When you join an online dating site, you might not think that a first impression is going to mean a whole lot. After all, you aren’t meeting face to face, right? Sorry to say, but times have changed, and these first impressions are going to matter a lot more than you think, especially if you want to start dating someone from the online dating site. While online, the most important places where you will want to make a great first impression is going to be on your profile and in that first message you send to someone.
Good First Impression: The Profile
Your profile is the culmination of everything that you are and all that you’ve done in your life. Well, okay it’s not that serious, but it is a summary of your life and what you’re looking for in someone you want to date and/or a relationship. When someone reads your profile, you’ll want to make sure that they are engaged, and it reads like an ad rather than something you just threw together.
When you are talking about the things you like to do, you should use details that make someone envision themselves doing those activities with you. What’s more appealing, “long walks on the beach” or “strolling on the beach, feeling the sand in between my toes while I soak up the peaceful sound of the waves lapping against the shore?”
Good First Impression: The Email
Let’s say you’ve found someone’s profile that you really want to get to know. You’re going to have to send them a message, right? Of course, you are. This email that you send is going to have to be interesting enough to make the person want to email you back right away, instead of letting the email sit in their inbox, or worse, delete it without a response.
So what do you do?
First of all, your greeting should be polite and personable. If they say their name, use their name instead of their username.
Secondly, keep it short. Your message shouldn’t be any longer than three paragraphs in length. In these three paragraphs, you’ll want to mention something in their profile that grabbed your attention and made you decide to email them. You’ll also want to tell them a little bit about yourself and what you are hoping to achieve by sending the email (you’d like to get to know them, you want to discuss something you read in their profile, you want to go on a date, etc.).
Finally, at the end of the message, you’ll want to close with a question that will lead them to respond. This could be whether or not they’d like to grab a cup of coffee or something more obtuse like their opinion on the Olympic games or something as random.
If you’ve followed these tips, the person you reach out to will be impressed by you and might even respond to your email!