Fluff Matters: 3 Simple Ways to Help Win Customers

17 Apr Fluff Matters: 3 Simple Ways to Help Win Customers

The word fluff sometimes conjures negative feelings about marketing materials that waste your valuable time by showering you with irrelevant, insignificant, superficial information disguised as expertise and analysis. That’s not the kind of fluff I’m talking about.

In this context, fluff consists of those things that make a customer’s or employee’s overall experience better, sometimes without them even being able to put a finger on exactly what made them happier.  Like it or not, the way a company’s website, logo, or proposal template looks immediately conjures an emotional response by the reader.

Because readers are human, within moments of having a communication presented to them, they make judgments about its look and feel without even thinking about it. Is it aesthetically pleasing? Are the themes consistent? Is the font easily readable? So, within seconds the reader has a preconceived bias towards your company and about the content they are about to receive, even before digesting a single word.

In psychology, there is a theory called “Confirmation Bias”. The theory is rooted in the subconscious and suggests that people have a visceral need to cling to their beliefs because the opinions they hold keep them safe, protect them, and even help them survive. That means that once a reader gets to the content you are presenting to them, they are simply embarking on an exercise of confirming or disproving what they already believe to be true. And again, because readers are human, it is an uphill battle to convince someone that your company offers quality services and products if their initial perception told them otherwise.

Here are three simple things you can do to take advantage of the cognitive bias and allow readers to simply confirm their positive predisposition towards your products or services, giving you a competitive advantage from the first instant the potential customer (or potential employee, for that matter) is exposed to you.

1. Eliminate the noise

Don’t be afraid of white spaces. People are constantly bombarded with stimuli and sometimes just need a break. Embrace “less is more.” After all, this will allow you to highlight your most important content without fear that it will get lost in the clutter.

2. Don’t forget about the font

The fonts you use in documents and on your website should match your company’s culture and style. Using more than three different fonts tells the reader that you can’t make up your mind about who you are. Also, be sure that the fonts aren’t so small that the reader has to squint to read them. Finally, choose your colors carefully. Dark letters on a dark background makes your message difficult to read. Make it easy on the reader so that they don’t throw in the towel and move on.

3. Keep it consistent

Your document or website should have an overall uniform theme. The look and feel of the website speaks to the reader, so don’t confuse them by giving them mixed messages.

 A colleague recently told me that she successfully finished an engagement with a new customer. She knew the customer was happy with the service, but lamented that the customer could have been wowed if the deliverables she provided simply looked better. It is no secret that wowed customers are those who will proudly tout your services to others, which is invaluable in today’s social media environment where customer driven content is key. Paying attention to fluff takes some effort, but when paired with a product or service that truly delivers, the extra time spent will pay off exponentially.

I discovered the importance of confirmation bias as an electrical engineering student at Virginia Tech. During one of our many all-nighters working on a computer engineering project, my design partner asked me, “why are you spending so much time on the cover page?” My response was simply, “Fluff Matters.”