Before you put any more effort into marketing your brand, take some time to ensure that the branding efforts are taking you in the right direction. There’s no use promoting a brand that’s sending the wrong message, or worse; no message at all. Get your brand on the right track so you’re proud of what you’re promoting.
1. You don’t know what your brand actually is.
This is more common than you think. Many people and businesses race to market their “brand” without putting any thought into what their brand represents. Ask yourself what does my business stand for? What are the core values? What makes us unique? If you can’t answer these questions in a few brief sentences without hemming and hawing, you need to figure it out before you can proceed with branding. Branding is giving your business a unique stamp that makes it easy for people to understand who you are and what you can do for them.
2. Your brand is the same as all your competitors.
You’re playing it too safe and going with what seems to be working for everyone else. There are two problems with this: One, you’re not standing out and two, are you really able to live up to the promises your branding efforts are making? If your strengths do not match up to your competition, stop trying to compete with their strengths, and compete with your own. Yes, they’ve been successful with their fast turnaround strategy, but if you can’t beat them at their speed, don’t copy them and promise a faster turnaround when you cannot deliver, even if that’s what the market wants.
3. Your branding is based on price.
They call it a “race to the bottom” for a reason – when you’re competing entirely on price, somebody is sure to come around and undercut you. Do you want to spend all your time trying to trim and cut to beat your competitors on price? Or would you rather base your branding on a factor that won’t leave you exhausted, stressed and broke? Of course, we all know successful brands are built on price – but before emulating them, take some time to research what happened to their competitors and ask yourself if you want to take that risk.
4. Your branding materials are amateurish and cheap.
It’s hard to be objective about this, but if you want your brand to continue to grow, you’ll need to take a hard, merciless look at your logo, website, and other promotional materials and ask yourself if it’s helping you or keeping you in the beginner’s basement. If your design isn’t up to par, it’s worth the investment to hire a graphic designer to create a logo and look for your business that will make you fit in with the professionals.
5. You’re spending all your time promoting, but nobody is buying.
Be honest with yourself – how many hours are you spending on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook? How many hours on your blog? How much have your sales improved?
There is no doubt that social media is here to stay and can be an enormously valuable marketing and branding tool. But be realistic, if all those hours aren’t leading to increased sales, it’s wasted time. Are you really promoting brand awareness or are you just socializing? Older forms of promotion and marketing are far from dead and it might be a better use of your time and resources to place an ad in a local newspaper than talking to the same dozen people on Twitter all day.
Branding isn’t just a buzz word that means promotion; branding is establishing an identity for your business that lets customers know who you are and what you can do better for them, better than anyone else. Make sure you know what that identity is and compete with your strengths and not your competitors. Invest in a professional look for your logo and other materials and make sure you’re spending your time and resources on things that actually provide value, and not what’s trendy. Branding that works is an asset that will pay off for years to come so take the time to make the most of yours.
Order a Custom Logo or Graphic Design to Enhance Your Brand
No matter what type of personal brand, business or organization you are running, having a great first impression means everything. One of the best ways to deliver a lasting impression is through the use of a high-quality logo and professional images and designs throughout all of your products and branding.
Contact our graphics design team today and let us help you create the ultimate user experience and company branding message you’ve always dreamed of!
