Can Color Influence Your Readers?
Brian Farrell, a Law Firm marketing Specialist for LexisNexis, posted an interesting article about how using color on your firm's website can influence your clients for good or bad. Here is what he had to say:
When it comes to your website, you probably spent significant amounts of time thinking about the text, layout and other details. But how much time did you spend thinking about the color scheme?
When viewers visit your firm's website, their first impression is a visual one. Colors create moods and impressions, and our brains process their meaning before we've read the first word of text.
"Everybody is fluent in the language of colors but they usually do not realize it because they do not have to think about it in order to understand it," says Robert Bossinger, project management team lead for LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. "Designers use colors to communicate a singular message or a complex, multifaceted message without ever writing a word. The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is true."
So what does your color selection "say"? Here are some common website colors and the emotions they exude to clients and potential clients:
Red
Power and aggression, used most often by criminal law and personal injury firms. Be careful though — red also means love, especially if you have a pink accent. What's more, red, as a primary color, has for generations represented blood and is often used as a sign of danger (ever wonder why stop signs were red?).
Pink
A very feminine color, not often seen on law firm websites. However, as an accent, it's a very quiet and calming hue, and could be useful for both family law and women's rights firms.
Orange
The color of summer. Orange is very warm, and mixes well with browns. In business, it represents ambition, success and goals. It can also represent justice, happiness or new beginnings.
Brown
Earthy and rich, browns are often mixed with oranges and yellows to symbolize fall. It also stands for strength, productivity and hard work (as used in the UPS slogan "What can brown do for you?").
Gold
Wealth and riches. A masculine power color. When mixed with other bright colors, it represents playful humor.
Blue
Cool and calming, blue often represents both sky and water. A very strong color, used often by B2B firms, corporate attorneys and others who want to convey trust and devotion.
Green
Lighter shades represent nature, spring, growth. Be careful with greens though, since darker shades have a completely different meaning — that of power, money and success.
Your website designer should know the appropriate color combinations that complement each other and will most effectively convey the message you are trying to send. That is why you should schedule a consultation before designing or updating your website.
It's amazing how things we though are trivial can make such a huge difference. I personally like blue, it works best for any website. As you've mentioned, it is calming and is refreshing to look at. In general, I think we should pick a color that's not too bright and aggressive especially for a law firm website.
It is a really interesting study when it comes to peoples perspective on colors. I found this a very interesting read and will make me think differently how I do things.