A brand plays a huge role in one’s lifestyle or culture and is way more than just a logo or visual elements. A brand is all about encouraging potential customers to choose your business over your competitors. Everything that you do to identify yourself and promote yourself is classed as part of your branding which also includes your brand name. These factors deserve their own time and attention as your brand will have a huge impact on the success of your business.
Your brand strategy and execution need to have as much attention as your product or service development. Branding is not something that you can start, finish, and then leave as it is a continuous process that needs consistency. Without a brand strategy, you will lose touch with your customers and limit your recognition for your efforts which will in turn reduce your profits and growth. Unfortunately, many businesses get their branding wrong which causes them to lose customers and fail as a business. In this article, we will go through the top online branding mistakes to avoid.
Brand Identity Without Strategy
Creating a brand that has definition is what is going to get you the customers over your competitors. Many businesses leave out having a brand strategy and go straight to creating a logo, website and also marketing strategy. Like anything done partially, brands built with no strategy and built solely on colour and aesthetics are going to fail pretty quickly.
A brand strategy needs strong foundations to give the best brand identity possible. For this, you need to understand what your business stands for, who is your target market, where are you positioned compared to your competitors and finally, where you want your business in the next couple of years. Only once you have these answers can you start to create a solid brand identity. As you grow, your brand should be able to adapt.
Creating No Brand Guidelines
Your business operates with rules that help to instruct employees on what they should be doing and what they shouldn’t. Just like your business, your branding needs guidelines to keep your branding consistent and reliable across multiple platforms and campaigns.
Here are some brand guideline areas that should be implemented:
- Correct logo usage and placement
- The brand writing style, tone and voice
- Visuals and imagery
- Colour schemes
- Font and typography
It is essential that these guidelines meet your industry and are not irrelevant. An example of this would be that if you were in the tech industry, you will want it pretty easy to read and meet their needs. It would not be wise to go all quirky and animated when the audience won’t want this or resonate with the brand.
Lack Of Strong Visuals
It’s no secret that images are more attractive than text and our eyes are much more perceptive of imagery. If your eCommerce brand has limited visuals, your brand is going to struggle to get the attraction you need from your potential customers rather than your competitors taking all the glory.
There is a range of different visual content and most of it is for decorative purposes. This type of content serves no value for your copy, but it does help your brand stand out from your competitors. If most of your visuals are for this, you are going to be missing out on being able to define your brand and ensure that your message is understood by your audiences. Instead of stock images for decoration, create visual content that supports your brand.
If your brand guidelines specify a specific colour scheme, then don’t merge new colours. Aim to include images with these colours in the images. If your brand is about sports, have images of people doing sports etc.
Cheap Logo Designs
Your brand logo is going to be the most visual representation of your brand so it is essential to get it right the first time. Your logo needs to be recognisable and create an impression for your potential customers to remember. There are many brands out there that have not thought about their logo in detail and this is why many brands don’t even get off the ground because their logo has not been thought of thoroughly. Instead, think of it as a business investment in itself as you want to portray your brand values within the logo.
Some of the most common logo mistakes include:
- Poor colour scheme
- Fonts that don’t match your tone
- Symbols used when not relevant
- Unthought of slogans
You get what you pay for when it comes to logos, so don’t cheap out. If your logo looks cheap and you want to be taken seriously, then pay for a proper logo as this will in turn bring better conversions. If you look cheap, your customers are going to feel that too.
Neglecting Current Marketing Trends
More people are on the ball and today’s generation of youths is now the most informed generation ever. More people enjoy researching and following key trends. Due to this, your customers are always in the know which means that you need to be one step ahead all the time. Whether this is business innovation, trends, recent news or anything else relevant to your industry needs to be on your radar before anyone else.
Branding takes time and effort and if done wrong, it can be detrimental to your business. Doing it right the first time can save you money and time in the long run. If you are struggling to manage your branding process, then it is worth speaking to a branding agency Manchester based or London for some of the best talents in the UK.
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