Looks Do Matter.

Rachel Smith
Sep 10
3 min read

Design aka the new sales pitch.

Here’s the truth: you have three seconds to make a first impression. And those three seconds don’t happen in a boardroom anymore — they happen on a screen. Someone lands on your website, sees your deck pop up on a Zoom share, scrolls past your Instagram post. In that blink, they’ve already decided if you’re worth their time.

And the wild part? They haven’t even read your offer yet.

Looks aren’t “extra.” They’re everything.

For years, design was written off as aesthetic fluff — the glossy finish layered on after the “real work” of marketing or sales. But now? Design is the work.

The data makes it painfully clear:

94% of first impressions are design-related.
It takes 50 milliseconds — half a blink — for someone to decide if they like a site.
75% of people judge a company’s credibility on design alone.

So yes, that clunky deck, cluttered homepage, or off-brand Instagram grid isn’t just bad taste — it’s bad business. People equate visuals with credibility. Clean design signals clarity. Cohesive branding signals trust. Simplicity sells.

Every touchpoint is a pitch

Websites aren’t brochures anymore — they’re storefronts. And when 38% of users bounce because a layout is unattractive, the stakes are obvious.

Pitch decks aren’t background slides — they’re your body language in the room. A deck that looks like it was thrown together five minutes before the meeting doesn’t exactly scream “trust us with your budget.”

And social? That’s not “just content” — it’s reputation. Visuals boost engagement and conversions by up to 80%, which means your grid is doing more selling than your captions ever could.

Here’s where most brands slip: forgetting that Instagram is the second website. Before someone books you, applies, or adds to cart, they’re scrolling through your feed as a credibility test. For Gen Z and Millennials especially, the feed matters more than the homepage. If it looks inactive, inconsistent, or dated, it signals that your brand isn’t trustworthy or even alive.

Glossier proved it

Glossier didn’t become a billion-dollar beauty brand because they had the most groundbreaking skincare formula. They won because they understood that design is culture.

From millennial pink packaging to a grid that looked more like a friend’s camera roll than a brand campaign, Glossier built a design system that made them feel modern, authentic, and aspirational all at once. Consumers weren’t just buying Boy Brow — they were buying into a design-driven identity. That aesthetic coherence turned a DTC startup into a cultural icon. Their design was the pitch. And it landed.

Four Glossier ads: a cream tube with red, cherries on a spoon, shiny lips applying gloss, and strawberries. Texts: "Glossier", "You Look Good." — Some iconic Glossier creative. Visuals matter.

Design isn’t vanity, it’s conversion

This is the part no one says out loud: design doesn’t just “look nice.” It drives results.

Strong branding makes you easier to remember (and return to).
Good UX can increase conversion rates by up to 400%.
Nearly half of users (48%) won’t engage with a brand if the mobile experience is poor.

This is not fluff. It’s measurable impact.