Using Color Theory to Attract More Customers Online
Marketing starts with color. There are two ways to use color theory to create a selling landing page:
1. The combination of contrasting colors for ease of readability.
2. The use of psychologically justified color associations.
These two approaches allow you to convey a specific message to your customer, as well as to choose a color for the target page based on what is really going to be effective, not on the principle of a “”good appearance.””
Using the theory of color in your marketing design will help you:
• Keep users’ attention for as long as it possible.
• Call target audience to action.
• Significantly reduce the bounce rate.
• Increase conversion.
Colors and Associations:
Red- A color, shouting “”Attention!”” Best used in moderation, it’s the top color choice to stimulate sales. Bright and aggressive, the color red symbolizes determination, healthy ambition, and leadership. The main point here is not to overdo it.
Orange- A color of optimism, energy, activity, and a good tone that is recommended for products of sports. The use of orange causes customers to feel that they are dealing with a leading company.
Yellow- A powerful color that attracts attention. Yellow is good as an accent when used in moderation. It is associated with warmth, comfort and ease. Yellow is a sociable color, good in advertising for children due to its optimism and carefree nature. It revives and refreshes.
Green- Green design identifies life, birth, nature, and naturalness. Green is a pleasing color to the eye; it’s a color of health, and also good for medical products. The color green is associated with money and wealth. Oddly enough, it is considered to be a passive, non-stimulating color.
Blue- It allows you to focus on and is associated with honesty, trust, and loyalty. It expresses stability, consistency, professionalism and strategic leadership. Blue is the most common color in business environment and it’s widely used in corporate websites in order to create a sense of confidence, strength and reliability. Nevertheless, it has some notes of apathy and depression, so better to dilute it with additional colors.
Purple- The color purple is connected with mysticism and magic, and often chosen by creative people. Proper combination of purple with other colors means elegance and prestige.
Pink- If your target audience is women, you’re on the right path. Pink is associated with gifts, relationships, affection, emotions, naivety, and even sexuality. This color enhances the senses; when combined with white, it slightly lowers its “”expressiveness”” and qualities.
Brown- A color of earth, ecology, comfort, stability, reliability, and ancient history, which is often used as the color of sweets and chocolate. Bright shades of brown are linked to the availability, while dark shades are associated with luxury and wealth.
Black- It’s a color of power and depth. Black can be combined with bright colors, which, in turn, increase its value. It’s associated with aristocracy, eternity and formality. Too much black can cause a depressing effect, so don’t overdo. Remember that reading of voluminous white text on black background is more complex than the other way around, furthermore, it strains your eyes.
Grey- A neutral color that does not focus the attention. It’s good for any website if used moderately.
White- The color white is associated with: calmness, simplicity, self-development, youth, freshness, and absence of any kind of discomfort. White is “”clean””; it could hardly ever spoil the design. White seems to be the best solution for the background when the text itself is black or dark.
Color possibilities are almost limitless. Thanks to a “”proper”” color, you can push users to the expected action, while poorly chosen color can be confusing and increase the bounce rate. Although the use of colors in marketing and branding is sufficiently predetermined by the psychology of emotions, you shouldn’t strictly follow someone else’s recipes.
Brian Jens, [email protected], DesignContest.com
