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“Don’t judge a book by its cover”
That’s something I think we’ve all been taught as kids. It’s a famous quote for a reason after all. We’re taught to think that valuing looks is shallow. We’re supposed to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that whatever is seen on the surface conceals a deep well of value that we’ve written off if we assume that what we see is what we get.
At this point in time though, I think we should retire that phrase. It just doesn’t have any place in the modern world, where people have the power to choose how they present themselves or anything they want to sell. We should instead be teaching our kids “the world is a competitive place, and people will judge you or your product by how it’s presented before they think about what’s below the surface.”
This may seem incredibly obvious, to the point that you’re reading this and thinking "well duh," but it really hit home for me a couple of days ago as I was watching YouTube. As usual, ads came on before most of my videos and two really stood out to me. They were both hawking the usual “do you want to stop trading time for money and work from anywhere in the world?” thing that we’ve all seen a thousand times by now, but there was something off.
They both looked and sounded completely amateur.
I’m sure at least some of you have seen Adam Hudson show up in your YouTube ads. He’s the annoying guy with the super white teeth who wants to teach you how to sell on Amazon. Now, as annoying as I find him (probably because he seems to show up on a daily basis in my videos), he’s got it right. High production value, well spoken, clear message. Even if you don’t like what’s under the hood, you’re at least willing to look under the hood. That level of polish is the table stakes at this point in time.
Not so for these other two. They just didn’t pass the eyeball test, so I didn’t give them a second thought. One was a clearly intelligent lady in her office with a wall full of certificates behind her, but she was sitting at a desk with poor lighting and she sounded like it was her first take. The other guy was worse — he was wearing a headset like he was in a call centre. Immediately the question springs to mind “so you want to you want to help me break free from the corporate world, but you can’t even afford a proper microphone and camera?”
Don’t even get me started on the teenage blonde kid wearing a black leather jacket that pops up on those Youtube ads. Let me tell you, if you look like you can’t even drink beer yet, no one is going to want to listen to your investing tips. He failed the eyeball test because I took one look at him, heard the word “invest” and thought “get the hell outta here kid.”
We are so often told by thought leaders here and on places like LinkedIn that you just need to ship. Hit publish. Improve as you go, quit trying to be perfect. If you’re one of those people who is a true perfectionist, who takes five times longer than someone else to do the same thing, well that may hold some truth to it. The problem is that whether you’re trying to sell your writing, a physical product, a digital product or even yourself, the eyeball test matters most. How good it is doesn’t mean anything if the customer looks at it and thinks it sucks or looks half baked.
- Someone interviewing you for a job doesn’t care how great you are if you aren’t dressed well.
- A client isn’t going to believe your services are awesome if your marketing material looks amateur.
- Your writing could be Tolstoy level, but if your title isn’t thought out and attractive, no one will read it.
What people don’t seem to get is when it comes to the appearance of anything you’re trying to sell, high quality is the minimum now. In such a competitive world, people don’t have the time or the inclination to give you the benefit of the doubt unless you can show that you’ve done the work to create a good impression.
And why should they? Making something pass the eyeball test is the easiest part of the process. I’m not saying that it has to look better than anyone else’s product (although that helps), but it does need to be at a standard that it’s not going to sink your whole sale.
I write sales copy for a living, and the reason the eyeball test is so important is because it speaks to consistency. If I have a great product at a good price, but the formatting of my proposal is poor, there are grammatical issues, it’s hard to read and so on, it creates cracks in the buyer’s confidence. For any sophisticated buyer, it’s not just about the price and the product, they need to be able to trust you as a salesperson and trust that the company can deliver. They need to feel good about the whole damn equation.
Trust is far more important than content, because you need it before someone will look at the content:
- A really budget book cover says that you’re not a serious author, and there are already too many books to read. How can the customer trust you to deliver them a solid story?
- A bad title and no picture on an article says that you don’t know what you’re doing. How can the reader trust that your writing is worth their time?
- A poorly fitted suit and scuffed shoes tell an interviewer that you can’t even dress properly, how can they trust you to handle the job?
That’s why listicles are so effective. When your title is “5 Ways to Improve Your Morning Routine,” you’ve just earned the reader’s trust by telling them that you’re going to deliver them something of value and you won’t take long to do it.
So the next time you’re selling something, put yourself in the shoes of the buyer and ask yourself the following questions:
- What would stop you in your tracks and not give it a second glance?
- What would you consider the bare minimum in terms of presentation?
- What would turn your head and make you say “wow, I have to see that?”
Answer those questions and you’ll know what you need to do to make the right first impression.