Colors to Make Your Marketing Pop

Color has long been a vital part of marketing. It appeals to people both aesthetically and psychologically and has been proven to influence customers’ buying decisions. Companies even pay to study the effects of different colors on consumers and audiences. This helps them make decisions about packaging, marketing, and even website and interior design.

Choosing the right colors to incorporate into your branding will make sure your marketing materials stand out everywhere, from the halls of your local business to the largest convention centers in the US. To choose the right colors for your company, you need to understand the relationship between color and marketing.

Color Psychology Basics

Studies have confirmed that colors trigger reactions and psychological associations. They can affect a person’s mood and emotions and even their perception of reality. Even the most basic and familiar colors can have a concerted effect on the human mind.

• Red- Initiates strong and positive emotions, like excitement, love and energy. It is also considered to encourage appetite, which is why many food establishments use red in their design. In some contexts, it can also provoke aggression.
• Blue- Generally associated with tranquility and a sense of security, blue is often used in hospital, veterinary, and other care settings. It is a calming color and can promote trust in brands. It is also often used by conservative corporate brands.
• Yellow- As a bright and sunny color, yellow is often associated with optimism and cheerfulness. It promotes enthusiasm and is considered persuasive and encouraging. Hence, you might see yellow used on signs advertising grand openings and big sales.
• Green- Traditionally associated with nature, green can symbolize growth, harmony and wealth. It can bring tranquility as well as balance to the human mind.
• Purple- A secondary color with blue and red properties, purple is a combination of stability and energy. It can symbolize wisdom, leadership, authority and respect. It can also be associated with luxury and royalty.
• Pink- Often seen as soft and feminine, pink is associated with tenderness, youth, vulnerability, innocence, hope and gentleness. It can also be used to radiate sweetness and optimism. Certain paler shades are also associated with sophistication.
• Orange- A secondary color from the combination of yellow and red, orange can trigger both the strong energy from red and the optimism brought by the yellow color. It can be associated with joy, success, bravery, determination and sociability.

The Psychology of Selling

Psychology has been widely applied in marketing as part of the industry’s primary goal of making people react to a brand and act on that reaction. Psychological theories have been helpful for marketers to strategize their approach and determine what they can expect upon launching campaigns.

Far before colors were incorporated into marketing, they were part of psychology. Studies have been conducted to see how the brain reacts to colors perceived by the eye, and it has been proven that people are very receptive when it comes to messages broadcast by colors.

Nowadays, marketing and advertising primarily target emotions via more subtle approaches rather than overtly suggesting customers make a purchase. With this approach, colors play an essential role in stimulating the brain to take action.

Color has been proven to affect people’s decision-making, especially in buying. What they visually perceive can tell them when an item looks cheap or luxurious, what looks like an exuberant announcement and what looks mysterious and exclusive.

Evoking happiness and enthusiasm through bright colors can help encourage people to buy, but it is not always possible to trigger these emotions for everyone. A smart play in blending colors and shades can help you reach a wider audience and express your message more clearly.

Best Shades for Your Business

Choosing which colors work best for your business, product or service to use in marketing materials can be a bit tricky. Along with your company brand’s color palette, you should also consider how you would want your marketing campaigns to be perceived. You should also emphasize relevance and timeliness by looking into shades and palettes that are currently on-trend.

Establish what emotional response you want to evoke from your audience: happy, sad, hopeful, curious, confused, determined, energized and so on. From there, you can do your research on the colors successful brands have used in the past to achieve that response.

Determine the shades that will best represent your offering. Lighter colors and those with pastel shades will have a different effect compared to dark or neon shades. You should also choose color tones and schemes based on your product or offering and what it is for—the colors should make sense alongside your company’s existing profile. The emotion you want to trigger should make them feel they need or want your product or service.

Now you can decide how you want to deploy these colors in your marketing and advertising, strategically using them in ads, online content, promotional products, and other merchandise.

Hues for Your Online Hub

Your business website is one of the most important facets of your brand and long-term marketing efforts, and the colors you incorporate here are a big part of deciding how effective your site will be.

You should pick color combinations that embody your brand while also evoking positive emotions in your audience as they scroll. Make use of white spaces and avoid color overloading on your website so your customers can browse with ease.

Choosing the right colors for your website can help increase purchases and form positive associations with your business. If your goal is to increase purchases, add a touch of yellow, red, orange or blue strategically within your web page. Work with your web developer and designer so you can customize the color of your website according to your goal.

Let Your Colors Shine

Colors have the power to influence the human mind. So, choose hues for your brand that will establish your values and mission. Strategic use of color will make your marketing not just an ad but an expression and a story that will leave a lasting impression on customers.