Colors play an important role in the way we perceive things and this is especially true in marketing. The right use of colors can help grab attention, evoke emotions, and influence purchasing decisions. Keeping up with color trends is therefore crucial for marketers who want to stay relevant and effective.

In this blog, we’ll explore six ways to leverage color trends in your email marketing campaigns and captivate your audience.

Understanding Color Psychology

Colors have a significant impact on our emotions and behaviors. In fact, studies have shown that colors can influence up to 90% of our subconscious decisions. It’s essential to understand the psychology behind colors when using them in marketing.

Each color has a unique meaning and association that can evoke specific emotions and responses in people. For instance, red is often associated with passion, energy, and urgency, while blue is associated with trust, security, and calmness.

By using these color associations, marketers can create a mood or emotion that aligns with their brand message and targets their audience’s needs.

It’s also essential to note that the meaning and association of colors can vary based on cultural context. For example, in Western cultures, white is associated with purity and innocence, while in some Asian cultures, it’s associated with mourning and death. Therefore, it’s crucial to consider your audience’s cultural background when choosing colors for your marketing campaigns.

Besides that, it’s important to understand the color wheel and how to create color schemes. The color wheel is a tool that helps identify color relationships, and it’s composed of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

By creating color schemes that are harmonious and visually appealing, you can create a design that catches the eye and communicates your message effectively.

Keep An Eye on Color Trends

Keeping up with color trends is crucial for marketers who want to stay relevant and effective in their email marketing campaigns. Colors can go in and out of style just like fashion, so it’s essential to stay up-to-date on what’s popular in the design world.

Keep Up-to-Date with Useful Resources

One way to stay on top of color trends is by using resources like Pantone, which releases a “Color of the Year” each year. This color is chosen based on trends in fashion, design, and culture and can give marketers insight into what colors will be popular in the upcoming year. Other resources for tracking color trends include design blogs, social media, and industry publications.

Look at Other Brands

I’m not suggesting that you copy them directly but rather to see what they’re doing and getting inspiration from them. This useful information can provide insight into what colors are resonating with your target audience.

For instance, if many fashion brands are using pastel colors in their advertising, this could indicate that this color trend is worth incorporating into your own campaigns.

While color trends can be helpful in creating eye-catching designs, they shouldn’t be used at the expense of your brand’s identity. Your brand should have its own unique color palette that reflects your brand personality and values.

Incorporating trendy colors as accents or backgrounds can help refresh your brand’s look without straying too far from your brand identity.

Incorporate Color Trends

Incorporating color trends into your email design can help refresh your brand’s look and make your email stand out in your subscribers’ inboxes.

Here are some tips on how to do it effectively:

Pick a Color

Start by choosing a trendy color that aligns with your brand identity and messaging. Then, consider using it as an accent color or background color in your email design.

For example, if your brand uses a lot of blue, you can add a pop of the trendy color as an accent in your buttons, links, or headings.

Use Color Combinations

Look for color palettes that complement each other and that you can use to create an overall look and feel for your email design.

For instance, if the trendy color is a bright orange, you can pair it with complementary colors like blues or greens to create a cohesive color scheme that is visually appealing.

Try Gradients

Gradients can create a unique visual effect and can help blend trendy colors together in a way that is eye-catching and modern.

It’s important to note that while it’s good to stay on-trend, it’s equally important to ensure that the color scheme you choose doesn’t overpower the message you want to convey in your email. The color scheme should be balanced and should not distract from the content of your email.

Use Color to Highlight Calls-To-Action

Color can be a powerful tool in highlighting calls-to-action (CTAs) in your email design. Using color effectively can help draw your subscribers’ attention to the most important part of your email and increase the chances of them taking action. Here are some tips on how to use color to highlight CTAs in your email design:

Colors That Stand Out

Choose a color that stands out from the rest of your email design. This could be a bright, bold color that contrasts with your background or a color that is not used elsewhere in your design. The goal is to make your CTA button or link stand out and catch your subscribers’ attention.

Consider Emotional Associations

As we discussed earlier, colors have psychological associations, and choosing a color that aligns with the desired emotion can help increase the effectiveness of your CTA. For example, if your CTA is asking subscribers to take urgent action, using a red button can help create a sense of urgency and increase the chances of them clicking through.

Create Visual Hierarchy

This means using color to create a clear order of importance in your email design. For example, you could use a bright color for your primary CTA button and a less prominent color for secondary CTAs or links. This can help guide your subscribers’ attention to the most important action you want them to take.

It’s also important to consider the overall color scheme of your email design when choosing colors for your CTAs. Your CTA color should complement your overall color scheme and not clash with it.

Test And Optimize Your Color Choices

Testing and optimizing your color choices is an essential part of creating effective email marketing campaigns.

Here are some tips on how to test and optimize your color choices for your emails:

Test, Test, Test

Start by testing different color choices in your emails to see which ones perform best. You can do this by A/B testing different email designs with different color schemes to see which one results in the highest click-through rate. A/B testing involves sending two versions of your email to a small segment of your subscribers and then measuring which one performs better.

When testing different color choices, it’s important to make sure that all other variables are held constant, such as the copy and the layout of the email. This allows you to isolate the impact of the color on the click-through rate.

Analyze the Results

With the results of your A/B test, determine which color choices performed the best. Take note of which colors resulted in the highest click-through rates and try to understand why those colors were more effective. This can help you make more informed decisions when choosing colors for your future email campaigns.

Use Heat Maps

Heat maps show where subscribers are clicking on your emails and can help you identify which areas are receiving the most attention. This can help you determine if your CTA button color is effective in drawing attention to the CTA.

Applying Color Trends

Leveraging color trends in your email marketing campaigns can help you stand out, engage your audience, and drive conversions. By understanding understanding the concepts highlighted in this blog post, you can make the most of this powerful marketing tool. So, go ahead and experiment with color to see what works best for your brand and audience.

If you’re not sure where to start on your marketing collateral design, a design partner like Mad Creative Beanstalk is the perfect solution. Trusted by 100s of businesses globally, we can deliver quality work that you need for your business.