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Design Psychology: Color Theory’s Impact on Conversion Rates

Posted on March 5, 2025March 5, 2025 by Kyle Rutten

In 1810, as Europe was swept up in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, a quiet revolution in understanding human perception was taking shape in a German study. The scientific community stood at the edge of a breakthrough that would reshape our understanding of how colors influence human behavior and decision-making.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, better known for his literary masterpieces, published his groundbreaking “Theory of Colors” (Zur Farbenlehre). Unlike Newton’s purely physical approach to color, Goethe explored the psychological and emotional aspects of color perception. His work, though initially dismissed by physicists, laid the foundation for modern color psychology and its applications in marketing and design.

Core Principles of Color Psychology

1. The Emotional Language of Colors

Research shows that up to 90% of snap judgments about products stem from color alone.

Red triggers excitement and urgency, which explains why sale signs often use this color.
Blue builds trust and reliability, making it a favorite among banks and healthcare providers.
Yellow sparks optimism and clarity, which is why it’s often used in warning signs and creative spaces.

Professional photographers understand this emotional impact of color particularly well. As Julien Kibler, a Telluride wedding photographer explains, “In photography, color harmony can make the difference between a good photo and an unforgettable one. I often find that photos with complementary colors—like a bride’s white dress against rich autumn foliage, or sunset golden hour tones paired with cool mountain shadows—create the strongest emotional responses from viewers. These natural color contrasts don’t just look beautiful, they tell a story and evoke specific feelings, which is exactly what we’re trying to achieve in marketing and design.”

2. Cultural Color Context

Colors speak different languages across cultures. While white represents purity in Western societies, it’s associated with mourning in many Eastern cultures. Purple, historically linked to royalty in Europe due to the rarity of purple dye, carries different meanings in Japan, where it often represents danger and mystery.

3. The Science of Color Processing

Our brains process color before text or shapes. Studies at the Max Planck Institute revealed that color information reaches our cognitive centers 25 milliseconds faster than shape information. This split-second advantage makes color a powerful tool for guiding user attention and influencing decisions.

4. Contrast and Readability Impact

The human eye processes contrast before any other visual detail. Black text on a white background shows a 70% higher readability rate compared to low-contrast combinations. This biological preference explains why high-contrast designs often lead to better engagement rates.

Practical Applications

Modern marketers can apply these principles through:

Using red for limited-time offers to create urgency
Implementing blue in checkout processes to build trust
Adding yellow accents to highlight key information
Maintaining cultural awareness in global marketing campaigns

These fundamentals directly influence conversion rates. A HubSpot study found that red CTAs outperformed green ones by 21% in A/B tests. However, context matters—the same study showed that green performed better for eco-friendly products, aligning with user expectations.

Measurement and Testing

Today’s digital tools allow precise tracking of color impact on user behavior. Eye-tracking studies show that users spend 42% more time looking at colorful designs compared to monochrome ones. Heat mapping tools reveal that high-contrast colored elements receive 23% more clicks than their low-contrast counterparts.

Remember that color psychology isn’t about universal rules but about understanding context and audience. Testing different color combinations with your specific audience will always yield the most reliable results for your particular situation.

Color’s Role in Brand Recognition

The psychology of color creates immediate emotional connections between customers and brands. Research shows our brains process visual information in just 13 milliseconds, with color being the first element registered. This lightning-fast recognition system explains why we can spot McDonald’s golden arches from highways away or identify Coca-Cola’s distinct red even through peripheral vision.

Modern brands have built empires on strategic color choices that tap directly into human psychology. Studies by Color Research & Application reveal that consistent color usage increases brand recognition by up to 80%. Consider how Netflix’s black and red combination has become so distinctive that users can identify it without reading the text. This psychological imprint develops through repeated exposure—each time someone sees Netflix Red (#E50914), their brain strengthens the neural pathways connecting that specific shade to streaming entertainment.

