This is article number two in our 3 part series on colours and your business. Today we are taking a look at how colours can affect your website conversions. There are many factors that affect website conversions and the colours on your website are one of them. In some cases colours and conversions is a subliminal thing and in other cases, it is just about making the right elements stand out at the right time.
Here are the five main colours (3 primary colours and 2 secondary colours) that make up most of the colour schemes for websites. Of course there are blends of other colours, but these 5 can give you the main psychological profile for each colour so that you can better associate a colour with your product, service, brand, and company.
- Red: Since red is such a strong, intense colour, it is usually better only to use red designs and elements on your website in moderation. Red can mean passion and excitement, but it can also mean danger, caution, or stop. Testing out red elements is important because of the possibility of completely opposite meaning interpretations. Many experts feel that you should never make a button that you want web visitors to click on red since it usually means stop. Studies have actually shown that when looking at red, people can start breathing more rapidly and increase their heart rate. The positive aspects of red can mean love, passion, and energy. Most designers only use red as an accent colour in web designs.
- Yellow: Yellow is bright and happy. It is used to represent the sun in just about every culture on the planet because of its bright radiance. Since yellow is so bright it can cause eye fatigue, and therefore it should not be used too much. Yellow usually means happiness, cheerfulness, sunshine. However caution should still be used in yellow for website designs because, not only because it can also mean cowardly or cautious. It can also be hard to see, especially against a white or other light background. When used correctly, though yellow can help your website convey feelings like: positivity, hope, joy and warmth. Another positive aspect about the colour yellow is that it helps with learning and retention, so if there is something on your website that you want visitors to learn and retain, a yellow background can help with that.
- Orange: Orange represents youthfulness, happy, and joy. Since orange is a combination of yellow and red, it also combines the idea of brightness and excitement together. Orange actually can stimulate brain activity and increase oxygenation, much in the same way that red increases heart rate. A combination of red and yellow, orange brings outa combination of the same feelings that red and yellow can. Orange is perfect for websites for companies that want to convey warmth, happiness, and youth. It is also great for travel websites specializing in tropical, fun in the sun type destinations or exercise. Orange can stimulate website users to act on what they see.
- Blue: Blue is a very popular colour for websites. It is used in many technology and digital company websites and many social media websites too. Blue has positive effects on the mind, it is calming, relaxing, and also imbibes a sense of loyalty, trust, and wisdom. Since trust and security are very important for e-commerce companies, consider adding blue shades to your shopping cart as well as any web forms or surveys that you want users to complete. Dark or navy blue imparts an air of seriousness, so this colour can be used to convey that on important web pages including policy pages, or other important documents. One word of caution to designers though, too much blue can be so calming that website visitors will feel too relaxed and complacent to place an order.
- Green: Green is also a popular colour for websites; it can represent nature, growth, health, healing, or money. Different shades of green can mean different things. Dark green is a military colour while aqua or turquoise can inspire creativity. Creativity is great for fashion sites or makeup sites. Because of the possible negative connotations of green, such as envy or greed, it is important to run tests on your website designs to gauge the reactions of your visitors and customers. Many environmentally conscious companies use green to represent recycling, rebirth, spring, and freshness.
Colours and website conversions are a tricky business though because there is no universal answer for all website designs. Something that works on one website might not work with the shoppers that frequent another website. Knowing what the colours represent is only half the battle. There are also many factors that weigh into whether a sale is completed online or not. Therefore, running usability testing and surveying website visitors is vital to improving conversions. Here are 3 ways to evaluate how the colour schemes on your website could be affecting your sales:
- A/B Testing or Multivariate Testing: Multivariate testing is switching out different design elements and variables to determine and measure what combination works best to turn visitors into shoppers. A/B testing is a type of multivariate testing where you serve two different designs to different visitors and measure which version converts better. Some things to vary in your testing situations in addition to the overall colour scheme are: the placement and colour of the action buttons, different calls to action that are written on the buttons. There are many different programs and tools available that set up multivariate testing for you and also measure the results and provide analytics and reports. Consider using different colours in different seasons if it applies to your business. Remember to always continue testing to find the best design. Since technology, the internet, and shoppers change so much, your testing and design should also continually be changing.
- Listen to Your Customers. Always listen to your customers and set up ways to interview or poll them about what they think, what they like, what they don’t like, and what they would like to see more of. Listening to your customers will give you the best insight possible. You and your employees are very familiar with your website. Things that are obvious to you may not be obvious to shoppers or visitors to your website. There are companies that perform usability testing for you so that you can get a very good idea of what works for your target audience and what doesn’t.
- Retargeting. Retargeting is when you serve banner ads to cookied visitors for a specific length of time after they have visited your website. There are programs and tools available to help you retarget your customers. Retargeting can also help you serve different designs to returning customers to see if one version works better the second time around. If basically gives you a second chance to make a sale or conversion.
If you require further information or have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to give a member of the GoPromotional team a call on 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today.
