Colour psychology in marketing: how to get colours on your side

Colours decide the first impression before a person reads a single word. But there is no colour that sells by itself. What works is a colour that fits what you offer and a colour that is clearly visible on the page or in the email. In this article you will find what research says about the effect of colours, how to choose a button colour, what contrast text needs and how the colours of the year changed from 2000 to 2026.

In a nutshell

1. People make up their minds within 90 seconds and 62 to 90 % of that assessment is based on colours.
2. There is no universal meaning of colours. Associations differ by culture, age and personal experience.
3. Whether the colour fits the product matters more than the specific shade.
4. For a button, contrast with its surroundings is what counts, not whether it is red or green.
5. Normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 : 1. White on yellow does not meet it.
6. According to Pantone, the colour of the year 2026 is the white Cloud Dancer. Do not change your brand colours because of it.

In short: what colours do, what they do not do, what to watch out for and where to start

• What colours do: they set a brand and its products apart and evoke emotions in customers.
• What they do not do: they do not sell by themselves. A red button will not save an offer nobody understands.
• What to watch out for: contrast, colour-blind readers, dark mode and the different meaning of colours abroad.
• Where to start: one main brand colour, one accent colour for buttons and a measured text contrast.

What has changed since the article was published: The article came out in 2020 and ended with the colours of the year 2021. We have added an overview of the Pantone colours of the year from 2000 to 2026 with swatches, data on colour popularity, the rules of contrast and accessibility, dark mode in emails and a procedure for choosing colours. We have also corrected a figure from the original infographic. The correct range from the study is 62 to 90 %, not 60 to 92 %.

Why colours matter

Red and yellow are the colours of love and happiness. Together with orange they belong to the so-called activating colours, which bring optimism and joyful emotions. No wonder so many fast food brands have bet on yellow and red.

But colour psychology is far from being only about fast food. Colour psychology is a field that studies how colours influence people's perception, mood and behaviour. According to some studies, it is colour that plays a crucial role in how your product is perceived and judged. It is simply one of the most important factors in setting your brand apart, and it also makes the first impression.

The most frequently cited figure comes from the review study by Satyendra Singh from 2006. According to it, people make up their minds about a person or a product within 90 seconds of the first encounter, and 62 to 90 % of that assessment is based on colours alone.

What exactly do colours do? They serve two purposes. They set a brand and its products apart and they spark emotions in customers.

What the individual colours mean

The following overview shows what most people in Europe and North America associate the basic colours with. Take it as a starting point, not as a law.

Red awakens urges, including the urge to buy, which is why it is ideal for discount offers, sales and similar messages.

Why there is no universal meaning of colours

The claim that blue evokes competence is only true to a certain extent. How you perceive a colour is influenced by where you grew up, by your experience and by the brand you associate it with.

The popularity of colours differs too. In 2015, YouGov asked people in ten countries on four continents about their favourite colour. Blue won in all of them, with a share ranging from 23 % in Indonesia to 33 % in Great Britain. The second places already differed. In Thailand, China and the USA green came second, in Germany, Britain, Singapore and Indonesia it was red, and in Hong Kong purple.

So blue leads among both men and women, but more markedly among men.

What research says about colours

So what strategy should marketers choose when there is no universal meaning of colours? Research shows that colour influences consumer behaviour in two key ways.

Fit with the brand. Consumers clearly prefer brands and products whose colours match their purpose, for example green for ecological products. In 2006, Paul Bottomley and John Doyle showed that people expect rather sober colours for practical products and bold colours for products that are meant to bring joy. In 2012, Lauren Labrecque and George Milne described how colour also shapes the "personality" of a brand. In their study, red increased the impression of excitement and blue the impression of competence.

Attracting attention. Red buttons will not lure consumers into clicking on web pages overloaded with red. On pages where white prevails, however, they are much more likely to click on them. Psychology calls this the isolation effect. We remember and notice sooner an element that differs from its surroundings.

Which colour to choose for a button

Are you looking for a colour for the call to action buttons on your website or in your email? Red or orange works well. Not because they are magical, but because on most websites and in most emails they are not used anywhere else.

The best-known button colour test proves it. In 2011, HubSpot compared a green and a red button on the Performable page. The red one got 21 % more clicks. But the page was designed in green tones, so the green button blended in with it and the red one stood out. The authors of the test themselves pointed out that the result cannot be transferred to another website.

Three rules therefore apply to a button:

1. The button colour must not be repeated on other elements in the email or on the page.
2. The text on the button must be easy to read. The contrast ratio decides, not the impression.
3. Leave empty space around the button so that it does not compete with images and other links.

The following swatches show how the same button colour holds up with white and with dark text. The number under the swatch is the contrast ratio.

Tip: Not sure whether to go for an orange or a blue button? Do not guess. In Quanda, create an A/B testing campaign as described in the guide How to create and set up an e-mail campaign with A/B testing, change only the button colour in the two versions of the email and compare the clicks.

Contrast and accessibility: so that everyone can read the text

The contrast ratio is a number from 1 to 21 that expresses the difference in brightness between the text and the background. Black text on a white background has a ratio of 21 : 1, text of the same colour as the background 1 : 1.

