When people see a product, they make up their minds about it quickly. In fact, researchers have found that consumers actually tend to need very little information to determine their opinions about people, products, and brands. Since many assessments are formed in such short time spans, it’s also no wonder that the reasoning behind customers’ purchasing decisions is based on aesthetic details, specifically color.
While email marketing strategies are changing rapidly, humans have been associating specific colors with different moods, ideas, and symbols since ancient times, and even with the rise of artificial intelligence, that’s likely to continue.
So, what does this mean for email marketing? Ultimately, color plays a significant role in all of your marketing, from your core brand identity to your website to your monthly email newsletter. To help your organization get a better grasp of how to use color, this guide will take a deeper dive into the topic of color psychology.
What is color psychology?
Color psychology is the idea that certain colors invoke emotions and as such, that color can influence human behavior. For example, someone may feel more relaxed if they are in a room that is painted a calming color, like blue or green.
This basic principle is used extensively in marketing as organizations attempt to associate their brands with specific feelings. In other words, your brand can use colors to signal its products, services, and mission. For example, Loop’s article on nonprofit logos breaks down how color plays a role in several major nonprofit’s branding strategies:
- Community Forests International depicts its environmental message with a yellow, blue, and green color scheme.
- Gakino’aamaage: Teach for Canada uses a bright red-orange color to represent the passion and boldness of its community leaders.
- Curiko features a golden star to represent the creation of bright, unique, hopeful moments.
- International Institute for Sustainable Development uses a dark blue to present a professional air and convey the seriousness of its mission.
- Catherine Donnelly Foundation also leverages dark blue to invoke a sense of professionalism but combines it with pink to show its focus on innovation.
The goal for all of these organizations is to convey their mission at a glance, ideally fully representing themselves in the 90 seconds when a prospective supporter decides whether to give to their cause.
Is color psychology real?
Color psychology is a fascinating subject and, as such, has been studied extensively. These studies have also found conflicting results about whether specific colors have an innate effect on the human psyche.
For instance, some studies have discovered consistent color preferences for various groups of people, whereas others show that ultimately people respond not to the colors themselves but their individual associations and the context each color is presented in.
For example, one person might see dark blue as professional and trustworthy, whereas another might view it as sad, and a third might just think of the ocean. A bright green could easily be associated with the environment, money, or even toxic waste depending on the context, and red can mean “stop” or convey boldness and urgency.
However, color and color combinations still matter in marketing, and being aware of your audience’s likely perception of a specific color is key.
When crafting emails such as your newsletter, consider these two coloring strategies:
- Analogous colors are sets of colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. For the most part, analogous colors tend to seem like they fit with another, creating a calming feeling.
- Complementary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel and create a stark contrast. This effect can be useful in drawing attention to specific elements of your email newsletter, such as an ending call to action button.
Additionally, many brands have their core signature colors as well as a set of muted neutral tones. This helps create balanced visuals with less stark contrasts. Check out this example from the World Wildlife Fund:
The mix of bright, soft, and neutral colors allows the WWF to create nonprofit marketing materials, like an email newsletter, that balance photos, text, and bold brand colors. This ensures their brand is properly depicted while making their content visually interesting.
How to create effective branded emails using color
By this point, you’re likely ready to put together a typical email newsletter using color psychology. Follow these steps:
- Determine the feeling you want to create. Colors in marketing are ultimately about invoking an intended reaction from your audience. If you want to create a sense of excitement, you might use bright shades, or if time is running out for a product sale, you could specifically use red.
- Choose visual assets. If you have visual elements that will include a range of colors, such as a video or photograph, consider how it will blend in or stand out compared to the rest of your email’s color scheme. Maintain a library of assets that align with your brand’s color spectrum, such as infographics and visual CTAs.
- Consider your brand colors. Above all, your emails should reflect your organization’s brand, even if your brand colors evoke different feelings from your email’s tone. For instance, if dark blue is one of your primary brand colors but you want to design an email with an exciting atmosphere, you could use strategic contrasts of dark blue and white to draw attention to the white highlighted areas.
If you need help putting together a color scheme or brand strategy for your organization, consider working with a creative design agency. Along with creating email templates, these consultants can help assess your overall branding strategy and provide new insights into how to use a range of visual elements, including color.
Color Psychology in Conclusion
Color is one of many valuable tools for creating a first impression. While the exact psychology behind color is still debatable, there’s no question that colors can cause your audience to associate your emails and other marketing materials with specific ideas, concepts, and emotions.
Use color to provide context, evoke emotion, and direct your audience’s attention exactly where you need it to be in your email communications to inspire action. To start making better use of color in your email marketing strategy, assess your brand colors and the thoughts and feelings they call to mind.
