4 Online Branding Mistakes That Can Kill Your Small Business

The big question comes after you have established yourself as a business entity. How do you make yourself stand out?

The answer is branding. It will help you stand out in the crowd and your customers recognize you in a sea of others. However, if done incorrectly, branding can also be the death of your business.

Once you go live, there is no turning back, so the development of your brand identity should be a slow and steady process. Here are four of the biggest mistakes you could make early on, which can kill your chances of success.

A lack of vision

You cannot and should not aim to satisfy every single need on the market. You need to create a brand that will speak to a specific target audience, and not to a whole bunch of different customer profiles. Furthermore, you shouldn’t design your own brand according to what you want it to be like. You are creating the brand to speak to your target audience, which is why it needs to connect with them, and not reflect your own personal tastes.

In order to achieve that, you need to create a community where your target audience will want to spend time. You don’t want to adjust to everyone – you need to focus on one specific group, and speak to them, and market your product or service to them, and forget about the rest.

establish objectives • analyze market • setup segmentation • review strategies • use marketing tools

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Market Planning Model

Having no identity

A brand is more than a logo and a catchy phrase. If you believe all you need is a logo, you are making a huge mistake. If you go for this superficial approach, you will miss out on the chance to connect with your target audience later on, which you will never be able to rectify.

Your identity is what you present to the world of business at large, as well as your target audience. This will also include the colors you chose for the logo and the website, the font you go for when publishing different types on content.

Don’t forget about the tone of voice and the point of view you choose to present your message through. All of these seemingly small things can make a huge difference, and change your message significantly. You need to make yourself stand out, remember, not blend in.

Not having a clear message

While we are on the subject of messages – you need to be clear about who you are and what you are selling. Don’t expect your customers to read between the lines. Unless you are very clear, you will miss the chance to attract the attention you are looking for. If your customers don’t know what to expect from your brand, they will not be able to trust you.

Designing this message can be difficult and time-consuming. It will involve a lot of research and a lot of creativity, and if you don’t have the experience, you should leave this part of the journey to professionals. You can easily find an agency that will be ready to help you craft a message that is in line with your brand identity, and communicate it with your target audience.

The inability to evolve

Like we’ve said in the opening paragraph – the world of business never sleeps. If you are not ready to change, then prepare to be forgotten and eventually die out. You need to be able to listen to your audience, and adapt accordingly. If you don’t, someone else will. If you come up with a great product, and make huge profits in the beginning, but fail to listen to the winds of change, you will simply be buried by an avalanche of new businesses that are ready to move with the flow.

Be prepared to rebrand if necessary – adjust to the market, but never compromise who you are and what the brand stands for. Your core values should not shift, no matter how much the market changes.

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