The international WCAG accessibility guidelines set these thresholds:

Source: W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2, criteria 1.4.3 and 1.4.11.

Low contrast is in fact the most common accessibility error of all. Every year, the organisation WebAIM tests the one million most visited home pages.

So four out of five websites have text that some people find hard to read. Those who keep an eye on contrast are more legible than most of the competition.

The second reason is colour vision. According to a 2012 review study by Jennifer Birch, a red and green colour vision deficiency affects roughly 8 % of men and 0.5 % of women of Northern European descent. To these readers, red and green text can look the same.

Watch out: Do not convey information by colour alone. "Dates marked in red are taken" is something part of your readers cannot tell apart. Add a word, an icon or an underline. Keep links in the text underlined.

Colours in email: brand, dark mode and landing page

Compared with the web, email has one specific feature. You do not know in which app and in which mode the recipient will open it.

Stick to your brand colours. People first look at who is writing to them. The same colours in all emails help them recognise you before they start reading.

Count on dark mode. Some email apps change the colours by themselves in dark mode. They darken a light background and lighten dark text. A logo with a transparent background and dark lettering can then blend in with the background. A logo with a light outline or on its own backing helps, and so do mid tones instead of pure white and pure black.

Match the email with the landing page. The email and the page it leads to should work like a mirror. The same images, the same button colours, the same headline. After clicking, the reader then does not hesitate even for a second whether they are in the right place.

Match your forms too. In Quanda, in the Design section of an active form, you adjust the colour, the background, the font size and the font family. More in the guide Form design.

Other mistakes that reduce the number of clicks in emails are described in the article 8 mistakes that threaten the click-through rate of your newsletter.

Pantone colours of the year from 2000 to 2026

The colour of the year is a shade announced every December by the American Pantone Color Institute as a symbol of the mood of the coming year. Pantone is the creator of the system by which colours are identified in print, fashion and design. It has been choosing a colour of the year since 2000.

Looking at the whole series, several things stand out:

• Blue and turquoise shades come back most often. Cerulean, Aqua Sky, Blue Turquoise, Blue Iris, Turquoise, Serenity and Classic Blue. This matches the fact that blue is the most popular colour in the world.
• A pair of colours won twice. In 2016 Rose Quartz and Serenity, in 2021 Ultimate Gray and Illuminating.
• After a saturated decade came a calming down. Since 2024 Pantone has been choosing muted, natural tones: peach, brown and white.
• White won for the first time. Cloud Dancer for 2026 is the first white shade in the history of the selection.

Colours of the year 2021: grey and yellow

For 2021, the Pantone Color Institute chose a combination of two colours, namely the grey Ultimate Gray (PANTONE 17-5104, RGB 147, 149, 151, #939597) and the bright yellow Illuminating (PANTONE 13-0647, RGB 245, 223, 77, #F5DF4D), which replaced the blue Classic Blue from 2020.

The union of these two different, independent shades is meant to emphasise the strength that arises from their mutual support and harmony. The combination of grey and yellow expresses warmth and optimism at the same time. It is meant to be a story that evokes pleasant feelings in us and gives hope for the future.

It is also a good example of why not to adopt the colour of the year without thinking. White text on the yellow Illuminating has a contrast ratio of only 1.3 : 1, and grey Ultimate Gray text on a white background 3 : 1. Neither combination is enough for normal text.

Colour of the year 2026: Cloud Dancer

For 2026, Pantone chose the shade Cloud Dancer (PANTONE 11-4201), a warm white. The institute describes it as a symbol of calming down in a society that is rediscovering the value of quiet reflection. For emails and websites this is no revolution. White is the most common background colour, and white space around text and buttons is one of the cheapest ways to make a message clearer.

How to choose colours for an email and a website in 6 steps

1. Start from your brand colours. Take the main colour from your logo and use it the same way in all emails, on the website and in forms.
2. Check that the colour matches what you sell. Ask a few customers what your colours remind them of.
3. Choose one accent colour for buttons and links only and do not use it for anything else.
4. Measure the contrast, for example in the developer tools of the Chrome browser (right-click, Inspect, Styles panel, colour swatch). Text should have a ratio of at least 4.5 : 1 against the background, and so should the text on a button.
5. Do not rely on colour alone. Back up important information with text, an icon or an underline.
6. Send yourself a test email, look at it on a mobile phone and in dark mode, and verify the button colour with an A/B test.

Colour check before sending an email

• The colours match the brand and the landing page.
• The accent colour is only on buttons and links.
• The text on the button is legible on a mobile phone in sunlight too.
• Grey text is no lighter than necessary.
• No information is conveyed by colour alone.
• The logo is visible in both light and dark mode.

Final word

Colours are not a science with a single correct result. But it pays to know a few rules that always apply: the colour should fit what you offer, the important element should be visible and the text should be readable. Verify everything else on your own customers.

How to build an email from the subject line to the button is explained in the online course Email Copywriting and Design That Gets Read. If you would like to go through the look of your campaigns with us, write to us at support@onquanda.com or book a free consultation.