Select Fonts Wisely And Increase Your Advertising Success

As retailers are always driven to increase sales and purchase intentions, they often rely on promotions. Consequently, we are exposed to attractive offers all the time. But how can you make sure that these promotional offers are really effective in increasing advertising success?

Well, if you're a fan of italicized or slanted fonts, you might want to read this. A recent study has demonstrated that even the selected font style has a considerable impact on consumers' purchase decisions. 

Continue reading and find out when we tend to fall for promotional offers!

Boost Your Promotional Results With Dynamic Font Use 

Designers of print and digital messaging frequently select fonts for advertisement and web page content strictly on their personal intuition. How much more effective might they be if they made those decisions guided by knowledge about how viewers’ brains react to particular fonts? 

A February 2020 study published by the Journal of Retailing presented strong evidence that fonts can influence consumers' motivation. When consumers viewed time-limited promotional materials, they were noticeably impacted by the use of specific font styles.

Most effects were observed in the use of dynamic, slanted, or italicized fonts for ad copy messaging. Compared to static, vertical fonts, italicized fonts motivated viewers to click through online ads or make positive purchase decisions.

Studies

One particular experiment offered test subjects two different versions of a proposed advertisement. The constant message presented was that customers would receive a $10 promotional credit for every $50 gift card purchase.

The first ad presentation featured ad text in the common Times Roman font style. The second presentation used the same verbiage, but slanted the font used in a rightward tilt. 

One key element of the presentation was the information that the promotion would end in a short but undetermined time. When asked when they believed the promotion would end, subjects viewing the slanted text expected a much sooner offer expiration date than those who had viewed only traditional vertical text messaging. 

A different experiment featured a limited-time promotion advertisement for an imaginary Mexican themed restaurant which was viewed by 250 test subjects. Similar to the first experiment, the first ad version was again presented in vertical Times Roman font, while another utilized the same font but employing a rightward slant.

Test subjects were polled as to how soon they would likely visit the restaurant after viewing the ad. The subjects viewing the slanted font presentation overwhelmingly reported their intention to visit the business sooner. 

A third experiment investigated whether the effects of slanted fonts would hold in the real world. This time, the researchers presented offers by email to student test subjects. The messages offered 5 dollar gift cards for $4 on a limited time basis which was not specified. Test subjects were instructed to click a live link in the email ad in order to accept the offer.

The messages were sent to different test groups in vertical and slanted font formats. The vast majority of subjects accepting the offer responded to the slanted text message presentations. 

Impacting Perception and Compelling Action Through Dynamic Font Styles

What are the takeaways from this study?

• The use of slanted dynamic text styles seemed to instill a sense of urgency and expiring opportunity to benefit from a promotion. 
• Viewers of slanted text offers responded more quickly to slanted text messages with affirmative actions.
• The percentage of viewer link click-through actions were notably higher in the slanted dynamic text viewers than those who received messages in vertical static text font styles. 

A fear of losing out on opportunity was clearly triggered by the subject’s perception of urgency and a limited time to act without sacrificing the offered benefit forever. Positive, active response to the offer was the usual result. 

Brain Response Patterns Should Dictate Font Choices in Messaging

Consumer test subject responses were evident in response to other message font offerings as they impacted perception and action. One study demonstrated that female subjects found lowercase logo text to be more appealing than logos presented in all capital letters or with first letters capitalized. https://www.newneuromarketing.com/nike-nike-or-nike-what-letter-case-stimulates-purchase-intentions-most

As typography is such a ubiquitous element in many advertising formats, selecting the most appropriate font offers a significant benefit to advertising success. Data driven choices based on an awareness of observed brain responses to font styles and selection are consistently more effective and productive than the past practice of relying only on personal intuition and preferences.