• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, September 23, 2014

Typeface and color can boost conversions. Both have become more important to brands, especially on smaller screens of digital devices such as smartphones and smartwatches. Last week, marketers read about the mobile ad network Todacell and its research on how a country's gross domestic product (GDP) and specific colors in advertisements and type running on mobile phones influence conversions. Search marketing should also consider these tips for their content strategy.

Colors and shapes influence how people think and feel when reading ebooks or searching on an engines, Web sites or in applications for information on products and services. The typeface and color can identify the brand. Paul McKeever, director of Typecast at Monotype, describes the company's cloud-based service Membership by Monotype service that supports changes in workflow for brands, advertising agencies and marketing companies. It provides access to tools like Typecast, and simplifies licensing.

Citing a phrase McKeever has heard in the past, he said "type is the clothes words wear." The service enables designers to use the typeface across digital, but also print, in-store and other marketing collateral pieces. Membership by Monotype gives designers the option to install an unlimited number of desktop fonts on their workstation for the life of their subscription, giving them the freedom to try a variety of typefaces on real text. Every typeface--more than 14,000--comes in desktop and Web formats.

Typefaces must communicate information because it's not always done through the string of words in a message or brand name. Interestingly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AgeLab and Monotype conducted astudy of typeface legibility on screens under "glance-like conditions." The results found that on average, people can accurately read a "humanist typeface" like Frutiger in less time, such as 8.8% exposure to the typeface, compared with a square grotesque typeface like Eurostile.

The ability to more accurately identify words at a glance could potentially improve search results, conversions.The MIT study highlights quick reading on medical devices, smartphones and dashboards, and other devices connected to the Internet like thermostats, wearable items and monitoring devices. A white paper from MIT explores new methods for testing typeface legibility in a glance.

Have you conducted a study on the impact of typefaces and color on search or advertising conversions? Chime in and share the results.