Nine critical branding mistakes to avoid
Let me ask you this - do you feel empowered and confident when it comes to applying your branding in practice? Do you have all the resources for your branding to succeed? Can you confidently use all the materials provided to you in order to keep your brand identity consistent and clear?
Here’s nine critical mistakes to avoid when it comes to your branding. These are the common mistakes I see business owners make when thinking about their branding. Let’s walk through these to make sure you can avoid them.
Before we dive, I’ll be using terms like branding, a brand, a brand identity and brand identity guidelines. These terms are not all the same things but they are closely related - read more about these here.
Mistakes you never have to make again
1. Forgetting about the importance of branding or disregarding it
I often hear business owners make the mistake of thinking that their business is too small for branding or for some other reason that they don’t need branding. The truth is - if you have a business you have a brand. A brand is people’s perception of you and the strategic process of branding simply lets you define how people perceive you instead of leaving it to them to define the message for you. If you’re not actively shaping your user experience in a way that you’d like it to be then you’re leaving it to chance which will almost certainly end poorly.
Other times I hear people talk about the ROI for branding. While the impact of branding can’t be measured accurately, directly or surely it definitely brings value. Branding is emotional so think of it this way - it’s a way to stand out from the crowd, to be remembered for something and ultimately to build recognition & trust with your audience. While none of these give you a direct and measurable ROI, I’m sure you’ll agree that they sure help your business.
From a very practical point, if you don’t have branding, how are you going to ensure that your website and your other touch points (online and offline) look and feel the same and all give the same impression? How will you ensure that user experience is great across all your brand touch points? You simply can’t.
I will say that branding is not a one-size-fits-all exercise. You might need a smaller branding process and less elements to it, but you do still need a strategic process to define who you are and how you want to show up to your audience, you do still need branding.
You might be interested to learn the importance of branding - read it here.
2. Relying on ready-made tools and templates to satisfy your branding needs
I’ve already mentioned that you should be showing your uniqueness through branding. This brings me to my next point - you CAN’T rely on ready-made tools and templates to satisfy your branding needs.
Using ready-made website templates, ready-made brand packages, logo templates or logo generators is a big NO NO. These will come with built-in visual elements (graphics, color palettes, fonts etc.) that are clearly not unique and are not specific to your business.
Branding is supposed to be unique and it is supposed to support your business goals. For this reason, a brand identity needs to be designed for you and with your unique strategic goals in mind. The only way to do that is through custom branding services that place your strategic goals at the center of attention. Notice I’m not saying how extensive your brand identity guidelines need to be, I’m simply saying you need to have brand identity guidelines that work for you.
3. Not having a strategy
Put very bluntly, a strategy is a plan. If you start anything in life without a plan for where you want to go and how you will get there it will not work. Same goes for branding.
Branding is a process that combines both strategic and design thinking. While it may seem that branding is as simple as picking out your favorite colors and thinking of a nice logo, there’s more to the story than meets the eye. It involves thorough research and strategy development to shape a clear understanding of who you are, how you want to be perceived by your clients and what you promise to your clients (your brand). And only after branding also involves the development of visual elements and accompanying resources. Strategic branding is the leg work that silently takes place before your brand identity is born.
4. Forgetting about your target audience
Branding is all about communicating with your audience, knowing how you want to be perceived by them and what you promise to them. If you forget that or don’t know who your audience is then you end up talking to everyone and no-one. And guess what, then it doesn't matter how many hours you put into making social media posts, it won’t bring the desired outcomes.
It comes down to this - you need to be clear on WHO your dream clients are and then you can start to UNDERSTAND their needs and how you can help solve their problems. And once you are clear on this.. Then you can curate all your branding elements to speak to your dream client and their needs through a strategic branding process - easy right? 😄
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5. Only having a logo
I often see people making the mistake of thinking that having only a logo is enough. But the branding process and having a brand goes way beyond your logo, even if it’s a killer one.
