3 Simple Steps to Choose Your Brand Colors

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Dec 2

Written By brandmerry

3 Simple Steps to Choose Your Brand Colors

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

Choosing your personal brand colors can be the biggest headache of your life, trust me I know!

I spent months, and this is not an exaggeration, trying to decide on my brand colors. Turns out I was doing it wrong, by looking at others in my industry first and not following this simple 3-step process I quickly found myself with a brand that didn’t light me up.

Why Branding Colors Are Important

The power of the aesthetics of your brand are based on first impressions. As an online entrepreneur, you’re most likely using social media to build your community, spread brand awareness and make sales.

Well, in case you haven’t noticed, the social media space is crowded and first impressions matter. This is where the aesthetics of your brand come into play and color is front and center.

If you want to stand out on social media, rather than blend in, it’s important to understand how to choose your brand colors and the psychology behind color as it relates to your audience.

1. Brand Color Tip #1: Look at Your Daily Inspiration

The idea of personal branding is that you are the center of your brand and use your own personality traits, authentic voice and stories to create a brand that resonates with your ideal audience. If you don’t already know my stance on personal branding, be sure to check out this article here.

So with that in mind, why don’t we start with the things you already love?

When starting to create the aesthetics of your brand it can be really easy to get lost in what other people are doing, other professionals and other brands. The result is a loss of personal brand identity and blending in with others in your industry.

Rather than first looking outside yourself for inspiration, I recommend taking a look at two areas in your life: your closet and your home.

We buy things that inspire us and often that is associated with the psychology of color (more on that later), so why not use this personal color inspiration as a tool to choose your branding colors?

Start by looking at your closet and making a list of the top five colors you see most prominent.

Then repeat the process, by walking around your home.

Do you see an overlap in the specific colors, tone of color or color palette you tend to gravitate towards? This is where you should start when thinking of your branding colors.

2. Brand Color Tip #2: Identify Your Brand Emotions (Emotional Branding)

Just like with all things branding, after you’ve connected with the purpose and story behind your brand (aka you), it’s time to think of your audience.

We never want to create a brand that only takes our taste or style into consideration and we never want to create a brand solely for others that doesn’t connect deeply to ourselves.

So, after you’ve identified the colors you enjoy most, it’s important to think of how you want your audience to feel.

This is referred to as Emotional Branding and is something I teach my clients in my signature programs. You can learn more about Emotional Branding and the process here.

When thinking of your brand colors, you need to know your ideal client very well, the reason for this is if you don’t understand their pain and pleasure points you won’t be able to use the power of psychology to choose your colors.

For instance, if I know my ideal client is feeling overwhelmed, is highly-stressed and struggles with time management, I won’t choose a color that tends to elicit a feeling of anger.

On the flip side, if I know my client is driving to feel pleasure in her home and her health and loves the eco-lifestyle, then I would choose a color like green, which gives a feeling or serenity and organic.

In order to choose the right colors based on psychology, you need to know your audience and use that information to decide how you want your audience to feel when coming in contact with your brand.

So, before moving on to step three, it’s important to identify 5-7 brand emotions to relay to your audience.

If you need support with understanding market research and why it’s important, be sure to catch my Free masterclass on The Build a Better Brand Method. Sign up here.

3. Brand Color Tips #3: Choosing Your Brand Colors Based on Psychology

Ok, no the REALLY fun part and the part I seriously geek out on. This is why emotional branding is so important, because everything that relates to the aesthetics of your brand: colors, fonts, logo design, website layout, brand photos, etc… can be built on the fundamentals of psychology.

To overview here are the basic emotions associated with each of the main colors:

RED: Dynamic, powerful, love, strength, passion, excitement, anger

ORANGE: Energy, vibrant, fun, playful, friendly, warm, inviting

YELLOW: Bright, happy, cheerful, positive, spontaneous, warm

PINK: Pretty, feminine, soft, playful, sweet, sincerity, gentle, romance

GREEN: Fresh, balance, earthy, calming, envy, organic, healing, wealth

BLUE: Masculine, dependable, corporate, tranquil, calming, peaceful

PURPLE: Creativity, authority, sophisticated, abundance, spiritual, vibrant

GRAY: Calming, sleek, natural, modern, conservative, neutral

BLACK: Power, elegance, formal, bold, classic, dramatic, expensive, fear, boldness

I’ve even created a fun image you can Pin or save for future reference (see below).

PIN THIS

I recommend choosing three brand colors as your main colors and explore complimentary colors to play around with on social media.

Conclusion

Choosing your brand colors can be simple when you follow this 3-step process.

If you go into choosing your brand colors blindly you’ll feel overwhelmed and waste a lot of time trying to decide what “looks good” rather than choosing colors that will make a bigger impact.

It’s a very similar process to choosing your fonts for your brand.

At the core of branding, you must remember it’s really not about the aesthetics or look of your brand.

Seth Godin defines branding as, “...the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

And of course choosing your brand colors plays a role in that, but it isn’t the only piece.

If you’re ready to create a strong foundation for your business and create a brand that truly stands out on social media and builds a community of true fans, then be sure to watch my free training on The Build a Better Brand Method. I’m sharing my 3-step method to create an authentic and revenue-generating brand. Sign up here.

Tell me in the comments, what is your favorite tip from above?

Branding and Business Coach | Michelle Knight of Brandmerry

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.