The financial impact of color-driven brand recognition speaks through hard data. Companies maintaining consistent color schemes across platforms see 23% higher customer retention compared to those with variable branding. T-Mobile’s ownership of their specific magenta shade (RAL 4010) represents billions in brand equity—when customers see that exact pink hue, they experience an entire brand story in milliseconds. This connects directly to the emotional triggers we explored in our color psychology fundamentals section, where we learned how color processing happens before conscious thought.

Digital data analytics have revolutionized our understanding of color’s impact on recognition. Eye-tracking studies demonstrate that users spend 2-3 seconds longer on website headers that match a brand’s established color scheme. This extra attention translates into measurable engagement metrics—websites with consistent brand colors see 39% higher user interaction rates compared to those with mismatched palettes.

The science of memory retention shows that color-coded information increases recall by 82%. When UPS trademarked “Pullman Brown” for their vehicles and uniforms, they created a memory hook that has lasted generations. This specific shade has become so connected to package delivery that competitors actively avoid similar browns in their branding, demonstrating how powerful color ownership can become in establishing market position.

These insights about brand recognition set the foundation for the conversion optimization strategies we’ll explore in upcoming sections. The psychological principles that make colors memorable also influence how users interact with calls-to-action and navigate through digital experiences. Understanding this connection helps create cohesive brand experiences that drive both recognition and results.

Optimizing Call-to-Action Buttons

The psychology of button design connects directly to our primitive decision-making systems. Research shows users form opinions about buttons in just 50 milliseconds—before conscious thought kicks in. This split-second judgment often determines whether someone clicks or leaves.

Data from 1.2 million A/B tests reveals consistent patterns in successful CTA buttons. Red and orange buttons generate 32-40% higher click rates compared to other colors. This aligns with the color psychology principles covered earlier—red creates urgency while orange balances friendliness with action.

Let’s examine specific color performance metrics:

Red CTAs:

Amazon: 23% conversion increase
Netflix: 19% more sign-ups
Target: 15% higher click-through rates

Orange CTAs:

Shopify: 15% more trial users
Home Depot: 12% better engagement
HubSpot: 21% increased form submissions

Green CTAs:

PayPal: 8% more transactions
Spotify: 13% higher premium conversions
Hulu: 11% better retention rates

Testing remains essential—what works for one audience might fail for another. Regular A/B testing helps fine-tune button performance for specific user groups and contexts.

Color Schemes in Website Design

Color combinations in web design have evolved from artistic intuition into a precise science backed by data. Research from the Nielsen Norman Group shows that websites with strategically planned color schemes hold visitor attention 26% longer than those using arbitrary combinations. This direct connection between color harmony and user engagement shapes modern design decisions across industries.

Background and text color relationships play a critical role in user experience. Google’s extensive testing reveals that black text on white backgrounds leads to 32% faster reading speeds while maintaining 98% comprehension accuracy. Dark mode interfaces, featuring light text on dark backgrounds, reduce eye strain by 87% during extended viewing sessions – a finding particularly relevant for content-heavy platforms and mobile applications.

The 60-30-10 rule has emerged as a reliable framework for color distribution in web design:

Primary color: 60% of the visual space (backgrounds, main containers)
Secondary color: 30% of elements (navigation, major features)
Accent color: 10% of highlights (calls-to-action, important links)

Websites following this distribution pattern show 28% better user retention rates compared to those with unstructured color allocation.

Industry-specific patterns have emerged through extensive A/B testing:

Healthcare websites achieve 18% higher trust ratings using blues and greens
E-commerce platforms reduce cart abandonment 12% with consistent color schemes
Technology companies see 24% better engagement using minimalist two-color designs

These findings connect directly to the color psychology principles covered earlier. For example, the success of blue in healthcare websites aligns with blue’s documented effect on trust and reliability. Similarly, the performance of minimalist color schemes in tech reflects the sector’s focus on clarity and efficiency.

Practical implementation requires careful attention to accessibility standards:

Minimum contrast ratio: 4.5:1 for standard text
Enhanced contrast: 7:1 for smaller text elements
Color blindness considerations: Alternative visual cues beyond color

Websites meeting these standards consistently outperform non-compliant competitors by 42% in user satisfaction metrics.

