When starting a new company, it is important to get your online branding on point. There are several crucial mistakes you need to avoid when starting a new brand online. In this article, I will go over those mistakes and help you understand what to do instead.
1. Making a Brand Just For the Sake of It
Don’t start a brand just for the sake of it or because that’s what everyone is doing. Your brand needs to have a purpose; it needs direction. Starting a brand just to have a brand, without any clear mission statement, goal, vision, or purpose, is a recipe for disaster.
People don’t become top brand fans for no reason. They do it because they identify with the brand. Perhaps they identify with the brand’s mission statement, company culture, or vision. Perhaps they simply like the way the brand presents itself in its ads and social media campaigns (the brand’s tone of voice). But when you create a brand just for the sake of having a brand, you aren’t giving customers a chance to fall in love with it.
2. Having Inconsistent Branding
Everything about your brand needs to be consistent across the web and your social channels. That includes:
- Your tone of voice
- Your professionalism
- Your level of customer support
- The color schemes you use
- The logos you use
- Etc.
Of course, you can tweak some things to better suit the particular platform you are on. For example, while Instagram is a great place to post memes, you wouldn’t want to post that type of content on LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn channel should focus on more serious topics. The demographics on different social media channels may be different as well, so that’s something to keep in mind too.
Nevertheless, you need to make sure you are being consistent. Think of how Coca-Cola uses the same red and white scheme across their social media content, or how BMW puts forward an aura of luxury on all of its social channels.
If you have a local business, you need to make sure your local website citations are consistent.
3. Not Having a Focus
Some entrepreneurs make the mistake of spreading their brand’s focus out too wide. This mistake is particularly easy to make when you are creating a personal brand.
How do you brand yourself? Are you an entrepreneur? Expert marketer? Business coach? Financial advisor? Author? Motivational speaker? Investment expert? Jack of all trades?
Even when creating a business brand, you can’t branch out too much. Your brand needs to have a focus. That will help you stick to your mission statement, vision, and goals. Otherwise, in an attempt to attract more people, you will end up attracting fewer people. The people you do attract will be less enthusiastic about your brand.
What does your brand do? How do you help people? Which people do you cater to, and what problems do they have? Never lose focus of your core values and mission statement.
When creating a personal brand, remember that your brand is still a brand. You’re not going to use your personal social media profiles for your brand or post the same stuff you write on your private wall to your official page. You still need to make sure your brand has a focus.
4. Thinking That Names, Copies, and Visuals Are Not That Important
While your mission, values, company culture, and the way you interact with consumers are undoubtedly important, don’t think that you can focus exclusively on them and forget about having a good name and logo.
Names, copies, and visuals are important. You can infer a lot from a name. It’s not enough to have a name that conveys your values and what you do; it also needs to be professional, catchy, and memorable. Your logo must be eye-catching as well. You can’t afford to have a dull, boring, or unremarkable logo, especially if you are in a competitive niche and are trying to go viral. The visuals you use on social media and your website must also be chosen with care.
Remember, people are visual by nature. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. You can communicate a lot of information in an image or logo. More importantly, you can communicate a lot of emotions in a logo or image. A good visual can make people feel a certain way about you.
Finally, don’t forget about brand copy. Think of brand copy as the written version of your logo. Brand copy can refer to sales copy, landing pages, social media bios, your About Us page, and any other written content that is designed to describe your brand and explain what it does. It can also refer to your mottos or slogans. Try to paint a picture using your words, and draw upon positive emotions.
One good thing about brand copy is that it is often easier to change than your main logo. While changing your logo is possible and necessary at times, it can confuse people who are used to your old logo. Brand awareness is when people recognize your logo (even if they don’t know much about your company), which is why changing it can set you back. However, editing your landing page or About Us page copy is easier. Small, simple edits, such as changing or adding a sentence, can have a huge difference in your conversion rates. Use A/B split testing to optimize your brand copy. Of course, editing brand copy is harder when talking about physical posters or fliers.
5. Having Delusions of Grandeur
I see this mistake way too often. Unfortunately, new brands sometimes have delusions of grandeur. Entrepreneurs think that consumers will automatically be as excited about their brand and visions as they are. However, that’s rarely the case. While you may understand what your goals are, where you are heading, and how you plan to get there, not everyone will know that unless you show them. Remember, the competition is probably stronger than you think. You may believe you stand out from the competition in an obvious way, but that may not actually be the case. You need to prove yourself, especially when just starting. Once you’re already established, that will be easier.
