BUILD A BRAND THAT STANDS OUT
7 Branding Mistakes You're Making in Your Online Business
by Mel Fee
THE BLOG
Our online business tips
Hey, I’m Mel Fee
Brand and Marketing Strategist
for female entrepreneurs
At the Mighty Bunch, we’re all about helping female solopreneurs build and market a successful brand so they grow their online business. Today I’ve gathered 7 of the top branding mistakes you’re making in your online business that are sabotaging your growth, and tips to avoid them.
1 - You are not clear on what branding is
Let’s start with what branding is not. Branding is not just creating your logo, a name or choosing pretty colours for your website. It is not a nice-to-have that can be ‘done’ in one day before moving on to the next thing.
Instead, see branding as a key strategic area that can truly make or break your business, especially long-term.
What exactly is branding?
Your brand is the set of personal and collective emotions around your business. It’s how people perceive it.
Branding is how you WANT your brand to be perceived.
It is a set of conscious and intentional actions you take to cultivate your company or your personal reputation, and in the case of solopreneurs, often both.
Having a deep understanding of branding is essential to define the best possible positioning for your personal and business brand, and create a customer experience that will make you stand out as an authority in your industry.
2 - You don't put brand strategy first
Friends, I’ve seen this time and time again. You jump on the exciting bits, the logo and visuals because they make your business ‘real’ amiright?
The thing you don’t realise is they’re completely pointless if not based on a brand strategy. It’s pretty much like buying a cute sofa for a house you haven’t even built yet. Is it gonna fit? Is it not? You’re not gonna build the house around the sofa are you?
If you need help with your brand strategy, check out my Standout Brand Strategy session here.
Pro tip: be strategic and approach branding in two phases.
First define a brand strategy based on your competitive landscape, business objectives and customers’s motivations.
Then work on the brand identity phase, which aligns your visuals and tone with your brand strategy.
Remember, branding goes far beyond aesthetics. It’s about creating a customer experience that is aligned with your big vision and that will make your ideal clients choose YOU over your competition.
3 - You confuse marketing with branding
Although I can help you with both, branding and marketing are two separate activities.
They work hand-in-hand but you need to be clear on the difference so you can plan both effectively and build your online business for scale.
As I explained above, branding is defining WHO and WHAT your brand is whereas marketing defines HOW to create awareness and drive traffic to it.
Still unsure?
Think of branding as your bread and marketing as your marmelade. You need branding first before applying marketing.
4 - You try to do your branding yourself
Would you pull your own teeth or build your own car? Nope.
Needless to say trying to do your branding on your own is not the best or safest option for your business. Many female solopreneurs make the mistake of skimping on their branding only to realise it costs them more not to invest.
I know it might look fun and easy to do and that after watching a few YouTube videos you think you’ll be able to nail your branding – chances are, you won’t.
Branding is a lot more intricate than it seems to be. There is a reason why strategists and designers spend years studying. Behind every brand, there is a solid understanding of psychology, business strategy, consumer behaviour and design.
Branding experts ask themselves questions you never would because they’ve got years under their belt. They have been perfecting their craft working on loads of projects and just know what works and what doesn’t.
DIY is hurting your brand and so are ‘brand discounters’. You know, the self-proclaimed brand strategists that were selling candles on amazon until last month (#sorrynotsorry), those selling you website logos for $5 or even worse, online logo generators.
Even if after 35 soul-sucking reworks on FIVERR you ended up with a decent looking logo, it still really wouldn’t move the needle for your business. You wouldn’t get more clients because you’d be skipping the entire brand strategy process that comes BEFORE the visuals.
Yes I know, quality costs money but your brand is THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSET in your business. You really want to get this right and work with a trusted professional.
5 - You tend to forget your ideal client
Do you understand your ideal clients? Like REALLY get them?
A common branding mistake female solopreneurs make is they create their brand only around what they like. Staying true to yourself is absolutely essential in branding but so is understanding who your ideal clients are and how to connect with them. Sure you might like that cute handwritten font but your male audience might not.
It’s about being in your ideal client’s head and understanding how they can relate to your brand on an emotional level. To do that, you need to start with some customers research and define who they are, their age, location, situation, needs, pain points, etc.
Be as specific as you possibly can and understand how you can add value to them. Build a brand that is halfway between yourself and your ideal clients.
This is why the first phase of branding, your brand strategy, is so important. Find the balance between your target audience and yourself and then create your visuals accordingly.
6 - Your don't make your brand stand out
Although no official figures exist, we’re estimated to encounter between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day. If you want to grab your customer’s attention, my friend, you’re going to have to come up with impactful messaging and visuals.
Your branding must be distinct from your competition, cohesive and memorable so when they come across your business online, they instantly know it’s yours without even looking at the name.
Hint: If you’re using one of these free overused website templates, you risk blending in with the competitors in your space. Invest in your brand to stand out and trigger a special connection with your ideal clients. In all honesty, if you and your competitors all look and act the same way and offer similar services, you’ll lose your ideal clients to whoever is the cheapest. #coldtruth
So how can you differentiate yourself? As mentioned above it’s not just about visuals. Understand your competition, who your customers are and who YOU are.
I insist on the latter as you need to grasp what your unique value is and build on that if you want to stand out in your field. Why should people buy from you over your competitors? If you don’t know the answer, your customers won’t either.
Look inward, work on your vision, mission and values and see how they differ from your competitors and how they align with your customers.
Once you are clear on that, you can work on messaging and visuals that will help you communicate your unique value and stand out.
7 - You lack consistency in your branding
One of the main goals of branding is to create ‘know, like and trust’ with your ideal clients.
For it to happen, you need to ensure your brand messaging and identity stay cohesive across every customer touchpoint. This means that every time a customer interacts with your brand, be it on Instagram, your blog, your freebie, or your website, they should receive a consistent brand experience.
From a brand identity perspective only, changing your logo, font or colour palette every other month is disruptive and it breaks customers’ trust in your business.
It means ‘what you came here for that you love so much is no longer there’. You don’t want to create that feeling do you?
To avoid disappointments, use branding guidelines. They include the different assets of your branding such as your colour palette, primary and secondary font, primary and secondary logo, imagery style, patterns and more that will keep your brand identity consistent across platforms.
Going forward scaling your online business, having branding guidelines also mean your team members or freelancers (copywriters, web designers, social media manager etc) will follow the same brand creative direction when creating new assets and trust me, that will save you a lot of headaches.
Be organised, stay consistent.
Need help doing the branding process the right way? Start with my Standout Brand Strategy Session here.
Did you identify any mistake you’ve been making with your branding so far? Shoot us a message on hello@themightybunch and let’s chat!