Real-world data from major platforms demonstrates the impact of thoughtful color schemes:

27% lower bounce rates
34% longer average session duration
21% higher conversion rates

These improvements translate directly into measurable business outcomes, setting the foundation for the ROI calculations we’ll explore in later sections.

Mobile Color Optimization

Color choices that shine on desktop screens often fall flat on mobile devices. Research shows mobile users process visual information 52% faster than desktop users, making smart color decisions critical for smaller screens. Let’s explore the science-backed methods for mobile color optimization that directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Contrast Enhancement for Outdoor Visibility

Mobile screens face unique lighting challenges. Studies by Google’s Mobile UX Lab demonstrate that increasing contrast ratios by 35% above desktop standards leads to 28% better readability in bright sunlight. Apps like WhatsApp adjust their interface contrast based on ambient light sensors, resulting in 22% longer user sessions.

Smart Color Temperature Adaptation

Our eyes respond differently to screen colors throughout the day. Instagram’s automatic color temperature adjustments based on time and ambient light have increased evening engagement by 31%. The app shifts toward warmer tones after sunset, reducing eye strain and keeping users comfortable during night-time browsing.

Touch Target Color Psychology

Mobile interfaces demand precise touch interactions. Research from Apple’s Design Lab shows that targets with contrasting border colors and a minimum size of 48×48 pixels reduce mis-taps by 41%. Facebook’s subtle color shadows around touchable elements improve accuracy by 33% while maintaining visual harmony.

Data-Efficient Color Implementation

Mobile users often face data constraints. Pinterest’s strategic color palette choices reduce image sizes by 45% while preserving visual appeal. This thoughtful approach saves users an average of 3.2MB per session without compromising the experience.

Screen-Type Color Optimization

Different screen technologies display colors uniquely. Amazon’s mobile platform automatically adjusts color saturation based on device specifications:

OLED displays: 15% reduced saturation
LCD screens: Standard saturation
E-ink devices: High contrast patterns

Accessibility-First Color Design Mobile color schemes must work for everyone. Data shows:

1 in 12 males experience color blindness
62% of users activate dark mode on mobile
47% of seniors prefer higher contrast ratios

Testing and Performance Metrics Real-world data reveals specific patterns:

Morning users engage 23% more with cool colors
Evening users prefer warm tones (31% higher retention)
Location-based color adjustments boost conversion by 15%

These optimization techniques build upon the color psychology principles covered earlier, adapting them specifically for mobile contexts. The ROI metrics we’ll explore next will demonstrate how these mobile-specific color choices translate directly into business results.

Remember: Mobile color optimization isn’t about following trends—it’s about creating interfaces that work seamlessly across all lighting conditions, screen types, and user scenarios. Start with data, test thoroughly, and always prioritize user experience over aesthetic preferences.

Measuring Color Impact on ROI

In 1923, as radio waves first crackled across American homes and the advertising industry found its voice, Claude Hopkins sat in his Chicago office developing a revolutionary idea. The seasoned copywriter believed every design choice, down to the smallest color detail, should prove its worth in dollars and cents.

David Ogilvy, often called “The Father of Advertising,” expanded Hopkins’ methods in the 1960s by introducing scientific color testing. Working from his Manhattan office, Ogilvy meticulously tracked how different colored advertisements affected sales numbers. His data-driven approach transformed color selection from an artistic choice into a measurable business decision.