If you’re interested in learning the details about branding, a brand, a brand identity and brand identity guidelines then - read it here. Without getting into too many details, a brand is an emotional connection with your clients. This connection needs to be strategically crafted and curated so that you get to decide how you are being perceived by your audience, instead of leaving it to chance.
Your brand identity comes alive through visual elements such as logo variations, typography, color palette, custom graphics, patterns as well as product design, packaging, marketing materials and so on. All of these elements work in unison to create and shape the perception of your business. And while strong and distinctive brand elements are essential, that's only the tip of the iceberg, the tangible outcome of all the background work that led to the development of these elements. Do you see how only having a logo is not enough?
6. Only having one variation of your logo
Your logo is one of the most important elements of your brand identity. To use it as such, you should have a primary logo and variations of your logo in order to be able to easily use your branding across any platform and medium. As a minimum your logo should work easily across media (digital vs. print) , different sizes (small vs. big) and backgrounds (dark vs. light). Is your logo versatile enough?
7. Not showcasing your USP and personality
Like all people, your business also needs to have an identity and a personality in order to attract and speak to the right audience. You also need to showcase your unique selling point (USP) - why should your clients choose YOU specifically and not your competition? Branding ensures that your online presence and all your touch points clearly reflect your uniqueness.
Showcasing your uniqueness is a means of standing out from the crowd, creating brand recognition and fostering memorability. It is by no means an easy or a quick process but it’s worth your while. Read more on the importance of distinctiveness here.
8. Being inconsistent & ignoring your brand identity guidelines
So why does consistency in your (online) presence matter? It ensures memorability, recognition and trustworthiness of your brand and your business. Only through constantly seeing the same message and the same visuals of a brand we start to trust it, recognize it and memorize it. And that influences your audience’s actions - to buy from you or scroll p[ast you. How do you ensure consistency - by using your brand identity guidelines!
Trust me, brand identity guidelines are your best friend and you should be using them every day!
What is it you ask? Brand identity guidelines are the outcome of the branding process. It’s a set of rules and guidance that help you bring your branding to life and it’s designed to HELP YOU. It’s your most useful tool to ensure consistency and unity across all your brand touchpoints. So use it, that’s it, just follow the guidance that was made to help you.
If you don’t have brand identity guidelines it is about time you get them - I cannot stress this enough, not having brand identity guidelines is like trying to solve a 5000 piece puzzle without ever seeing the box. You’ll get frustrated and annoyed and it will most certainly not work well.
9. Skipping professional help
You might be debating whether you should hire a designer to help you with your online presence or if you want to go the DIY route. To be frank, hiring a professional is not a requirement. It's not something that you will be punished for, yet, everyone who’s serious about their strategic goals (business or personal) turns to professional designers and there’s a very good reason for that.
Professional designers introduce structure into the process that’s otherwise chaotic and messy. Designers create custom designs that fit your unique needs best and place your strategic goals at the center of attention while impressing your audience with stunning visuals. There’s many more benefits like expertise, professionalism and time saving benefits but I won’t get into those now. Put simply, designers know the game and ensure that your branding ticks all the boxes. At the end you’ll be walking away with less stress, more time, and a more professional face of your business.
I hope that this post was helpful on your branding journey and I'm so excited to see how you apply these in practice!
You might also be interested in:
Why is branding so important for your business? Discover the three primary functions of branding that support your business goals. These functions are at the heart of every successful branding project and getting them right is the difference between struggling to survive and thriving as a business.
Branding, brand, brand identity - what’s the difference? - Learn what branding is, a brand, a brand identity and brand identity guidelines. These terms are not all the same things but they are closely related so let’s make sure you never mix these up. From the practical point of view we get into why all businesses need branding no matter their size and how it’s not a one-size-fits-all exercise. Hint - this is good news for new and small businesses. Lastly, we cover the practical steps of the branding process.
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