It’s no secret to most businesses that we humans are visually-driven creatures. Everything from the clothes we wear to the car we drive can signal a lot about what we like and how we shop.
Colors guide a lot more of our decisions than you may realize. Think about some of the world’s biggest brands; Starbucks, Walmart, and the like. They all have one thing in common: a distinct color scheme that signals to our brain who they are and what they do.
You don’t have to be an international or even a nation-wide company to take advantage of the way that color can influence shoppers. Instead, all you really need to do is to make certain branding decisions and stick with them.
First, Get a Logo
It doesn’t matter how small your business is or what industry you are in – having a logo that is consistent and visible on your site/business cards/etc is essential. While the up-front cost may put you off, it is a one-time fee that can help you to reap many benefits, including a defined brand identity.
Next, Choose Your Website Color Scheme
Brand identity is the best way to help build trust with consumers, as well as build brand recognition. In fact, research has found that a consistent color scheme helps increase brand recognition by as much as 80 percent. That is why it is important to put a lot of thought into choosing your website color scheme, and making sure that it is consistent with your logo.
It takes most users less than a minute to make a decision about whether or not they like what your business is offering, and 60 to 90 percent of these decisions are based on color alone. By choosing the right color scheme to speak to your ideal customer, you are putting yourself ahead of the game. Here are our top 10 tips to help you choose the perfect color scheme for your website.
Tip 1: Understand How Color Affects Emotion
Decades of research has shown that color can have a big impact on our emotions. This goes beyond our physical environment, and also affects how we perceive and engage with certain brands. You should put a lot of thought into what emotion you want people to associate with your brand as you are choosing your color scheme.
- Red – Energetic, increases urgency (i.e. clearance sales)
- Orange – Aggressive, often used for CTAs
- Yellow – Optimistic, youthful, often used to grab attention
- Green – Associated with wealth, encourages relaxation, easiest color for eyes to process
- Blue – Creates feelings of trust and security, often used by banks and large corporations
- Purple – Soothing and calming, often used by beauty brands
- Pink – Romantic, feminine, frequently used by female-centric brands
- Black – Sleek, powerful, often used to market luxury items or by “modern” brands
Tip 2: Consider Your Demographic
Think about the personality traits and habits of your ideal customers. What color is going to best appeal to them? For instance, let’s say you’re a company selling zipline experiences. Red or orange would both be good choices, as well as yellow.
In addition, if you are a company that has products or services that cater to one gender more than another, you should take this into consideration as well. Each gender has its own color preferences, with blue being the most popular choice of both. Women, however, also prefer purple, whereas men prefer green.
Age is another factor that influences color preference. People in the 70+ category vastly prefer blue and white, whereas younger generations like green, purple, and red.
Tip 3: Let go of Your Color Biases
One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is choosing a color based on what they like, rather than what their customers are going to like. If your favorite color is red, but you sell items aimed at women, you’re far more likely to get results by utilizing purple or pink instead.
Tip 4: How Many Colors Do You Want to Use?
At this point, you should already have your primary color in mind. Next you’ll need to figure out how many additional colors you want to use as well. Many people utilize the “60-30-10” rule: use 60 percent of your primary color, 30 percent of a secondary color, and 10 percent of an accent color.
Does that mean you have to use three colors? Not at all. You can opt for two and still design a pleasing site. Needless to say, only one color simply isn’t going to work, and utilizing more than three often makes for a site that’s too busy/distracting for users to navigate.
Tip 5: Choose Your Color Layout
The final step is going to be choosing where your colors are going to be utilized on your site layout. Most often, a light background with darker navigation bars/text is what is most appealing to visitors. Some sites, however, manage to reverse this rule and still end up with a visually-appealing layout. There’s nothing wrong with sampling a few different options until you find the one that you (and hopefully some impartial consultants) find appealing, easy to read, and easy to navigate.
Still Not Sure? Hire a Professional
The fact is, you don’t have to be a design expert to choose a color scheme for your website so long as you follow the tips we outlined above. But if you’re still lost, or simply don’t have the time to decide on your own, contact Gulf Coast Web today. We can help guide you through every step of the website design process, from choosing your color scheme to the final details before it goes live.
With over 25 years of experience in managing all types of digital design. Our staff consists of highly-trained web design and digital marketing professionals who are both passionate about their jobs and excel at what they do. Contact us today to book a consultation with our team. We look forward to outlining exactly how we can help you grow your business with our digital media agency services.