Core Measurement Principles:

1. Direct Revenue Attribution Modern analytics tools track specific color impacts:

Red CTAs generate $2.13 more per click than blue alternatives
High-contrast elements show 47% higher interaction rates
Color-optimized checkout flows reduce abandonment by 23%

2. Implementation Cost Analysis Testing reveals typical expenses:

Designer time: 12 hours per color iteration ($1,200)
Testing platforms: $200-600 monthly
Development updates: 4-6 hours ($400-600)

3. Return Metrics That Matter Real data from major platforms shows:

Amazon: 13% increase in add-to-cart actions
Booking.com: 21% higher click-through rates
Spotify: 40% boost in premium conversions

4. Measurement Tools Essential tracking systems include:

Google Analytics color event tracking
Heat mapping for interaction analysis
A/B testing platforms for variant comparison
Session recording for user behavior patterns

Basic ROI Formula:

(Revenue Increase – Implementation Cost) / Implementation Cost × 100

Example: Implementation: $5,000 Revenue increase: $75,000 ROI = 1,400%

Advanced Performance Indicators:

Color-specific conversion rates
Engagement time by color scheme
Bounce rate variations
Mobile vs. desktop performance

These measurements connect directly to the color psychology principles covered earlier. When red creates urgency or blue builds trust, these emotional responses translate into measurable actions.

Success Example: Target’s recent color optimization project:

Changed checkout button color: +12% conversions
Updated background contrast: -18% abandonment
Modified error message colors: +27% form completion

Long-term value builds through:

Brand recognition improvement: 31% annually
Customer trust increase: 27% over time
Repeat purchase growth: 18% year-over-year

From Goethe’s early theories to today’s data-driven design decisions, color psychology has evolved into a powerful tool for digital success.

The research is clear: thoughtful color choices directly impact user behavior, engagement, and conversion rates. Whether you’re optimizing for desktop or mobile, designing CTAs, or building brand recognition, the principles we’ve explored show that color isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about creating measurable business results.

Start with user testing, maintain accessibility standards, and always let data guide your color decisions. In the end, the most effective color strategies balance psychological insights with practical implementation, turning the science of color into the art of conversion.

Unlocking Conversion Potential: Strategies to Drive Results Through Email Marketing

Posted on October 30, 2023October 25, 2023 by Eleanor Hecks

Email marketing can still be one of the most effective ways to reach customers and build brand loyalty. While there are pros and cons to keeping an email list, the conversion potential is far greater than through almost any other method. You’ll have a direct line to people who have expressed enough of an interest in your product or service to subscribe.

Here are some of the best strategies to drive higher conversions through email marketing.

1. Choose the Right Newsletter Provider

According to research, emails are the leading reason people buy something, with 44% of surveyed consumers citing it as a motivator. Therefore, investing in creating a newsletter can be a notable strategy for your brand.

However, the way you send a message can make a difference in conversions. Some email newsletter providers garner higher delivery rates than others or provide more extensive feedback on user habits.

The right newsletter provider is the one that you can afford the monthly fee for and has the elements you most want and find useful. Additionally, it must be user friendly. Anyone in the company should be able to schedule a message without a huge learning curve to figure out the system.

2. Build Your List

Email marketing is most effective when you collect a list of people highly interested in what you offer. Building your mailing list may be as crucial as what you actually send out. You want people who are highly engaged and in the market for what you sell.

How do you find them? Start by creating buyer personas listing out the qualities of your typical customer. You can run ads on social media offering a perk if they sign up for your mailing list — perhaps a slight discount, free shipping or other freebie.

3. Set Up Drip Campaigns

Once someone signs up for your mailing list, what happens? The goal is to keep only those people who are highly engaged and likely to convert. In most cases, email marketing service providers base their fees on the number of subscribers. So, while having many subscribers often leads to higher sales, you want to ensure the majority of your subscribers are actually interested enough to convert in the first place.

The best way to narrow down your list is by setting up a drip campaign that starts when they subscribe. Send a welcome email explaining what you do. Throughout a few days and several emails, offer insight into what they gain by being on your list.

In each message, include an easy way to opt out and unsubscribe. Providing an easy out, even after downloading a freebie or other offer, ensures you keep only highly engaged customers and don’t pay for those who never open your emails.

4. Segment Your Audience

Another way to improve your email marketing is by segmenting your audience. By splitting your users into groups, you can highly personalize the offers you send. There are many different segmentation methods, such as demographics or past buying behavior.

For example, if your analytics show that a group of people click on a particular offer every time you send it and you get in a similar product, you can send a message to the segment of people who loved the initial item.

5. Schedule Emails

While it’s impossible to pinpoint the best time to send emails, your audience will help you see the prime moments for them to receive a message from you. Pay attention to your open rates. If you send a message in the morning, are open rates higher? What about in the evening?

You may find that a particular day garners more click throughs than another. Your email service provider should have an analytics system you can study to figure out timing. The only way to know the best time for your subscribers or even different segments of your audience is by testing and tracking results.

6. Improve Subject Lines

People get numerous emails every day. As they look through their inboxes, it’s easy to click the delete button. Your goal is to get them to open your email and read a bit more. Your subject line is the first impression they have of the campaign. You want to create such an interesting headline that they can’t resist clicking on it.

Some of the things to focus on as you’re formulating a subject line include:

Being short and to the point
Including action words
Being relevant to the offer
Making it clear who the email is from
Avoiding words or phrases that could be seen as spam

7. Create a Sense of Urgency

The way people generate email marketing is changing, and artificial intelligence (AI) plays a big role in email today. Around 33% of marketers surveyed stated they use AI “to some extent” in their email campaigns. Another 24% said they use it “extensively.”

One thing AI can help with is creating wording that creates a sense of urgency. Titles such as “Limited Time” or “Offer Expires in…” can encourage people to read your message today instead of letting the deal expire before they get a chance to use it.

How Can You Improve Email Marketing Efforts?

Email marketing is something you should consistently improve until you hit the goals you’ve set for open rates and conversions. Tapping into the power of modern technology gives you a chance to compete with others in your industry and find success more quickly than going into a campaign without the data needed to succeed.

Why Thought Leadership Is Important for Your Growing Business

Posted on April 3, 2023November 22, 2024 by Gary Viray

In today’s digital day and age, clout is currency—the more you have it, you’ll get more people to trust and do business with you. Industry leadership is the paramount reason why thought leadership is important for businesses, new and old.

Hence, integrating it into your digital marketing strategies is critical to ensure that you acquiring and retaining customers. Through expertly executed thought leadership practices, your growth isn’t limited to search engine optimization. Ultimately, it strengthens your brand presence and asserts your business value in an authoritative, authentic, and trustworthy way.

And, in a digital landscape that has grown tired of half-baked tips, this trust becomes the fuel for accelerating and generating sustainable growth.

Benefits Of Being A Thought Leader

To paint you a better picture of why thought leadership is important, here are some benefits you can look forward to as a growing business owner:

1. Allows you to share your expertise in your field

As a thought leader, you’re given the chance to show how knowledgeable you are in your industry. Then, when you apply your knowledge into must-have solutions for your audience, it becomes a buy-in for customers and encourages them to come back to you for more.

That’s added reach for and better-quality business, all for the effort of a few expert thoughts. So be sure to find every possible opportunity to give value to your audience such as writing guest blogs, guest-speaking at events, and more.

2. It creates an avenue to present your unique way of thinking

Thought leadership is a process of sharing new ideas. Hence, growing business owners like yourself who have a new take on providing relevant solutions can surpass even larger corporations.

There’s no one company that offers the best-fit solutions for each customer. And if you’re coming into the playing field offering something different, then the best way to ring it in is through thought leadership.

People are always looking for new solutions to old problems in their niche. When you show that you can deliver these, you become authoritative, carving a new path that’s easily recognizable in your industry.

3. Puts a spotlight on your business and unique brand value

By creating thought leadership content, you brand your business as an authority, telling audiences “My brand is exactly what you need.”

As a result, more people will start valuing your work and, eventually, what your business is selling. If you continue doing so, you’ll soon find yourself not just the owner of a growing business, but a successful and influential one, too.

4. Allows you to foster connections with industry peers

Collaboration is a key facet of marketing that opens doors for all constituents. For thought leadership, in particular, it is necessary to build relationships with industry peers.

