Connecting the Dots Between Psychology and Font Selection

psychology font selection

It takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online visitor to form a first opinion about your website and your brand. The psychological reason that an impression is communicated so quickly is that good design has a mood and a personality. Subsequently, fonts, as part of your design, express them with non-verbal cues. This is where you can benefit from the application of psychology to your website font selection. 

So let’s play a game.

Of the fonts above, which is better for a fitness class, for a board game, and for makeup?

Ten to one odds you chose C, A, then B.

But why?

They just FELT right, didn’t they?

Fonts also have their own unique personalities, as different fonts have been designed for different purposes. But how do you know which font is right for your own brand? Something conventional? Bold? Quirky? Your font choices will undoubtedly influence your audience’s expectations, so making the right choice is crucial.

Let’s take a look at how typefaces hack our brains and how you can hack its code, influence more people, and take your brand to new heights.

 

INTERSECTION OF PURPOSE & PERSONALITY

In the intersecting worlds of marketing and design, the first thing to know is that there’s purpose behind each font style. Interestingly enough, they intersect to the degree that each has their own personality. A study conducted in 2006 at Wichita State University looked at the personality traits people associated with different fonts. They asked participants to rate the personality of 20 fonts using 15 adjectives.

The results? More basic fonts, such as Arial and Courier New, were considered “stable” and “mature” as well as “unimaginative” and “conformist.” In contrast, other fonts like Kirsten and Comic Sans were considered “happy,” “youthful,” and “casual.”

Here are the top three fonts for each descriptive word:

 

THE RIGHT FONT IS VITAL TO YOUR BRAND

See how vital the right font is to your brand’s overall message and success?

Go back and look at the traits given to the fonts in the chart. Notice something? Every trait is an adjective that describes stimuli outside of the font world. THAT’S THE KEY! Fonts share visual characteristics from the real world. You can harness that key and employ the psychology in font selection.

What’s the first lesson in choosing a font for your brand? If you want to choose an appropriate font, choose a font that visually resembles your context.

 

NARROWING IT DOWN: THE SIX MAJOR FONT FAMILIES

Though the list of fonts may seem endless, there are actually only six main font categories, each having a distinct personality of their own:

  • Serif
  • Sans Serif
  • Decorative
  • Headline
  • Handwritten
  • Modern

All fonts fall under the umbrella of one of these six, so choosing the right one for your brand isn’t as complex as you might think. First, identify which of the six styles fits your brand or company best, then choose a typeface within that family for the perfect fit.

 

Font Families 1&2: Serif and Sans Serif

Serifs are those little embellishments that make fonts feel a little more traditional and respectable. Here’s a dictionary definition of “serif”: a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter in certain typefaces. In the “D” of DejaVu, below, notice the little projections, top and bottom, on the left side of the letter. Those are serifs. The capital “V” in the same word has two little bars that cap the top extremities of the “V.” Those flourishes are serifs. Designers of lengthy documents, such as books, generally favor serif types because they are believed to aid in readability.

Meanwhile, Sans Serif fonts, defined by their lack of serif embellishments, are generally more minimalist and straightforward.

 

Font Type 3: Decorative

Decorative fonts tend to be quirky, creative, and fun! These are used to add flair to a design and to evoke a specific mood or vibe.

 

 

Font Type 4: Headline

Headline fonts are meant to grab your attention. They are weighty, bold, and dramatic. And ideal for, of course, headers.

 

 

Font Type 5: Handwritten

Handwritten fonts are pretty self-explanatory. They’re fonts that look like they’re written by hand, which gives a personal, fancy touch.

 

 

Font Type 6: Modern

Modern fonts look clean and straight, with sleek, efficient lines that give the impression of forward thinking.

 

Furthermore, whether or not we realize it, design plays a huge role in how we perceive the value of a product. From books, to snacks, to beauty products, and even groceries, the power is often in the packaging.

Okay, as a result, we see fonts definitely play a role in what we buy and what brands we tend to favor. But surely there are some areas that are off limits to typographical brain hacking… right? Wrong!

 

LIGHTS, CAMERA, FONT SELECTION:

What Netflix Teaches Us About Fonts

For that reason, you will notice that even Netflix has a firm understanding of a font’s power and its ability steer people along a certain trajectory. Whether we realize it or not, one of Netflix’s main tools to grab our attention is its choice of fonts. Just take a look through Netflix’s menu and you’ll see dozens of different fonts, each one designed to give you a specific feel that’s consistent with the branding of that particular show or movie.

 With that said, the next time you’re browsing Netflix’s selection, take a few minutes to examine the fonts used for each option—it might help you find your next favorite show!

