Marketers have been leveraging the power of color psychology for years, and you can apply some of their methods to help grow your business.
Use of color theory dates back to the days of traditional advertising, with agencies attempting to influence perception, drive behavior or set an agenda. And while different eras showcased different color schemes -- with bright, vibrant, accent colors being popular in the '70s, while the '90s saw a rise in the traditional red-black-white palette -- the methodology behind it remains the same.
There are a number of reasons why agencies use color and music to affect mood and drive behavior. The most powerful one is that they target the irrational portion of the brain, otherwise known as the limbic system. It operates quite differently than the prefrontal cortex, which handles judgement, and rational decision making. For example, if you send a proposal to a client, they might focus on the cost, because it's a set number, which can be measured.
But the limbic system is quite different, as it's focused on emotions and feelings. Marketers use colors, music and messaging to make consumers feel a certain way, attempting to influence them into taking action.
So what emotions are associated with colors? Read on to find out.
It's known that red attracts the eye more than any other color. Red is strong, and best utilized with muted, complementary colors, for proper contrast.
The use of orange can draw attention, as it's vibrant, so it's viewed as being energetic and dynamic. But, unlike red, it does so with warmth and joy. It's commonly used by fitness, tech and sports businesses.
This color is viewed as safe. That's why pink is commonly used for beauty brands, and children's' toys.
We see blue everywhere, as it's one of the most commonly used colors. It's seen as being calming and trustworthy, and it conveys a sense of security and loyalty. Finance and health companies leverage it, as do social media platforms.
Right on brand, green is believed to be environment-focused, with an eco-friendly appeal. Businesses that focus in health, wellness and nutrition niches tend to use it.
Purple can be overlooked by some, but it does a great job of conveying royalty, wealth and grace. It's seen as being luxurious, which is why tech and candy companies feature it prominently.
Boldness and sophistication is the name of the game here. Black, with the right font, can also be viewed as being elegant, so that's why fashion and media companies like it.
We can't forget about the most shiny color. Gold is popular for logos that attempt to display a sense of prominence, stemming from power and money. You'll see its use in the hospitality, resort and automotive niches.
Last but not least, silver doesn't have much impact on color psychology, but it does look cool. It's modern, and automotive companies love it.
Marketers and business owners both understand that using the right strategy to drive action is imperative to optimize conversion rate.
And while your business' Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) vary based on your respective niche, conversions are vital for all companies, as revenue is vital for growth strategy. The use of color theory can help influence consumers into taking a specific action, whether it's on your website, storefront, billboard, logo, business card, pitch deck or any other channel used to showcase your brand.
So make sure to devote time to selecting your brand colors. Not only that, make sure to leverage color theory in all your marketing efforts.
SEO has changed so much over the years, and it can sometimes feel like a full-time job to keep up with the latest tips and trends.
It's always been a cat-and-mouse game between marketers and Google, with the most popular search engine in the world continually rolling out algorithm updates, while also adjusting their ranking signals, deciding which ones carry the most weight. In fact, it's still unknown exactly what the breakdown looks like, as Google attempts to do whatever it can to prevent black-hat SEOs from reverse engineering content. And while it can be frustrating for marketers to be left in the dark, it's easy to understand where Google is coming from.
And while NFTs and meme stocks are all the rage these days, their demand simply is not sustainable. The bubble will eventually burst, and it'll be on to the next trend.
SEO, on the other hand, will always be desirable. Getting listed and coming up on search is essentially the modern age's Yellow Pages. Gone is the phone book, and in is returning information in response to search queries. It's why SEO is such big business, as it has such a big impact on lead generation, and, if a website and its copy are optimized for conversion: sales.
But what are the hottest SEO trends to follow this year?
There are a number of metrics that can impact ranking–user experience, trust factor and number of backlinks among them. Focusing on optimizing for these metrics will help your site rank better.
SEO in the past was fairly simple, and was centered around keywords. Nowadays, however, Google wants to keep its users happy and provide them value on their search query. Matching search intent is extremely important, and if you can focus on this area, search engines will likely reward you.
“Instant Answers” is a major one that is impacting what content is displayed on search results pages. Gone are the days when all that was displayed on search results pages was content, with 10 blue links, and not much else. We now have the Knowledge Graph, Instant Answers and more.
Google has also been known to display snippets from articles, so keep that in mind when creating content.
