The Psychology of Color in Marketing
Keywords : color colour scheme internet marketing web website graphic design psychology SEO multimedia marketing meaning of colors
Summary: Color is an important factor in successful web site design. When color is used correctly, it can send a number of messages to your reader.
Meanings are attached to colors in the same way
meanings are attached to words : our reaction to colors is almost instantaneous and has a profound impact on the choices we make everyday.
Color are very subjective and can have different meanings to different cultures. The background color of a website, the color of a header, the color of a text and headlines
can all have a psychological impact on visitors. When color is used correctly, it can add impact and clarity to your message and highlight important points.
I briefly touched on this subject in a previous ebook titled
«The Forgotten Fundamentals of SEO» and I have been asked by a few people to expand
and explain more about the psychology of color and how it affects your website from a marketing perspective.
The internet is the ultimate visual and psychological medium. It provides businesses with an unparalleled avenue to reach potential
customers. In this visually engrossing world it is the copy, or words, on your website that have
the greatest psychological impact on visitors and given this they become your most important communication
and sales tool.
Another important psychological aspect of your website is the often over
looked and definitely misunderstood marketing strategy of colors. The same
as we use words and phrases to describe and express our intentions color can be used
to convey similar messages in more subtle and concealed ways. As an example of a color
being used to convey a feeling, when I was at University they painted the walls in the library
a light pastel-pink color to try and enhance the studying environment.
Did it work? I really don't know, I was in the computer lab, but
I am guessing that subliminally there was probably some impact whether
it be physically measurable or not.
In the past choosing color schemes
for websites used to be left up to the programmer who was responsible for
just getting something up and running. Often there was no forethought or
planning for real graphic design or image perception. "A simple site,
nothing fancy". I am fairly certain that every web developer has been
asked for something like this, I know I have. If you really want to succeed
in 2007+ then this kind of website will just not work.
Given the competitive nature of the Internet market,
there has been a steady influx of Internet marketing professionals
who are looking to stamp their mark on the ever increasingly competitive
keyword monopoly game. Every day there businesses employ Internet marketing agencies
to employ their expert marketing strategies to their business. Often these are for
huge fees. One area that I see getting missed during these expensive website makeovers
is the psychology of color.
I believe it is important to address this marketing issue in
design and ensure it the colors chosen are enhancing and supporting the
overall theme and feel of the website in an effort to get the website
visitor to perform the action we actually want them to do on our website;
be it contact us on email, buy a product or feel comfortable browsing our articles and reading the news.
So what colors should we be incorporating into our website designs to ensure we convey the right message
to our visitors? I have detailed a list of colors and their associated feelings and keywords
so you can get an idea or what to put on your webpages. In Western Cultures,
the following colors are associated with certain qualities or emotions:
- Red : love, sex, passion, danger, warning, excitement, food, impulse, action, adventure.
- Blue (listed as the most popular color): trustworthiness, success, seriousness, calmness, power, reliability.
- Green : money, nature, animals, health, healing, life, harmony.
- Orange : comfort, creativity, celebration, fun, youth, reliability, affordability.
- Purple : royalty, justice, ambiguity, uncertainty, luxury, fantasy, dreams.
- White : innocence, purity, cleanliness, simplicity.
- Yellow : curiosity, playfulness, cheerfulness, amusement.
- Pink : softness, sweetness, innocence, youthfulness, tenderness.
- Brown : earth, nature, tribal, primitive, simplicity.
- Grey : neutrality, indifference, reserved.
- Black : seriousness, darkness, mystery, secrecy,sophistication.
- Silver : prestige, cold, scientific.
When choosing colors for your site it is important to employ contrasting or sympathetic and complementary color schemes. It is important to identify your market and ensure the psychological message you are trying to get across with the rest of your site design, words and images is complemented and enhanced by the appropriate color scheme. Often it can be wise to run samples of the same site with slightly differing colour schemes past a test audience and see which has the best impact or you can even run differing coloured sites to visitors and track conversions to your goals. Its really up to you how to try and test or track the impact of your psychological color message on your Internet Marketing.
Article Source: Article Directory
Author : Chris Diprose
Internet
Marketing Australia | Website Design Australia
Additional resources :
Website Tips : Colors
Color Psychology Quiz
Concept of color approached from several disciplines
Color Trends
More Crayons (colors for web designers)
