consumers were seeing. If you wanted to be known as a trusted brand all you had to do was tell people you were a trusted brand! Times have changed. The consumers have taken the power back, and the days of having complete control of your first impression have changed. Lucky for you, there is something you can do about it! Here are a few places to start:

One of the first places to start with are the websites that give your customers the opportunity to rate you: google maps, yelp, BBB etc. The most important thing to remember is that a negative review is not the end of the world, instead it is an opportunity to improve and have dialogue about how to fix said issues. It is important for consumers to see how you fixed the problems of their peers rather than see a negative review followed by nothing.

Another place where consumers will get their first impression is your website. The great thing about this is that you can control what is on your website. The most important thing to remember when it comes to websites is that your site MUST be easy to use. Here are 3 quick questions to ask yourself when looking at your website:

  1. Is my website mobile friendly?
  2. Can everything on my website be found easily?
  3. If someone has a question, is there a way it can get answered?

The last place to make a great first impression that I will mention is Social Media. Whether it make sense for your business to be on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Pinterest, not being on any of these social media platforms is not an option anymore. There are too many people out there that use social media platforms as their main way of finding out what is out there in the world. You could almost think of it as the new phone book or the new classified section of the newspaper.