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All businesses need to build compelling brands that tell their customers a story about who they are. But a lot of companies go about it the wrong way. They have an idea in their collective heads which says that branding has to be one way when the reality is that it needs to be quite another.
In this post, we look at the top branding mistakes companies are making and offer some tips for correcting them. Are you doing any of the following?
Being Inconsistent
Consistency is one of the foundational pillars of a successful branding campaign and something that practically all businesses need to do if they want to be successful. The reason it is so important has to do with familiarity. Customers have to be able to recognise a business to develop a sense of trust. If they can’t, then it can lead to all sorts of issues and weaken the impact of your advertising.
Being consistent is about more than just making sure that all your graphics match. It is also about adopting a tone of voice in your communications that makes sense for your audience and espoused values. There’s no point using slang if you run a law firm because it’ll just come off sounding unprofessional.
Failing To Understand Your Competitors
The way your brand evolves has a lot to do with your competitors. For instance, Apple didn’t try to create a unique brand image from the ground up. Instead, the world’s most valuable company crafted its appeal by contrasting itself with the dominant PC market. It talked mainly about what it was not.
Choosing Generic Design Languages
How many companies have you seen with completely generic design languages and images? Probably dozens.
What happens is usually something like this: first, the founder wants to save money. Thus, they go to a generic design service – often through a website builder – and pick their themes from a menu. Then they import some clip art, and that’s about it.
The problem with this approach is that customers are very good at sniffing it out. They know when a company is slapping stock images all over their website. They can smell it from a mile off.
The majority of firms use professional logo design services to create something bespoke. This process helps to make your brand unique.
Failing To Use Influencers
All companies should be using influencers on social media to talk about the merits of their brands. Firms need to reach out to personalities who have captive audiences and appeal to them directly. Often, you can tailor your outreach to influencers who speak to the kinds of people who are most likely to want to buy from you.
Failing To Monitor Your Brand
Be honest with yourself: do you really have a handle on how people perceive your brand? If you’re like most small businesses, the answer is “probably not.”
These days, though, monitoring is easy. You can either download software and do it in-house, or outsource the task to a digital marketing agency.
