When launching a business or thinking about rebranding, it’s vital to think about your brand colors. In this article, we’re going to share a step-by-step guide on how to choose the most winning colors for your company so that your business can grow and evolve. Let’s see how to select colors for your business website.
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Why are website colors important?
According to the study:
- In 85% of cases color turned out to be the major influence on what people buy;
- Colors can increase brand recognition by 80%.
Thus, if you want to build a brand and stand out from the competitors, then it’s better to take colors more seriously. Colors are used not only for the logo and website but for different kinds of typography and marketing campaigns (both online and offline). Herewith, even your business card, invitation cards, brochures, and so on are to be in the same colors as your brand.
Today you can easily support your brand by creating professional-looking visuals, using different tools and services where you can customize color schemes. For example, Crello is not only an invitation maker but an advanced editor of any kind of visuals, including logos, posts, business cards, infographics, and many more. There you can choose templates or create your own visuals for any purpose in minutes nevertheless your designer’s skills.
8 Steps to Select Colors For Your Brand
62‐90% of a product assessment is based on colors alone and that’s why it’s crucial for a brand to get a palette right. Don’t panic, here we are with our 8 easy steps to select colors for your brand.
Step 1: Establish your brand identity
Keep in mind that colors are a reflection of your brand and its personality. Herewith, the very first step is to establish your brand identity. Ask yourself how you’d like the brand to be perceived and answer the following questions to hone the best colors for your brand:
- What is your brand about?
- What sets it apart from the competition?
- What are your company’s core goals?
- How do you want your customers to feel (positive, confident, intelligent, etc.)?
- What are your brand personality traits?
Step 2: Learn color meanings and explore color theory
Each color has its own impact on how your customers feel about your brand and about your product/service. Thus, it’s important to learn and understand what colors mean. Here is a brief overlook of basic colors to help you:
- Red (energy) creates urgency, increases heart rate, and is good for appealing to impulse buyers.
- Black (powerful and sleek) appeals to impulse shoppers and is associated with luxury.
- Yellow (youthful and optimistic) is a good choice for grabbing attention but a bad one as a background or primary site color.
- Blue creates feelings of trust and security.
- Green (relaxing and easy-going) is good for calls to action (CTA).
- Pink (feminine and romantic) can be used to market to women and girls.
- Purple (soothing and calming) is commonly used to market anti-aging products.
However, it’s also important to mention that color is not an exact science. Colors can mean different things depending on the colors they’re paired with, context, cultural connotations, etc. Thus, you need to experiment to find the color and color combinations that work for you.
Step 3: Look at your main competitor brand colors and search for inspiration
Certainly, there are some competitors in the industry and some common color palettes used for the field. Yet, it’s obvious that you don’t want to look in the same way. Colors are to help your brand to stand out. Herewith, look at your main competitors to understand what colors are already used and what combinations you should better avoid no to look the same. The good practice is to search for inspiration to determine how you can separate your brand from the pack.
Step 5: Select primary color for your brand
Core (primary) color is the one most associated with your brand. Thus, for example, saying Coca-Cola makes you think about the color red. Choose a single color that best embodies your brand and its product based on color meanings. Experiment with different tints, shades, and so on to find the perfect look.
Step 6: Pick secondary colors
The next step is to pick 2-4 additional colors to go along with your core color. These colors are to compliment your primary one. There are several directions a brand’s secondary colors can go:
- Analogous color scheme — close variants of the primary color.
- Monochromatic color scheme — different shades and tints of the core color.
- Contrasting color schemes — either complementary colors (seated across from each other on the color wheel) or a selection of colorful, equally vibrant hues.
Step 7: Don’t forget about neutral colors
Don’t neglect neutral colors because they are important as well. These colors are used as a background, typeface color, the color of the links, images, and so on. Usually, neutral colors are white, black, or a few shades of gray.
Step 8: Test chosen colors and experiment to find the best combination
When you select a few colors combine them and see if they:
- Complement one another;
- Convey your brand message;
- Reflect your brand idea, etc.
Also, it’s very important to test out your colors in several formats to understand if you make the right choice. So, use the color palette for your social media posts, or print new business cards, and so on and measure the results and watch how the customers react.
Summary
Though color is not an exact science, colors still impact brand recognition and how the customers feel. So, it’s crucial to choose the right colors for your brand so that the color scheme:
- Conveys your message in the right way;
- Differentiate your company from the competition;
- Boost brand recognition.
This guide is bound to help you to understand what colors suit your company best of all so that you can grow your business and make it successful.