Marketers, SEOs and business owners are beginning to pay attention to this area, for keyword searches, links, etc., due to machine learning. Optimize content with voice search in mind as well. To do this, make sure the copy in your blog posts and web pages answers related questions that users may be looking for in their search query. If you can provide answers to their questions, you'll have a better chance of ranking for voice search results.
Especially with Google's rollout of the Core Web Vitals ranking signal, and the Page Experience algorithm update.Backlinks matter, as well as on and off-page SEO. And as we discussed above, search intent is also important. But nothing is more impactful in terms of how a page ranks than delivering on user experience.
Make sure you're providing an enjoyable, frictionless experience for users browsing your page, first and foremost.
SEO is far more complicated than it used to be, but is even more important nowadays. Any business looking to improve brand awareness, generate leads and increase sales should optimize content for it.
And while the technical components, which fall into the on-page SEO bucket, are difficult for many to grasp, they can be optimized with the right audit, as well as the help of "martech" software. Automation has come a long way, and is beneficial for anyone looking to improve their SEO.
Modern SEO is centered around delivering the best user experience possible, and satisfying search intent. Achieve those goals and everything else will fall into place.
Social proof is a necessity for small businesses -- especially those in the early stage -- in the digital world we live in today.
Reviews and testimonials help warm up cold leads who have just recently learned about your brand. They don't want to hear you talk about your services, but instead would rather listen to those who have hired you talk about the experience. Most importantly, they'll want to hear about the results they got from hiring you.
It's important for small businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors, given how crowded many market verticals already are. Social proof allows them to do exactly that, and when used in combination with a strong value proposition, they can be extremely effective.
We've got some ideas for how to get testimonials, and how they should be structured, so check them out below.
Small businesses need to do whatever they can to stand out among their competition and help position themselves in their respective market vertical.
Price, product and promotion are all very important, but so is social proof. Getting clients to tell the story of their experience to those currently deciding whether or not to hire you is extremely beneficial, and you should invest time into creating a process to make that happen.
Much has changed in business and marketing trends over the past year, but lead generation continues to remain important.
Many business owners actually prioritize leads over sales, as they believe that lifetime value is a more important key performance indicator (KPI) than one or two short-term sales. Revenue is important, but building a relationship based on trust with a consumer is more beneficial, in terms of long-term growth. Getting these users to fall in love with your brand over your competitors can spur them to refer your business to others. Not only that, it can obviously drive them to buy more from you in both the short and long-term, rather than simply a one-off.
But it takes a lot of work to warm up a cold lead. Nurturing with valuable information and opening a direct line of communication can help facilitate the process. It's believed that the more a company provides value to and educates a consumer, the more likely they are to buy a product or service offered.
This logic makes sense, but it's not as simple as it may seem on paper, in terms of user journey. It's important to build a sales funnel to generate leads and warm them up, hopefully leading to one or more conversions. We've got some advice for how to do exactly that.
It all starts with simplicity, because a confused mind never buys. The user journey in your sales funnel should only include a few steps, and should be as simple as possible, to prevent against potentially dropping out of the funnel, or fracturing the relationship.
End by presenting an offer in a way where the user has to say yes. Make it irresistible. The offer obviously depends on what you’re selling (ie., physical product, information product, service, etc.). But a good starting point is to restructure what you’re selling, and then turn it into an offer. An offer should increase the perceived value of what you’re selling, by showing the client that they’re going to make money from it. It should also be unique to your business, with terms or deliverables they can't get elsewhere.
Any business owner knows how difficult it can be to generate leads consistently.
Referrals are important, but businesses in their early stage often focus on improving their skills and services, or pricing, rather than leveraging important marketing channels. Choosing the right channel to invest resources -- both time and money -- into is extremely beneficial to help generate leads. It isn't very fun, and can be quite time consuming, but the long-term success of your business may depend on it.
A sales funnel can help create a defined user journey, converting a cold lead into a warm one. This nurturing process can educate the consumer, and also have them develop an interest in your brand. This helps provide an alternative to sitting and hoping that leads find your website or social media profile, and are then interested enough to contact you about the products or services your company offers.
Invest time in planning how your sales funnel will look, and then create it. The success of your business may depend on it.
Digital marketing is all the rage these days, but there are still a number of traditional strategies in use, many of which have existed for decades.