 

FROM “NETFLIX AND CHILL” TO KEEPING IT REAL:

How to pick the best fonts for your marketing designs

Though there are only six main font families, there are still a ton of fonts to choose from. It can be difficult to know where to start when picking your own. Just remember the mnemonic TAPET, and you’ll be sure to hit a home run with whatever selection you choose: Target Audience (TA), Pairing (P), Emotions (E), and Trends (T).

 

Psychology, fonts, and your Target Audience

Whenever you create content for your brand, it’s important to consider who the content is for. Think about the solutions your audience desires. In addition, consider their expectations. Then conclude, what might they be looking for from a company, service, or product like yours?

For example, would it make sense for an insurance company to use a quirky decorative font? Probably not.

Instead, people will be expecting more standard, classic fonts that convey a sense of efficiency and trustworthiness. 

PAIRING

When landing on a font pairing, always pair a decorative header font with a nice, easy-to-read body font. The header should grab your audience’s attention while your body text should be easy to read.

EMOTIONS

Furthermore, it is wise to consider what emotion you want your design to evoke. Fonts have a unique and subtle psychological way of eliciting an emotional response from readers. The emotion a font evokes often has to do with the shape of the letters and our associations with those shapes.

Consider this:

If you had to choose which font seems happier, which one would you select?

Option 2, right?

Now choose which of these fonts seems more trustworthy:

Probably, not the playful font used in the first example.

As you can see, your font choice has a surprisingly big impact on how your audience perceives you.

 

Trends in Your Industry

When choosing your font, a good way to start is to look at typography trends. Also, learn how your competitors are designing their branded content. What kind of impressions do they make in logos, ads, and social media content? Then, once you have an idea of what other brands in your industry are doing, you can look for opportunities to stand out from the pack.

 

PUTTING PEN TO PAGE

Font psychology isn’t an exact science, but brand identity begins (or dies) with font selection. Harness what you know about your brand and your consumers in such a powerful way that your selected font becomes your brand’s visual figurehead, launching you into the next hemisphere of success.

In conclusion, when choosing your font, a good way to start is to look at typography trends and how your competitors are designing their branded content. What kind of impression do they make in logos, ads, and social media content? Once you have an idea of what other brands in your industry are doing, you can look for opportunities to stand out from the pack.

The world is your oyster. And with the right font – it’s yours for the taking.

 

Interested in more on this topic of psychology? 

Check out these articles about psychology and marketing.

Facebook Likes or Follows: Which is More Important?

Have you ever noticed that Facebook keeps a count of likes and a count of follows on your business page? Yes? Well, we noticed it too, and so we set out to uncover the difference between the two.

Facebook likes vs. follows

When someone (a personal Faccebook account or another business account) “likes” your business page on Facebook, this means they automatically default to following it as well. When your Facebook business page is followed, whatever you post on your page will be seen by those followers on their personal Facebook feeds. Now here’s the catch. A user who has liked your Facebook business page can choose to “unfollow” the page. But, don’t worry, an “unfollow” is not equivalent to an “unlike.”

Unfollows are not unlikes

Think of it this way: when you “friend” someone on a personal Facebook account, and then get annoyed by their daily lunch updates and unsolicited political views, you can choose to unfollow them while remaining friends with them. Unfollowing them simply means their posts will no longer appear on your personal feed. (What a relief.)

This same concept applies when someone unfollows a Facebook business page. Anyone who has liked your page can choose to unfollow you but will remain “liking” the page. In other words, your page will still register the like, but the account will not see the content that your business posts in their feed.

As one source puts it, “Likes are good but followers are better. Likes increase numbers but followers mean content consumption.”

 

What does this mean for my business?

If your page has far more likes than follows, this means that a significant proportion of your followers have opted out of viewing your posts. That being the case, you should evaluate the content you’re producing to determine the cause for this decline in follows. It’s very easy for someone who’s liked your page to change their following status.

User choices for viewing your business content.

Users, both personal and business Facebook accounts, have a choice as to whether or not they see your content in their feeds and how often they see it. They can choose:

  • to see your posts atop their feed
  • to see your posts in real time as they stream naturally
  • to unfollow you and not see your posts at all.

Accounts who have liked your page also have the option to turn off their notifications for your page altogether, which is of course not what you want. So your awareness of how your “likes” relate to your “follows” can be a tool you can use to your advantage. This awareness allows you to gauge the effectiveness of the content you create. Check your like-to-follow ratio and then make adjustments accordingly.

