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Pro Email Marketing Tips: Colors and All You Need to Know About Them

The laws of email marketing are tricky and straightforward at the same time. The principal rule is everything counts. Take colors! Here, we'll reveal how to harness this basic and yet powerful instrument in your campaigns.

Colors Can Boost or Ruin Your Campaign

One doesn't need to be a professional to know that color influences us when we pick this or that product, even if we don't know anything about the brand. Researchers confirm what we already know. They state that for about 80% of people, the product or brand color affects their purchasing decision the most. The same is true for an email template you create. The primary goal of email marketing is to nourish your leads until they are sales, so it's essential to hold their attention constantly. Using appropriate colors, schemes, and combinations is the way to do so. When you choose colors, combine email marketing trends with an individual approach to your leads.

Start With Basics: Black, White, and Black&White

These colors deserve volumes of info coverage. Each of them is unique, on the one hand, and has the most expansive gradation of shades, on the other.

Black: The Universal Classics
We have said it's gloomy. But only when you think about it this way. In everyday life, it looks elegant, expensive, and can even evoke the feeling of comfort. The thing is, we can't imagine ourselves without gadgets that are black more often than not.

White: Don't Overuse
White means peace and purity. But when used in emails or documents, it is just blank. Besides, it is not widely used in texts because one's eyes can't stand the tension of reading it for too long. That's why super intense shades are rarely a good idea. Want it to be the background color? Add some texture to make it look cozier.

Monochrome Solutions

When one tells you that black&white emails are dull and ineffective, it's usually an amateur. Instead, it provides unlimited opportunities to express one's creativity and represent the brand most memorably. To intensify the effect, use black and white pictures for the background and bright, playful fonts to accent the brand name of the campaign slogan.

Perceive on Different Levels: Red
Red is one of the most controversial colors. Some love it. Others feel somewhat insecure when they see something red. The reason is that we perceive colors on different levels. Still, red implies urgency, which is why it is the most common shade for CTA buttons.

Inherent Factors and Life Experience

These preferences are even deeper than that. Some reactions are congenital. For example, when you look at red, it increases your heart rate. Red is also the color of passion, as we see many things pointing at it during our life: roses, wine, etc. Plus, we build our conclusions on what marketers have already persuaded us in: red cars, clothes, lipstick, and nail polish — they all have an exact meaning in the Western culture.

Inspire Confidence: Blue
Blue denotes serenity. The images we think of first are the sky, the ocean, and space. This color is universal. Most people feel more light-hearted and confident when they see it. So, marketing amateurs might conclude that choosing any shade of blue will be suitable for all leads. Have you ever received an email with the message so cliched, as if it were written for the whole world? In most cases, such emails have a plain white-and-blue template.

The Shades of Blue for Different Lead Types

You have to know WHAT your message is and WHO it is for. Moreover, it is also vital for your campaign how you deliver the message. Many things hide behind this HOW. One of them is choosing the right shade of all colors, even the basics, like blue. Look at royal blue, navy blue, teal, and sky blue to see how differently blue can be perceived.

• Royal Blue is a bright purplish color that has many shades itself. Peculiarly, on a computer screen, these colors are much catchier than they appear in real life. They look vibrant and fresh. That is why it is more appealing to impulse shoppers.
• Navy Blue is deep and rich. It is close to darker shades but not that dark to be just a tiny hint in your email color scheme. On the contrary, navy blue can be a major accent when your target audience is buyers on a budget.
• Teal is greenish, yet blue, color, and it shouldn't be confused with teal green. Like other variations of blue, it represents calmness, comfort, and peace of mind. The freshness of green adds some freshness and reminds the Earth from a distance — green and blue. This color is one of the dominant trust boosters, and it's hard to overdose with it. It will be perfect for those who need to put all their trust in one's offer. For this reason, it is often used by reliable companies in finance.
• Sky Blue. When you say it out loud, even without seeing it, it will hardly evoke an image of storm or dull weather. It is a light lively color everyone connects with the best of days. It is more suitable for backgrounds and appeals to the buyers who seek comfort. The products are very diverse — household goods, cosmetics, clothing, even a loan that can buy all these things. What they have in common is that they make potential buyers' lives better.

Refresh: Green
This color brings one back to their childhood: grass, forest, fur-trees, parks, the view from one's window, etc. From the first days, we see something green and, more often than not, like it. According to Leslie Harrington, Ph.D., The Color Association executive director, colors are the first point of interaction and the most unforgettable sense. Thus, it gets crystal clear that all the green we see impacts our subconsciousness and forms an emotional connection with the brand that uses it. As adults, we start associating it with health, ecology, and mindful living. Most people have positive feelings about it, and only a small percentage connect it with jealousy, mythification (thanks, Oz!), and money, which is not always a good thing. Choosing to harness a lot of green, you'd better turn to upbeat shades, like Kelly Green or Lime Green.

Cheer Up: Yellow
Hello, sunshine! Yellow is the color of happiness. A yellow round-faced smiley emoji won't let you forget about it. Bright yellow calls for optimism and joy, while deeper shades can be helpful to calm down and find a new source of energy. Yellow is definitely for impulse buyers, as it is associated with something juicy that you want to have NOW. When it's time to convert your leads to sales, use yellow.

Cultural Factors in Color Perception

The last color on the list, yellow, is an ideal example to demonstrate that sometimes the obvious choices have negative results. Traditionally, controversial colors are red (we've discussed it above) and black, as it is elegant but, you know, gloomy. But yellow? Yes, yellow is tricky. In different cultures, it denotes different, sometimes opposite, things. It's not only relevant for companies that operate internationally. We live in a multicultural society, where one's background might impact the perception of colors. In France, it is linked with weakness and betrayal. Interestingly, but it doesn't explain a yellow Tour de France leader T-shirt. In China, yellow is used to describe obscene periodicals and films. In Germany, it epitomizes jealousy. However, no one forces you to build the whole campaign on the shades of yellow. Try a bit of it, and see how it goes. The same concern any other color that has a hidden meaning somewhere in the world:

• black, obviously
• white: symbolizes grief in some cultures and might be associated with emptiness
• orange: the sun, the fall, juicy fruits in one mindset, and alarm, danger, life jackets, construction in the other
• purple: honor — in most countries, mourning — in Brazil
• pink: childish at first sight; has strong controlling properties, being used for prison walls in many countries.

In email marketing, it's not enough to pick a cute combination since each color awakens different associations and emotions. With our tips, you'll master the art of influencing your leads with colors.