On
the internet we don't deal with face to face selling. The
internet is a visual and psychological medium. The words,
or sales copy, on your website have by far the greatest
psychological impact on your visitors and thus becomes your
most important communication and sales tool.
But
another important psychological aspect of your website that
is often overlooked are the colors. Yes, that's right...
I said colors.
Just
as you use words to express yourself, colors can be used
as an expression as well and are a language all on their
own.
The
background color of your website, the color of your header,
the color of your text, headlines and sub-headlines etc.
can all have a psychological impact on your visitors.
Here
is a list of some of the common colors and what type of
psychological emotion they invoke in people:
RED
is associated with love, passion, danger, warning, excitement,
food, impulse, action, adventure.
BLUE
is associated with trustworthiness, success, seriousness,
calmness, power, professionalism.
GREEN
is associated with money, nature, animals, health, healing,
life, harmony.
ORANGE
is associated with comfort, creativity, celebration, fun,
youth, affordability.
PURPLE
is associated with royalty, justice, ambiguity, uncertainty,
luxury, fantasy, dreams.
WHITE
is associated with innocence, purity, cleanliness, simplicity.
YELLOW
is associated with curiosity, playfulness, cheerfulness,
amusement.
PINK
is associated with softness, sweetness, innocence, youthfulness,
tenderness.
BROWN
is associated with earth, nature, tribal, primitive, simplicity.
GREY
is associated with neutralality, indifference, reserved.
BLACK
is associated with seriousness, darkness, mystery, secrecy.
You
can use the above as a guide when choosing colors for your
website. It really boils down to your target audience and
what psychological message you want to convey in colors.
Blues
and white backgrounds work best for business sites. Maternity
sites should consider some pink. Golf or lawn sites sites
should consider green. Food sites should consider red, etc.
There
are also numerous shades of the same color that you can
use too. Click here for a list
of 216 colors that work in all browsers or click
here for a different kind of chart.
It
also boils down to common sense too. As far as using colors
in text, black text on white backgrounds may be dull but
it is the most readable and pleasing to the eye.
Yellow
text on white background is not only unreadable, but causes
eye-strain which will have people leaving your site quickly.
Nothing will lose sales faster than eye-straining text.
Here's
a link for a "color wheel" that shows which colors
compliment each other, and which ones don't: http://www.saumag.edu/art/studio/chalkboard/c-wheel.html
In
conclusion, not only can the sales copy on your website
have a psychological impact with words but the colors you
use can as well.
Use
them wisely...
About
The Author
Al
Martinovic works from home and runs a successful mlm business
at http://www.ineedsmokes.com
and also publishes a popular internet marketing newsletter:
http://www.milleniummarketers.com