However, that’s not all. Many brands will have delusions of grandeur when calculating how much they can get done in a certain amount of time. Be realistic. You want to slowly but surely establish yourself in your niche. Some brands can explode into the market and become a sensation overnight, but most brands can’t. That will also depend on your niche, how much competition there is, how unique your ideas are, and whether you are truly filling a void nobody else is. Set realistic goals and stick to them. Take baby steps. The best brands establish themselves over the months and years. It’s been a long time since the first video was uploaded on YouTube. Not everyone knew about YouTube back then, but almost everyone knows about it now.
The first Uber ride was taken in 2010, but if you look at Google Trends, you will see that interest in Uber only started to take off around 2014. Until then, interest was extremely low. Now, Uber has grown at a compound annual growth rate of almost 50% between 2016 and 2020 (the Covid-19 pandemic, of course, took a toll on the number of Uber rides ordered). Now, Uber has turned into a verb. People say things like, “I’ll Uber it,” just as Google has become a verb. While Bitcoin might not fit the traditional definition of a brand, it has now become synonymous with cryptocurrency in general. Many people don’t even know that cryptocurrency extends far beyond Bitcoin, or they can’t name any other cryptocurrencies. Think of the guy who bought two slices of pizza with 10,000 Bitcoin back in 2010, which would now be worth billions of dollars.
Back then, almost nobody knew what Bitcoin was. It was an obscure “imaginary” coin only known to select geeks and nerds. However, most people have heard of Bitcoin by now, even if they don’t fully understand it, and it has already been adopted as an official currency of El Salvador. It takes time for a brand to become a household name.
6. Overlooking Factors That Kill Trust
In your excitement about your new brand, you may be overlooking crucial factors that kill trust in a brand. Let’s go over some of them here:
- Not delivering: Always deliver on your promises. If you aren’t sure you will be able to deliver, don’t make unrealistic claims. That refers to promised features, upgrades, refunds, quick shipping, and anything else you promise to customers.
- Not caring: Listen to your customers. When you don’t ask for feedback or listen to feedback, customers will feel you are indifferent to their needs. Try to implement changes based on the feedback you receive. If a customer complains about a product, don’t brush them off or be impatient with them. Ask them how you can do better.
- Being too pushy: Likewise, if you are too pushy and try to sell too much, people will think you don’t really care about their needs and just want to make a quick buck.
- Not working on customer relationships: It is crucial to stay in touch with customers after they make a purchase. Whether you start a loyalty program or just stay in touch with them via email, don’t let customers think you forgot about them.
- Making customers wait too long: Whether a customer is on hold with a customer service rep or is waiting for you to reply to their email, don’t let them wait too long, as that kills trust.
7. Focusing Too Much On Customers and Not On Competitors
You need to focus on your customers but not forget about your competitors too. This goes back to what I talked about before: Not everyone will be as hyped about your new brand as you are. You need to show people why they should be hyped about your brand; you can’t just expect that to happen. Realize that you have competition, and you need to stand out.
So, how can you stand out from your competition and keep your customers satisfied at the same time? Here are some ideas.
Provide Better Customer Service
Set yourself apart with your customer service. You will keep your clients happy while standing out from the crowd. For example, if your competitors are only offering email support, offer live chat or phone support. Provide help on social media, via DMs or comments on your posts (monitor your posts regularly). Provide faster customer support and make your customers feel that you value them more than any other competitor does.
Improve the Quality of Your Products and Services
Don’t provide low-quality products and services. Set yourself apart by providing the highest quality products and services in the industry. Add new features that nobody else is providing. If you sell physical products, make sure they use high-quality materials and that they come with a solid warranty.
Be Honest In Your Campaigns — No Misleading Advertising
Misleading advertising kills trust and makes people switch to competitors. If people see you advertise one thing, and they receive another, they won’t want to give you any more of their hard-earned money. You need to be honest in your advertising campaigns.
You may not even be running misleading ads intentionally. If you make promises you can’t keep and unrealistic claims, even if you want to believe them to be true, that’s misleading advertising. New customers couldn’t care less if you meant well. At the end of the day, they didn’t get what you promised. Set yourself apart from your competitors by being brutally honest and transparent. Transparency is key to building trust, especially as a new brand without a lot of social proof.
Wrapping It Up
Building a new brand isn’t easy. It takes a lot of planning, and you need to carefully work your way up until you become a household name. A large percentage of new brands don’t make it, but often, that is because they make common mistakes like the ones mentioned in this article. By avoiding these seven mistakes, you will allow your brand to succeed.