When creating a website for your law firm, one of the last things you probably think about is its colors. This is an important decision, just like the other content on your website. It can affect whether your clients stay on your website and take specific actions. Continue reading to find out why the color choice for your website can make or break its traffic.
Color Psychology
Digital marketers use their knowledge of color psychology when thinking about a website’s color choices. Color psychology studies how colors impact people’s behaviors, emotions, and moods. Whether conscious of it or not, we react in a specific way to specific colors. The colors on your website represent your brand and the message you want to convey to your clients. That is why you want to be strategic about the colors you use.
The Importance of Your Website’s Colors
Your website’s colors and logo affect more than just the overall aesthetic. The colors that you include can help your law firm reach its goals. Certain colors can actually convince your clients to take a specific action. Digital marketers use their knowledge of color psychology and the common reactions to each color to their advantage.
How to Choose Your Website’s Colors
To make the most of your website’s colors, you must share the specific goals that you want to meet with your website. These goals are very important when choosing your website’s colors.
Most law firms use traditional colors of navy blue, gray or even dark green. These colors are considered “standard” and “conservative.” Unfortunately, almost every one of your competitors are using the exact same color palette in their logo, branding, and website. Take the time to consider using colors that are unconventional in the legal industry to remain memorable. Certain legal websites owned by women are embracing hot pink, and other estate planning websites are using more cheerful colors to emphasize life instead of the thought of death.
Consider Your Practice Areas
You can also choose your website’s colors based on your practice areas. Certain colors pair perfectly with your practice areas. If you are a criminal defense attorney, your colors and branding should be different than that of a guardian ad litem attorney. Criminal defense attorneys may want to have bolder and stronger colors (yellow and black), while a guardian ad litem attorney fighting for the rights of children might want to have softer colors (pale pastels).
Applying Your Website’s Colors Correctly
Once you choose your website’s colors, you want to ensure they are correctly applied throughout your website. Applying your colors throughout your website can help with client engagement and highlighting certain sections on your website. You want to ensure that your colors are visually appealing to your clients and bring awareness to your website’s sections. To do this, you may want to take advantage of contrasting colors. Contrasting colors help to improve a user’s readability. They can also help emphasize certain website sections that you want your clients to focus on.
Digital Marketing Next Steps
The colors you choose for your law firm website are important. They can be as important as the content you publish on your web pages and blog. Take the time to see what your competitors are using for colors and branding, and then make an attempt to distinguish yourself from them. Make sure that your colors are memorable and can allow you to easily differentiate your law firm from others online.
Annette Choti, Esq. graduated from law school 20 years ago, and is the Founder of Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency focused on small and solo law firms. Annette wrote the bestselling book Click Magnet: The Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide For Law Firms, and hosts the podcast Legal Marketing Lounge. She is a sought-after keynote and CLE speaker throughout the United States and Canada. Annette used to do theatre and professional comedy, which is not so different from the legal field if we are all being honest. Annette can be found on LinkedIn or at at annette@lawquill.com.