Advertising and marketing have become quite different, whereas they were once joined at the hip, yet there's still some crossover between them. Capturing attention remains important, although the method for doing so varies greatly. Not only that, both advertising and marketing emphasize driving action.
In digital marketing, the method for driving action is usually with a call-to-action button, section or element. And while there are some copywriters and business owners that only utilize buttons, it's important to point out that users nowadays sometimes don't want to be pushed in one direction or the other. It's best practice to lead them to a decision, which they can opt into.
As such, driving action using clever copy has increased in popularity over the past few years. It aligns with modern marketing principles, and helps empower the user, by reinforcing that they have the power to choose.
So while there are different opinions on how to drive action, which depend on both the individual approach and niche, there are some shared themes among them. Here are some strategies for how to create a call-to-action that works for your business.
There are a wealth of opinions on exactly where to place your call-to-action. Old-school marketers traditionally placed them in the top-left portion of a page, to be above the fold, and also because we read from left to right.
Nowadays, however, that's usually not the case anymore, except for maybe on mobile devices. Generally, CTA buttons are placed near the bottom of a page or post, often center-aligned. But buttons aren't the only ways to create a call-to-action, so there are in-text options as well. CTAs can also exist in pop-ups, exit flows and more.
It should be related to the context of the page, desired outcome and other important characteristics. If there’s a graphic or image that strengths the message, a big CTA can help add value to and emphasize that message. Bigger CTAs will help draw attention to a desired outcome or action.
However, if they're too big, they can overpower the other elements on the page, and can decrease the conversion rate. Smaller CTAs can be effective if the end user wants to feel in control of their decision.
Bold type tends to be used for CTA text, but there's a lot of options in terms of colors. Generally, warm colors are prioritized over cold ones, making red, orange, yellow and green very popular.
However, there's a new school of thought among marketers, to use their brand colors. This strategy ensures the CTA fits with their brand message, and the theme of their website.
Short, sweet and to the point copy works best. Describe what the user will get, in terms of benefits, if they take the intended action. Emphasize benefits in your copy.
If a graphic accompanies your CTA, make sure it conveys meaning, and strengthens the message. It can also be effective to add a shape next to a CTA button, as long as it's not a distraction.
Content marketing is important for lead generation and nurturing your audience, as providing value to them can help build trust. But that copy should also include at least one call-to-action, so they'll take the desired action you want them to. Otherwise, you may not get the return you're seeking for your content.
CTAs are often mentioned in the form of buttons, but that's not always the best method for implementation. Elements can help improve the style of a web page or blog post, but sometimes a more subtle approach is best, such as an in-text mention, like we've done here, explaining that Optimize Web Solutions can help you with web design, digital marketing services.
There's also a lot of variance in how to design a CTA, in terms of color, size, copy, placement, style and more. Figure out what makes the most sense for your business and target audience.
And remember: Test, test and test some more. Split testing is so important for the strategies that were outlined.
There were over 30.2 million registered businesses in the United States in 2020, so standing out from the rest of the pack continues to grow in importance.
Small businesses dominate the overall landscape, as 99.9% of all registered businesses in the country are of the small variety. Each vertical market has different requirements to be classified as a small, medium or large business, in terms of average annual revenue or number of employees.
As such, it's so important for any business to figure out how to differentiate itself from its competition.
Positioning is a major part of brand strategy, and finding the right differentiator can really help in that area. Barriers for entry may be low nowadays, but it's still very difficult for businesses to succeed in the current landscape, with 20 percent of small businesses failing in their first year.
To give your business the best chance of survival, it's vital to create a compelling value proposition that separates you from your competitors. Here are some tips to accomplish exactly that.
(Medium and large businesses that have grown enough to fall into that category generally don't need help with their value proposition, so we're going to focus on small ones. But these tips would generally apply for all businesses as a whole.)
A good value proposition expresses the tangible results or concrete outcomes a customer experiences from using a company’s products or services. It should:
Market positioning is often overlooked, but is one of the most important factors for the success of any business.
Owners often make the mistake of spending too much time on their logo, or their business name, but that's not really what branding is about. A brand is the message you want to send to your customers, about who you are, and what you stand for. It's also about positioning: Using your value proposition to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
Focus on these key areas, and you'll give your business the best chance to thrive.