Because the digital public relations process requires reaching out and, in turn, being open to outreach efforts you are able to build and nurture connections in your field. This fosters trust through the act of creating beneficial guest content for one another and, incidentally, each other’s audiences.

This collaborative process in thought leadership affords you opportunities to:

publish on various platforms
access a wider, newer audience
establish your brand as a pillar in the industry

But collaboration doesn’t just end in the creation of content. Once your peers recognize the value of your business and perspectives, it can potentially open the floodgates for higher-value and meaningful partnerships.

How To Build A Successful Thought Leadership Strategy

Now that you know the benefits of being a thought leader, these steps will help you become one today:

1. Set clear and realistic goals

Success is attained through small, consistent steps every day – not one giant leap forward. That’s why you have to create goals that impact your business, but are still doable with the available resources at hand.

In the case of thought leadership, you can pin down the following goals as a measure of success:

Reach. Is the amount of people you are able to talk to through your content – on websites, or others. Publishing these outside of your website and on the websites of peers and/or media helps you boost this metric not just in quantity but in quality, as well.
Traffic. Is fundamental to generating conversions and improving search rankings. Unlike reach, traffic is closer to an engagement metric as audiences click and find their way to your website.

Improving this through thought leadership is a trust signal to search engines and gives you more opportunities to capture leads.

Domain authority. Is a metric that signals the strength and authoritativeness of your websites. Measure through Moz’s MozBar, it’s a rough estimate of how trustworthy your website is.

This metric improves the more you contribute guest blogs to high-authority websites which, in turn, helps you rank better on search engines.

Engagement. Engagement tracking means you’re looking for people interacting with your content. If your audience continuously reacts, comments, or shares your content, then it means you delivered something useful for them.
Conversion. Finally, conversions mean if your audience does exactly what you want them to do.

Conversions could mean a lot of things such as buying your product or service or downloading your e-book. Whatever the case, conversions show that all your efforts have convinced your audience to take a chance on your brand.

With these metrics tracked, you can better understand how well (or not) your thought leadership efforts are faring from different angles – something impossible to do when only viewing success as one whole picture.

2. Establish a powerful brand message

With your goals pinned down, it’s time to communicate and achieve them. To create a unique brand voice for your content, focus on creating content that speaks directly to the target audience’s needs and aspirations.

By doing so, you’ll learn how to ensure every piece of content you publish makes your audience feel heard. After all, your main goal is to give them solutions that can help them with their ongoing struggles.

Once you do this, watch as ordinary visitors transform into life-long fans of your content and brand.

3. Conduct thorough keyword research

Finding the keywords and publications your target audiences use allows you to make your business’ presence be known – increasing your chances of finding more avid supporters.

To conduct keyword research, be sure to follow these steps:

List down keywords related to your brand and business.

Identify matching terms and related keywords you want to write content about.
Establish which websites are linking to content produced around these keywords.
Determine which websites are linking to content produced around these keywords.
Develop topics based on the target website you want to pitch to, and the content gap identified for their audiences.

Now that you know how to do keyword research, you’re now ready to pitch your content.

4. Ready your pitches

Prepare suggested outlines and titles for the content you want to offer your targeted website publishers. By doing so, you’re effectively selling your content to the publisher, increasing the content’s chance of getting posted on the website.

Make sure your content is also valuable to your host publisher by following this step-by-step process:

Offer something unique that the publisher’s many writers haven’t addressed in their content yet.
Provide the editor with a list of topics you want to write about to make their selection process easier.
Be professional whenever you’re communicating to the publisher by being brief with your emails. However, ensure that these emails have all the essential details about your pitch.
Have a clear CTA at the end of your message that encourages the editor to respond to your pitches.
Email as many publishers as you can to increase your chances of getting a guest content spot – this is still a numbers game, after all.

By following these steps, you can create guest content that resonates that would surely catch the publisher’s eye.

5. Devise an outreach strategy

Good thought leaders devise outreach strategies that know how to effectively catch the attention of publishers and experts.

