I know this is an article from earlier this year but it’s a good one.
Originally published in Times Business News.
5 business branding mistakes you should avoid in 2020
February 24, 2020 natwilson976
A brand encapsulates the identity of your business and is, therefore, the face of your products and services. When customers think of your business, your brand stays within their mind for any needs they require instantly, or in the future. It also helps with enabling your customers to feel an emotional connection. If any hiccups were to occur with how you service your customers, there’s the potential that this emotion could be broken, which means you could lose out on their future business.
This means as a business, you should prevent yourself from going through the common downfalls that can occur with your branding. Everything from website design to your logo design should be considered in aspects that can impact your overall reputation. Here are 5 common branding mistakes that you should look to avoid in 2020 so your brand can be as successful as possible this year.
Failure to know the audience you’re targeting
Before you even begin with starting your business, there should be a plan about who your business is actually going to target. Your audience will be the main influence behind whether your business is a success or not. Why businesses fail is because they don’t take the time to understand their audiences and what it is they need from them.
Take the time to do research around what your customers’ require and what entices them to specific brands. In doing so, you can mould your business plan and ideas around these concepts that they develop.
Using a premade logo
Your brand logo is one of the first aspects that customers identify when it comes to your business. It’s the face of your brand that helps to project your values and ideology. Considering there are many businesses that provide products and services in overcrowded markets, it’s important that you’re able to create a unique identity.
Using a premade logo is likely to clash with other designs within your industry. If you’re reaching out to a branding agency, ensure they have an idea of what you’re trying to show through your brand and what message your logo is trying to get across.
Lack of research into competitors
One of the core tasks that brands should first look into is competitor research. By doing this, you’ll be able to explore your market and understand how others businesses you’re competing with are becoming successful. The main focus should not just be around what they offer, but also how they construct their website and how they interact on social media.
This will also help you to understand what their audiences are like and how you can offer them something different through your brand. You need to be able to prize these audiences away from your competitors to become competitive in the market. Understanding what your successful competitors do through competitor research can help to identify this.
Not taking on feedback
Taking on board feedback enables you to grow as a business as you come to understand what it is that your customers wish to improve. Every customer has a need that they wish to be fulfilled and taking on board feedback, you can help to achieve this for them. This means they’re likely to choose your brand over others because they can see you’re improving and you’re willing to value their feedback to develop their experience.
Businesses who refuse to take on feedback tend to fall behind with the rest of their competitors. This is because they’re not willing to adapt to their customer’s needs and believe strongly that what they’re doing is already working, which is never the case.
Having no plan B
It’s important that you’re able to fall back on something when your initial ideas don’t work as you expect. Although you may feel your ideas are fantastic, you need to put your ego aside when it doesn’t go exactly to plan. There are some cases where a design agency won’t be able to get you out of the gutter. You need to be adaptable with your business, particularly with early stages when you’re still trying to find your feet. There will be hiccups along the way which can either be easy to resolve or require a completely revised plan, through a plan b.
This prevents your business from going bust first time around. At least with a backup plan, you have a safety net for when things go wrong and it can help to continue where you left off, even if you’ve witnessed a few kinks in your journey.
Prevent your business from having a branding hiccup
The points made above provide guidance on what branding mistakes you can avoid. In 2020, markets are becoming as crowded as ever. Damaging your brand can have your business up in smoke in an instant, which is why you need to be able to avoid these common pitfalls for future reference. Be sure to be adaptable, take on feedback and always have a plan B for when things may go wrong.
