Harness the emotional power of color to increase conversion

Jan 14, 2014

Have you ever thought about the effect the color of your landing page has on your visitors? With the average time on page decreasing from year to year (now 2.4 seconds), we have a limited amount of time to convince our site visitors to stay and convert. Our brain processes images and colors much quicker than text, which is why the image used on a landing page and its colors have a significant impact on conversion rates.

In past posts we’ve discussed creating the right call to action buttons on landing pages, connecting with your customers emotionally and which tools to utilize for higher conversion rates. However, we’ve seldom discussed color which has a large effect on conversions and ties in with all three. When it comes to persuading your users to take the action that you require colors have proven emotional effects on people and can affect the performance of your landing pages dramatically. For example,

  • In 2011 a research found that people who are exposed to the color red react in greater speed
  • Another interesting research found that the usage of blue streetlights was believed to prevent street crime!

Throughout the course of our research period at Conversioner for any client, colors are examined and tested to discover what effects they have on different customers and how we can use them to make people feel certain emotions without the need to say it. For example, instead of saying a business is trust worthy and well-known you can use the color blue which is considered to make people feel safer and relaxed. Purple on the other hand projects “prestige” and royalty.

The emotional affect of colors is discussed vastly when it comes to decorating rooms and offices for their effect on people’s moods. So why not start considering it when optimizing a landing page? It’s not just about brand colors.

The Emotional Effect of Colors

Choosing the color palette for your sales site is a science. Wired into the human psyche is our emotional response to different wavelengths of color. Every color on the color wheel evokes a different mood or feeling. While color effects can be subjective, and vary from culture to culture, some colors have a universal meaning. For example, red is perceived as a warm color, and blue as a cold one. Since every color stimulates a corresponding reaction, we can use these emotional built-in triggers to our advantage on landing pages and in call to action buttons. Check out these call to action buttons below and the emotional effect of colors on conversion:

Emotion color

Let’s consider a few examples:

  • Impulse shoppers respond best to red, black and royal blue. You’ll find these colors in fast food outlets, outlet malls and clearance sales – and they can work well as call to action buttons for impulse purchases.
  • Brands with a friendly, cheerful and confident brand personality will use orange in their corporate livery and on their websites: Fanta for example, is all about taking action, right now!

Fanta emotional colors

  • Looking to attract users who want stability and safety? Check out the brand colors of companies like American Express , Skype and Pfizer and choose blue for your website. A call to action button in blue will be saying: lean on us; you can trust us; we will give you a reliable service. Navy blue catches the attention of shoppers on a budget.

The Emotional Effect of Colors on Conversion

Whilst it goes without saying that your call to action buttons need to command attention without overwhelming your design, you can go a long way to improving your landing page performance with the right colors. So, if you find yourself asking, which color converts best, think of the qualities your target audience admires or resonates with, think about the action you want to provoke in your users. Guide your users through your sales funnel by using color cues to persuade them to make the choices that lead to conversion.

 

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Talia helps businesses build and execute their conversion optimization strategies, using emotional targeting, consumer psychology and behavioral data to generate more revenues, leads, engagement and sales . Tweet to her at @taliagw