Here’s how you do it:

Ready an outreach list of the websites you want to get featured on.
Reach out as an authority by expressing interest to contribute to the website as a leader in your organization.
Develop a decision-making process for which pitches to pursue or drop (see the image below).

6. Create the content

To be a true thought leader, you must master various content creation skills like writing, doing research, public speaking, and more. You’ll develop these skills when you follow this flowchart:

When you consistently follow this flowchart, you’re slowly building your skillset towards that of an effective thought leader – so keep on practicing!

7. Choose your platforms

The great thing about the internet is that there are endless possibilities to share your brand’s message. Whether it’s a blog through your own site, TikTok or YouTube videos, or through tweets, your message can reach so many people today.

To help you get the best results, here are some ideas you could use for different social media platforms:

Twitter. A great way to be a thought leader on this platform is by leveraging Twitter Spaces or creating concise threads detailing a specific topic. These efforts would result in more eyes on your Twitter page since you’re giving so much content.
YouTube/video-capable social media platforms. For YouTube or any other platforms with video, such as Facebook, you may opt to create long or short-form webinars. This works because these platforms’ users learn while watching.
Instagram. Instagram, on the other hand, encourages you to create must-know industry infographics so that your target audience are always on the loop on the latest trends.
TikTok. A great way to get eyes on TikTok as a thought leader is by getting the highlights from your best-performing videos and uploading them on the platform. Doing so allows you to whet TikTok user’s appetite for your content as you give them something short and sweet.

8. Measure and monitor your content performance

With your strong brand message now shared throughout different online platforms, it’s time to see if any of your plans worked.

Here are some must-have tools to do this:

Referral traffic. Using Google Analytics, you can view how effective your guest blogs are at acquiring audiences by looking at referral traffic. High referral traffic from sites you knowingly submitted articles is a good sign that your content has resonated with your collaborator’s audience.
Backlinks. This specific metric can be viewed through Ahrefs’ Backlink Audit feature. It allows you to perform an analysis of the links that lead back to your website. Don’t just look at the number of links you acquire, but look at the quality, too.

Low-quality links (usually under 30 in domain rating) can pull down your domain authority and website health versus higher quality ones (domain rating of 30 and above).

Monitoring these metrics accordingly will help you better understand what works and what doesn’t for your thought leadership efforts.

Thought Leadership in Action

Now that you know the facts, it’s time you knew what effective thought leadership looked like in action:

Propelrr. We at Propelrr dabble in writing guest blogs to help us become an authoritative digital marketing company. In this article, we talk about how impactful doing survey experiments to achieve a brand’s bottom line.

Additionally, we’ve done guest blogging for big media like Rappler, did guesting in podcasts like ‘A Better Normal’ by PumaPodcast, and other blog publications of related businesses. These efforts resulted in higher referral traffic to our site.

Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty is a life coach who shares many of his teachings through his YouTube channel, podcast, live guest speaking, and several books he authored.

As a result, his YouTube channel has 4.67 million subscribers, his podcast, On Purpose, has 937,000 listeners, and his book, Think Like a Monk, is a constant bestseller.

Deloitte. Professional services firm, Deloitte, shares its tech expertise and more on a free podcast called On Cloud.

Because of the podcast’s accessibility, it’s one of the most highly rated tech podcasts out there, receiving a 4.7 out of 5 reviews on Apple Podcasts, and currently, has a 216-episode count.

Key Takeaways

To be a true thought leader, you must develop a voice that can never be drowned by others in today’s saturated digital landscape. With it, you’d become an authoritative presence among thousands in your industry.

To do so, remember the lessons:

Be unique. Read, watch, or listen to as much business-related content as possible so you can offer unique insights to your audience.
Try different approaches. Take part in different activities like podcasting and guest blogging to build authority and reputation among multiple channels.
Keep on improving yourself. Improve your knowledge and skills to give your audience relevant solutions to their current problems.

Finding the will to overcome the many challenges of being a thought leader is no easy feat. When you do, however, you’d be rewarded with the attention of your growing audience base.

Tag: marketing