Apart from having a good product and providing an excellent customer experience, the third most important factor when it comes to achieving success is your brand identity. No matter what you’re selling, you’re going up against a ton of other people who are selling the exact thing. Branding is what makes you unique - why a customer should choose you over your competitors. Branding is what the customer remembers about you after they go home. You want to step up your branding game because branding is all about how the customer perceives your business. While there are countless things you can do to perfect your brand image until the end of time, you may learn more by knowing what not to do. Here are a few branding mistakes that’ll cost you, so you should take care to avoid them.

Not Having a Branding Strategy

A branding strategy is different from just branding. A branding strategy is a plan that outlines your business’ long-term branding goals. It includes things like the message you want to communicate to people, what your company stands for, and what emotions you want to evoke in your potential customers. Ask yourself these questions.

Answering those questions will help you come up with a branding strategy. One thing that your branding strategy shouldn’t solely be about is aesthetics. A pretty logo is most definitely not everything!

Not Caring About SEO

SEO and brand awareness go hand-in-hand. Though surprisingly, not many people think about stepping up their SEO game when they’re working on their brand image. Whether you have no idea what SEO is or you’re just learning what is enterprise SEO, you can come to understand the connection between branding and SEO.

When people find your brand on Google or other search engines, they are able to better understand the quality of what you deliver as well as your values, which makes your brand more distinct in their minds. But also, the more popular your brand becomes with the public, the more searched it becomes on Google, thereby improving your SEO. See how they go hand-in-hand?

Extending Your Brand Too Far

Brand extension is a marketing strategy in which a well-known business uses the same image in a different product category. It tends to be more successful if the new product is somewhat related to the old one, but there have been cases where this hasn’t been a deciding factor. Apple is a good example of this because it extended from just computers to music players, smartphones, and now tech accessories.

Although there have been plenty of successful brand extensions, there have also been plenty of failures. One such example is Colgate’s failure to get into the food business. This is because people already associated them with teeth and dental care, so Colgate kitchen entrees were too much of a stretch to be a success. In contrast, Colgate successfully stretched their brand from toothpaste to toothbrushes. This was because toothbrushes didn’t clash so much with their brand identity.

Not Protecting Your Brand

Trademarks are important for growing your business, and everyone deals with them on a daily basis. Don’t be afraid to protect your brand. Do extensive research before you decide to launch your brand. Ensure that your company’s visuals and business name can be protected, and make sure your brand doesn’t infringe on anyone else’s rights. Failing to do your research can lead to legal disputes with other brand owners, which can be very expensive.

Being Inconsistent

The inconsistency here applies more to visuals than anything else. Your visuals help create the first impression you’ll leave on a potential customer. If you’re using different fonts, color schemes, and logos on different websites and social media platforms, or switching things up every other week, that’s going to eat away at your brand identity.

At the very least, you should have the same colors and logo on every platform you use. Inconsistency will only confuse the customer and break their trust. Create a style guide with the help of a designer, so that you’re always clear on what you can change, how, and when.

https://unsplash.com/photos/8ryz8T0bWx4

Branding creates loyal customers. That’s a saying for a reason: it’s very true. If your branding is good, the customer is going to keep thinking about it even after interacting with your business once. Because you’ve stood out, they’re going to think about you again when they need a similar product. This is how you create loyal customers, and it’s why branding is one of the most powerful tools with which to grow your business.

We are continuously putting out relevant content. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube