Your shop window

I want you to spend a couple of minutes considering shop windows. It seems to me that they have one purpose when you look at or through them.

The aim of 95% of shop windows is to DRAW YOU IN.

There are attractive, relevant goods on display. So for example a clothes shop – or charity shop – will display some of its most popular and attractive items in the hope that as you pass by – you’ll stop and think “That looks nice! – I’ll go in and take a look” – and you’ll then enter the shop and see everything else that is on display – and make a purchase.

That’s the end goal of the shop window – to get you to buy something.

Now we all know shops that have terrible displays. Some charity shops come to mind but I’m sure you’ll have your own examples. You walk past them because what you see in the window doesn’t attract you at all. Now inside that shop there may be things that are just up your street – and that you’d love to buy – but the window hasn’t drawn you in, so you pass on by – and the shop keeper doesn’t get their sale.

Perhaps the clothes shop/charity shop doesn’t work for you. How about butchers or cheese shops, or what about a book shop? These windows are all dressed with the sole aim of attracting you in. In fact, think of London stores at Christmas time. Possibly thousands of pounds are spent – because retailers know that a good shop window draws people in, and if they get you into their shop, chance are you’ll buy something.

Please stop and think about this carefully because there’s an important message here which you’ll only understand and ‘get’ if you ‘get’ the shop window.

Your profile is like a shop window. The writing and pictures are there to do one simple job. They are there to get people to go further (like walking through the shop door).  If the shop window isn’t very good, then many people may ‘just walk on by’.

Now I talk to so many members who have one or maybe only two pictures on their profile – and their written profile is pretty basic. When I suggest they do something about this (i.e., improve their shop window – though I haven’t used this analogy before) the typical response I get is “No, it’s OK, I’m happy with just the one photo – and I’m happy with the words I’ve given you.”

Then pretty much immediately they’ll tell me that they haven’t had much response to their profile, and no-one is contacting them.

It’s like my being a proven and successful shop window dresser. Give me your shop window and I’ll transform it so that more people walk into your shop. I offer it to you and you say no thanks I’m happy with my shop window as it is. But you’re not happy that you’re not getting many customers compared to the shop next door that seems to be busy all the time.

This really is how it is. It’s just that because it’s YOUR PROFILE – and you are emotionally attached to it (of course) you really can’t see the problem.

I hope I’ve made the point clearly here.

If your profile isn’t written really well (and we ARE probably – although not always – suggesting you have an enhanced profile done here) and if you haven’t got a FULL complement of six pictures (and more on the app!) on your profile YOU WILL BE MISSING OUT ON OTHER PEOPLE CONTACTING YOU.

FACT – whether you like it or not.

Yes, there are costs to having an enhanced profile done – and adding more pictures. But there’s a MUCH GREATER cost on NOT having these things.

Think back to the shop again. So yes the shop keepers invests in getting their shop window looking really good (if they can’t do it themselves they get someone in to help them). But that investment comes back really quickly when MORE people enter their shop. It’s really a no-brainer when you think about it.

Remember your profile is the first impression people see of you. You need to make that first impression good. And you may only have the same amount of time as a shop does to attract a passer-by – i.e., about 15 seconds – probably less.

So just think about the effect that a little investment has. You get a great, enticing profile with fabulous pictures on it. More people stop and read your profile, more people think “I’d like to contact them” and go onto contact you.  If only 1, 5, 10 more people contacted you – and one of them ending up being The One – wouldn’t that be worth it?

And it’s no good saying “Well if they like me, they’ll contact me anyway without all the pictures and without a great profile.” Because that’s like the shop keeper saying, “I have all these great things inside my store – and if people want them, they’ll find them.” No they won’t! unless there’s a reason to enter that store.