Your 5-Step Guide to Choosing the Right Colour Palette for Your Website
Have you ever wondered why certain brands grab your attention and leave a lasting impression? As a woman entrepreneur, establishing a strong online presence is especially important for your business success. It helps overcome traditional barriers, provides flexibility for juggling various responsibilities, creates a more level playing field, and increases visibility and representation in your industry.
One of the most powerful tools in branding is colour. It can evoke emotions, create a sense of trust, and help your website stand out from others. But how do you choose the right colours for your Wix website that truly represent your unique brand?
In this blog post, I'll guide you through 5 steps to help you choose the perfect palette for your brand. As a fellow woman entrepreneur, I've tailored this advice specifically for those looking to create a professional and impactful online presence:
Define Your Brand Personality
Understand Colour Psychology
Choose Your Main Brand Colour
Create a Complimentary Colour Palette
Create Your Brand Board (with a Special Free Gift!)
Ready to refresh your brand colours? This guide will equip you with practical knowledge and tools to create a brand colour palette that's not only visually appealing but also truly representative of your business.
Step 1: Define Your Brand Personality
📌 Task: Choose 3 adjectives that best describe your brand personality
Your brand personality is the set of human characteristics, traits, and emotions that you want your brand to communicate to your ideal client. By defining this, you can create a unique and memorable brand identity that connects with your audience and attracts the right-fit people to work with.
Remember, the power of effective branding lies in creating a genuine emotional connection with your ideal client. Your website is often the first point of contact between your business and potential customers. The colours you choose, the images you use, and the overall feel of your site all contribute to how your ideal client feels when they visit. By carefully crafting your brand's visual identity, you're not just designing a website - you're creating an experience that resonates with your audience on an emotional level. This emotional connection is what will set your brand apart and keep clients coming back.
Here are some examples to inspire you, but feel free to use any words that resonate with your brand:
Approachable, warm, genuine
Bold, daring, exciting
Trustworthy, reliable, authoritative
Natural, sustainable, environmentally-conscious
Energetic, fun, vibrant
Elegant, sophisticated, upscale
Compassionate, nurturing, empathetic
Creative, cutting-edge, forward-thinking
Dependable, trustworthy, consistent
Lively, playful, entertaining
These are just examples to spark your creativity. The adjectives you choose should authentically represent your brand and can be any combination that feels right for your business.
By defining your brand personality with three carefully chosen adjectives, you've taken an important first step in creating a distinctive and memorable brand identity. This foundation will guide you as we move forward to explore how colours can effectively represent your business and appeal to your ideal clients.
Step 2: Understand Colour Psychology
📌 Task: Identify the emotions you want your brand to evoke and match them with corresponding colours
Colour psychology plays an important role in expressing your Brand Personality and evoking specific emotions in your audience. Different colours can trigger various feelings and associations, making it a powerful tool for creating the right atmosphere on your Wix website.
Let's explore some common colour associations:
This infographic, saved on my Pinterest board Colour Psychology in Branding, provides a quick overview of how different colours can influence perceptions and emotions.
For example:
Blue often conveys trust, stability, and professionalism - ideal for financial or corporate brands.
Red can evoke excitement, passion, and urgency - great for calls-to-action or brands wanting to stand out.
Green typically represents growth, nature, and health - perfect for eco-friendly or wellness-focused businesses.
Understanding colour psychology is an essential starting point when choosing the right colours for your brand. Remember, this process isn't about selecting your personal favourites. Instead, it's about being intentional with your colour choices to create the right atmosphere and emotional response that aligns with your brand identity.
As you move forward in this guide, refer back to this infographic to help inform your colour decisions and create a cohesive, impactful brand presence on your Wix website.
Keep in mind that colour meanings can also vary based on culture and personal experiences. For example, in Western cultures, white is often associated with purity and innocence, while in some Eastern cultures, it's associated with mourning.
Step 3: Choose Your Main Brand Colour
📌 Task: Choose your main brand colour and document its HEX code.
Selecting your main brand colour is a key step in creating your brand’s visual identity. Here's how to do it effectively:
Reflect on your brand personality and the emotions you want to convey
Consider your target audience and industry norms
Browse Pinterest for inspiration on brand color palettes. Check out my Pinterest board on Brand Colour Palette Inspiration for curated examples
Use colour palette generators to refine your choices. Try Coolors or Adobe Color.
Get the exact HEX code for your chosen colour
Once you've chosen your colour, use this free Canva brand board template to organise it alongside your other brand elements.
💡 Pro Tip: Consistency is key. Always use the exact same HEX code across all platforms to maintain a strong brand identity.
Your main brand colour will be the foundation of your website's palette. Dedicate time to thoughtfully choose it, and feel free to experiment with various options until you discover the ideal fit for your brand.
Step 4: Create Your Complementary Colour Palette
📌 Task: Use a colour palette generator to create a complementary colour schemes
After selecting your main colour, it's time to build a harmonious colour palette that reflects your brand's personality and appeals to your target audience.
Here's how to create a well-rounded palette:
Main Brand Colour: This is your primary colour, used prominently across your website and marketing materials. Ensure consistency by always using the exact HEX code.
Accent Colour: Choose an eye-catching colour that contrasts with your main colour. This is perfect for call-to-action buttons and elements you want to stand out. Use colour theory to select a complementary or contrasting hue. Consider using the colour wheel - your accent colour often works best when it's on the opposite side of the wheel from your main colour. For example, if your main colour is blue, an orange accent (opposite blue on the colour wheel) can create a striking contrast.
Secondary Colours: Add depth to your palette with 1-2 secondary colours. These can be different hues or variations of your main colour. They provide flexibility in your design without overwhelming the primary brand colour.
Neutral Colours: Incorporate neutral shades to balance your palette and create breathing room in your designs. Opt for off-whites, light greys, or muted tones that complement your other colours.
Shades and Tints: Create variations of your main and secondary colours by adjusting their lightness and darkness. This adds versatility to your palette while maintaining cohesion. You can use a tool like Tints and Shades Generator to easily create these variations.
Use the colour palette generators mentioned earlier to refine your choices and create harmonious colour schemes. Remember to test your palette on various devices to ensure readability and visual appeal.
Step 5: Create Your Brand Board (with a Special Free Gift!)
📌 Task: Create your own Brand Board for visual reference
A Brand Board is a visual snapshot of your brand, showcasing all the important elements of your brand's look in one place - including colours, fonts, and logo. Here's why it's so useful:
It keeps everything looking the same across all your materials
It saves you time by having all your brand info in one spot
It helps you show others what your brand looks like
It makes your business look more professional
Creating a brand board is a great way to make your business stand out and be easily recognised.
As a special gift to help you on your branding journey, I've created a free Canva brand board template just for you! This template is designed using Canva, a user-friendly online graphic design tool that allows you to easily customise premade layouts with your own brand elements.
It's my way of supporting your success and making the branding process easier for you. You can access this free template right away and start putting together your brand board. In the coming weekly publications, we'll explore additional steps to help you complete your brand board, including choosing the perfect fonts and imagery for your brand identity.
This practical branding tool will help you organise and document all your brand colours, fonts, and other visual elements in one place. By using this template, you'll ensure consistency across all your marketing materials and website design, saving time and strengthening your brand identity.
How to Use Your Free Canva Brand Board Template:
Click the link provided (access your free Brand Board template here) to access the Canva template
If you don't have a Canva account, sign up for free
Click 'Use template' to create your own copy
Replace the sample logo with your own (if you have one)
Update the colour swatches with your brand colours (use the colour picker tool to input your HEX codes)
Adjust the fonts to match your brand typography
Add any brand imagery or patterns in the designated areas
Customise the text to reflect your brand's personality and values
Once complete, click 'Share' in the top right to download or get a shareable link
Remember, this Brand Board is a living document. As your brand evolves, you can easily update it in Canva to ensure it always reflects your current brand identity.
What's Next?
Your journey doesn't end here! In the upcoming parts of this series, we'll explore:
Selecting fonts that reflect your brand personality
Choosing the perfect logo that captures your brand essence
Finding imagery that resonates with your ideal clients
Be sure to subscribe to Brand On Purpose to receive monthly round-ups of all published content, and stay updated with the latest branding, website design and creative strategy tailored to women entrepreneurs and small business owners.
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