September 2024 (Updated)
5 common branding mistakes for small business owners to avoid
Getting paid by your first client may be what makes your status as a business owner feel real, but setting up your brand is what makes your business feel complete.
Your brand is the thing that makes you proud to share what you do with other people – from total strangers to all the doubters and skeptics from before you got things off the ground.
(Especially if you’re someone who fought to leave the 9-5 grind behind and embrace entrepreneurship.)
But branding comes with its own challenges.
Because branding encompasses all the things that make you recognizable, adaptable, and authentic, including your:
- Image
- Positioning
- Experience
- Communication
- Differentiation
- Identity, etc
There are a lot of moving parts…
And opportunities to get it wrong.
Let’s go through 5 common branding mistakes and how you can avoid making them.
After all, there are always new mistakes to make – why copy the most common ones? 😉
While branding is fun and certainly meant to convey your personality – it’s not really about you at all.
Common Branding Mistake #1: Branding for yourself
This is definitely the most common branding mistake.
While branding is fun and certainly meant to convey your personality – or at the very least, the personality of your business – it’s not really about you at all.
Not knowing your ideal audience – what they want, what they think, how they speak, what challenges them, and so on – is a recipe for branding failure.
The most important thing to remember to avoid this branding mistake is that you are not your own client.
While you no doubt hold some of the same values as your ideal client or customer, that doesn’t automatically mean that they will like what you like.
For example, just because you like the color blue doesn’t mean it’s the color that will speak to your audience if you include it in your brand palette.
Common Branding Mistake #2: Misunderstanding branding
Branding is about a lot more than your visuals.
While people usually imagine a logo (Apple’s apple, Nike’s Swoosh) or color (Home Depot orange, Tiffany blue) when they think of branding, those things are just the tip of the branding iceberg.
Your branding – especially as a small business owner and not a major, international brand – needs to focus on big-picture items, like your personality and customer experience skills.
Understanding your entire brand strategy (and not just the visuals) is the best way to avoid this mistake.
Common Branding Mistake #3: Chasing trends
A successful brand needs longevity.
When you chase trends, you run the risk of having an irrelevant or outdated brand design – including logo, font, color, etc. – within a few years. (Sometimes, even a few months.)
And given how time-consuming and potentially pricy it can be to establish your visuals, you definitely want to avoid this mistake.
How can you avoid getting sucked into the trend trap?
Take inspiration from what’s popular and incorporate the elements that will resonate with your audience…
But remember to bring it all back to your brand as a whole and the values that guide you.
That’s how you keep things relevant for the long haul.
Common Branding Mistake #4: Lacking consistency
This may be branding’s most important role in your business:
Creating a cohesive, consistent look and feel.
Because your visuals should be a representation of the personality and market positioning you want to convey, it’s critical they’re used consistently.
This includes your:
- Logo
- Fonts
- Icons
- Colors
- Photos
- Graphics
And so on.
Imagine how jarring it would be to post an ad or social media content with a different font or color each time you had something to say.
Using consistent brand visuals increases customer and client recognition and trust and goes a long way in establishing loyalty and building a connection.
Common Branding Mistake #5: Becoming a copycat
Being inspired by other brands is great.
In fact, one of the strategy questions we ask our branding clients is, “Which of your competitor’s brands do you love and why?” (Followed by, “Which of your competitor’s brands do you NOT love and why?”)
It’s really important to be aware of your competition and the perception they’ve created if you want to carve a space for your own brand in the market.
BUT you are never going to be successful by copying someone else’s brand.
If you go back to Mistake #2, part of this mistake is misunderstanding branding as an image built by visuals alone and forgetting that there is a whole strategy behind successful brands.
Copying someone will always backfire because:
1) You don’t know the strategy behind their branding, and
2) You don’t even know if their branding is truly working for them – or the audience they’re attracting with it, and so on.
There are so many reasons NOT to become a copycat.
But the most important reason is that you have to find your own unique angle to differentiate and stand out.
You are never going to be successful by copying someone else’s brand.
Getting branding right
Avoiding these 5 common branding mistakes isn’t the only key to nailing your brand.
There’s a lot of strategy and thought that goes into a successful brand.
But being aware of these pitfalls and how to avoid them will at least give you a head start that many other business owners don’t have.
Grab these resources to point yourself in the right direction:
You can also pick up the book Logos That Last by Allan Peters.
And schedule your free branding consultation for a customized strategy.