There are many articles trying to explain how to combine colors in your landing pages, websites and images used for the marketing activities.
We have been learning the following story: blue = trust, red = anger, green = health. There are thousands and thousands of studies discussing how colors trigger users' emotions. And what is wrong with this approach? Understanding what makes the users completing an action is a complex matter, believing that a single color is responsible for it doesn't match reality. Most businesses and marketing managers are not aware of this and follow blindly the colors guidelines.
But what does really "color psychology" mean? Wikipedia says that “Color psychology is the study of hues as a determinant of human behavior. Color influences perceptions that are not obvious, such as the taste of food… Color can indeed influence a person; however, it is important to remember that these effects differ between people. ” In simple words, color has the power to influence our decision-making process and also affects our behavior. Scientific research has already proven that colors and lights have an impact on our mood, well-being, sleep and heart rate. Colors affect different people in different ways. One of the biggest misconception is that little boys like blue while little girls like pink. There isn't any empirical evidence about it. Science realized that babies are attracted by red and blue independently from their gender.
Nowadays, companies usually work with international customers. Colors mean one thing in a culture and another thing for another culture. If we think about white for example, in the Western world white is usually associated to something pure, while for China white is perceived as mourning color.
How can you choose the right colors for your target audience?
Before selecting colors, you first need to understand which emotions drive your customers the most. This implies that you should study their emotional drivers, the ultimate reasons for their conversions.
Data has always a better idea ❤️!
Behavioral data: go to the beloved Google Analytics to understand geographical location to identity cultural differences, language, search terms, age.
Age: perception of colors and their influence on our emotions change with age. If you deal with a more "mature" audience, maybe you have to keep in mind that they need to feel safer and they might have more troubles in reading what is written in your website.
Contrast: this is extremely important especially when it comes to CTA (call to action) buttons. The colors palette you choose should not only be persuasive but also allow users to easily digest the content in your landing pages.
Mobile: we live in a mobile era, most of our marketing traffic comes from mobile. When we browse from mobile, we have a distinctive mindset and behave differently. We feel "different" about colors when we hold a different screen resolution.
Which are my conclusions?
Do not follow blindly the color psychology guidelines and do not expect that by changing the color of the CTAs will make your conversion rates go to the ceiling. Honestly guys, I shake when I brainstorm about landing pages optimization and hear in the room someone saying: let's test the color of the CTA. I literally shake. Be also aware that what worked out for other companies, especially if they get much more traffic than you, might not work out for you.
Before wasting time discussing about colors, take a step back and analyze what leads your customers to convert. Color psychology is just a part of your optimization strategy.
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