Since many people lost their jobs through lockdown, it has resulted in a surge of innovative people creating their own businesses and working for themselves. Business was thriving through lockdown online due to nobody being allowed to the shops, with this in mind, it has resulted in many businesses dropping off once the lockdown was lifted, and businesses had a false sense of hope as they are still expecting the same amount of business. This doesn’t usually happen, and to be honest, it probably won’t for a long time, but this doesn’t mean that businesses need to stop what they are doing, in fact, they need to do more work than ever.
You didn’t need a catchy brand or anything through lockdown, because people needed what they needed, this has led to some horrendous brands being out there due to the lack of innovation and dull branding. Many made mistakes and many have suffered from this, so we will go through some of the biggest mistakes, so you can avoid them yourself.
Not understanding branding
Branding, if anything is a set of rules for how you run your business and also how your want to be perceived by the world. Many businesses will have solid sales backgrounds, meaning that they only care about making a profit and growth. As much as both of these are important, how are you going to do this if you have no audience and you aren’t meeting the needs of anyone? Branding is crucial to business growth and if you don’t do it, your business has already failed.
Confusing marketing for branding
Many businesses have this misconception that branding is the same as marketing, this is false news. Branding is how you run your business, its values, goals, how you want people to perceive you, what you do and basically anything that defines the business. Marketing on the other hand is basically telling people about your brand, getting people to your brand and creating strategies for bringing customers to your site. If you are struggling to determine which first, it’s always branding as you need to determine who your audience is so that you can market to them and cater to their needs.
Not getting professional help when needed
Some people are talented enough to be multiskilled and do a lot of the business themselves, but nobody can do everything on their own and everyone needs help at some point. If you get offered advice from successful professionals, listen to them and don’t pie them off. You could really learn something useful. Branding can be difficult and there will be some points where you just can’t think straight, by hiring a design agency Leeds based, you will ensure that you have some top talent to help you with your success.
Targeting the wrong audiences
Many businesses think that their brand is the best thing since sliced bread and that they don’t need to define their audience because everyone wants it. Nope. this is a very linear way of thinking and it is important to understand that you do need to define your audience because not everyone will want your product or appeal to your brand. For example, if you were a store selling diamond jewellery, you are not going to want to target anyone under the age of 26 and you certainly wouldn’t be targeting students. Instead, you would be targeting middle-aged people who have a good job. When you have a small budget, you need to ensure that you are marketing to the right audience otherwise your budget is going to run out quickly and you are not going to make many conversions. Targeting too many audiences is not going to get you the best results, so consider these questions so you can define your audience and market to them accordingly:
- What is the interest of your audience?
- Where are they located?
- What are their age
- How much do they earn?
- What are their needs?
- What are their pain points?
Not being consistent with your branding
Branding is all about building trust and ensuring that everyone knows who you are. This doesn’t just mean when they see you in the stores or your website, but it also means on your social media, business profiles and anything that your customers are going to find you on. With this in mind, it is essential that you are consistent with your branding across all platforms. This includes your visuals, fonts, tone of voice, and everything else that defines your brand. If you are not consistent with your branding, your customers may be confused and think that there is another company acting like you or they may even lose trust altogether.
There are many mistakes that can easily be avoided, but follow these tips and you will be well on your way to creating a successful brand, just don’t forget to ask for help when you get stuck.