Social Media Trends For 2019

Eighty-one percent of individuals living in the United States and 40 percent of those around the globe have at least one social profile, a fact that makes business utilization of social media a major factor in marketing strategies. Social media is an invaluable tool for all people with a purpose or message they want to get across to consumers.  Whether you want to gain exposure for your engineering firm, or advertise your side hustle, social media offers an audience you can tap. Social media platforms, meanwhile, are constantly updating and evolving, bringing confusion to many who seek to create or just consume content. But don’t fret! We are here to navigate you through the changing social seas and bring some calm to your social media storms with the latest trends for 2019!

 

Restoring Trust.

Hendrick Health Club has a secret Facebook group for gym members only. This is a very specific audience which makes it feel like a community.

Social Stat: 50% agree that content needs to be personalized.

A recent trend in media has been a sense of distrust. For instance, qualities such as transparency, accuracy, and ethics – qualities that used to be taken for granted by much of the population – have been doubted or questioned by social media consumers. As a result, 60% of users no longer trust social media companies and have reverted back to friends, family, acquaintances, and even traditional journalism outlets to seek out advice, reviews, and product information. Whatever your brand, product or message is, you need to humanize it and keep it transparent. Personalizing your content will make it unique and will provide a compelling experience for the consumer. Keeping things transparent gains trust and leads to quality engagement. So how do you do this? There are a few things you could start with.

  1. Create a hashtag that is branded in alignment with your values
  2. Participate in or run a twitter chat
  3. Create a secret Facebook group around a core audience
  4. Run Q&A’s for commonly asked questions
  5. Encourage active employee advocates

 

Social Storytelling.

Social Stat: 64% of social media marketers have implemented Instagram stories into their social strategy or plan to incorporate them within the next 12 months. That is a pretty good indication of a social media trend.

The stories feature in social media is growing 15x faster than feed sharing and stories are set to surpass feeds within the next year. Because platforms are now tailored to be truly mobile, this allows users to capture in-the-moment experiences that supply the personalization that consumers want to see. Less polished stories, because they come across as more immediate, strike consumers as more realistic and they perform better than some heavily edited and elaborate productions. So, how do you implement stories?

  1. Create story-specific content. (raw unedited, live action)
  2. Use the stories highlight feature
  3. Integrate text, video, and images
  4. Get in early with Facebook stories

 

Organic content for ads.

Promoting your organic posts allows you to target your niche by choosing where to direct your audience, and your budget.

Social Stat: 64% of the Facebook page owners surveyed identify a decline in organic reach and the need to increase paid budgets as big challenges moving forward.

We’re beginning to see more and more competition within paid social, which is forcing marketers to up their game. We are very much in a pay-to-play era of social media and marketers are increasing social advertising budgets left and right. How can you compete?

  1. Pay to boost your best organic content
  2. Understand and target the right audience for you
  3. Define your goals and metrics
  4. Invest in high quality content
  5. Repurpose concepts from top-performing organic content

 

Cracking the Commerce Code.

Social Stat: 28% have implemented social commerce or plan to within the next 12 months.

Instagram’s shoppable posts allow users to go from discovery to checkout without ever leaving the app. Furthermore, the platform has even added a Shopping tab to its Explore page. Facebook’s Marketplace is now used in 70 countries by more than 800 million people, and on Pinterest, 55% of customers are using the site to find and shop for products. Incorporating commerce can a great tool if utilized properly. The consumer doesn’t want to feel as if they are viewing an “as seen on TV” ad, so finding ways to make shopping live, interactive, and seamless is key. So, how do you do this?

  1. Set up shoppable posts on Instagram
  2. Share your product by showing it in action
  3. Promote your products with contests

 

Messaging for improved customer service.

Brands like Nikon utilize live chats to improve customer service experiences.

Social Stat: 46% have implemented messaging apps or are planning to do so within the next 12 months.

Customers have begun to demand better one-on-one social experiences. Messaging is currently the preferred customer service channel for businesses and most consumers prefer to communicate with businesses this way as well. Utilizing messaging apps is more attractive option for entering into high value conversations between a business and a consumer. How do you lend more attention to messaging?

  1. Enable Facebook messages for your Facebook business page
  2. Add plugins to your website that drive customers to messenger apps
  3. Use DM’s or messaging apps to streamline customer service queries on Social Media
  4. Set up bots and or in app assistants for frequently asked questions
  5. Run campaigns that incorporate  messaging apps

These are just some of the more important trends that are changing the face of social media marketing in 2019. Stay tuned to this site for regular content and trend tracking. And good luck to you in your efforts in this new year!

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

cinnamon roll muffin recipe

Have a cinnamon roll muffin with us! Just the thing for a lazy winter weekend. Sleep in, then indulge in a sweet treat. Happy New Year from Jemully Media!

Continue reading