We all know that positive impressions create higher perceived value, which leads to increased sales. But, what few know is the amount of time needed to make this impression. In today’s brand-saturated society, chances are you will only get a second or two of your customer’s time. Luckily, that’s all you need.

A study published in the Journal Behaviour and Information Technology shows that internet users make up their minds about the quality of a website in a blink of an eye… to be more precise, just a 20th of a second! The study also shows that this first impression has a lasting impact, due to what psychologists refer to as the ‘halo effect’. If your customer likes the way your website looks, this positive effect will spread to other areas, such as your products and services.

“Unless the first impression is favorable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors”. Lead researcher, Dr. Lindgaard, warns.

The same rule should apply to print advertising, where it only takes a few milliseconds for customers to decide whether they want to continue to read your ad or focus their attention on something else.

So, perhaps image IS everything… at least for the first milliseconds.