Are you concerned that your brand may not be projecting a professional image?
here is: 5 things that make your brand look unprofessional in the eyes of potential customers:
If so, it's possible that your brand is not performing as well as you'd like it to. You might have initially developed your brand identity yourself when you started your business, or maybe you purchased a pre-made theme and now have doubts about its suitability. Alternatively, you may have worked with a designer but felt that they didn't capture your brand's essence effectively.
No matter which of these scenarios you find yourself in, this blog post will explore five critical factors that influence how people perceive your brand. If you don't get these right, you might feel like you're trapped on a never-ending treadmill, struggling to grow your business without much to show for it. But when you do get them right, you can attract your ideal audience, establish a connection with them, and remain at the forefront of their minds for the exact offerings you provide:
1. Lack of Brand Consistency
Do you ever feel like your brand isn't quite where it should be? Do you find yourself constantly tweaking and changing colors, fonts, and graphics? Have you purchased a pre-made brand and attempted to piece together other elements yourself, only to end up feeling lost? You may have spent countless hours on platforms like Pinterest and Creative Market, searching for inspiration. But even if you've discovered some fantastic designs, it can be challenging to determine which one is the best fit for your brand. Should you follow your personal style or opt for colors that will resonate with your audience? And if the latter, how do you determine which colors your audience will love?
The root of this problem typically lies in a lack of a clear strategy. Most likely, you haven't gone through the essential process of establishing a strong brand foundation. Your visuals merely reflect this absence.
To build a strong brand, you need to start with some crucial groundwork:
Clearly define your brand values, mission, and vision.
Craft your brand story.
Discover your brand personality and vibe.
Identify your ideal client.
Once you've laid this foundation, you can then create a brand identity—the visual elements that reflect your brand's strategy. The right visuals can:
Subconsciously convey your brand message to your ideal customers in a split second, leaving a powerful first impression.
Help you build trust and likability, which are vital for successful sales.
Facilitate building relationships with your target market.
Make selling a breeze because you'll be the perfect choice for your audience.
2. Lack of Brand Clarity
If you ever find yourself wandering in circles, uncertain about how to present your brand perfectly or how to appeal to your ideal audience, it's a clear sign of a lack of brand clarity. Without a precise understanding of who you want to attract and why, your message is bound to be too vague for anyone to connect with. Even the most beautiful design won't rectify this issue.
3. Unprofessional Brand Identity and Web Design (Without Strategy)
If you identify with the first two points, it's likely because you haven't had the opportunity to collaborate with a professional brand identity designer who recognizes the significance of a well-thought-out strategy. Despite popular belief, design can be a commodity—it's often inexpensive and readily available. Beautiful brand identity designs can be found everywhere, from platforms like Creative Market to Etsy, featuring countless logos waiting for you to take them home. However, these off-the-shelf logos and websites were created primarily for aesthetic appeal, not to align with your unique brand personality and values or cater to your ideal customer's preferences. The result is that although these designs are beautiful, they ultimately lead you to grapple with the issues discussed in the first two points of this blog post, culminating in the problem of unprofessional design. Consequently, you end up having to invest more resources to rectify the situation.
A strategic brand identity designer won't rush into design work or ask you to compile an inspirational Pinterest board for them; this is their responsibility. The branding process should unfold in the following manner:
Conduct a deep discovery process to ascertain your brand's mission, vision, values, vibe, and ideal customer.
Diagnose any issues that require attention, which is especially critical when rebranding an existing business.
Develop visual solutions that accurately represent your brand's strategy, including selecting the perfect colors, fonts, and imagery.
Create a cohesive, consistent design across all brand touchpoints where customers engage with your brand.
Designers who prioritize strategy won't commence design work without completing this process with you. You also won't be asked to select brand colors and create mood boards. The selection of colors involves a science, and it's important to choose the perfect shades that convey the right message to your customers' subconscious minds. Before investing further in design alone, consider going through this process.
4. Mismatch Between Brand Voice and Visuals
Have you ever been on a sales call and found the person you're speaking with to be entirely different from your expectations? Do you struggle to attract the right type of audience—those who aren't ready or willing to purchase your products? These issues can often be traced back to the points discussed earlier:
Lack of strategy leads to inconsistency.
Absence of clarity and a connection with your ideal audience.
Beautiful logos and websites that don't effectively represent your brand.
Frequently, clients express their frustration with statements like:
"My website and branding don't reflect me at all. They are disconnected from what I'm trying to convey."
This situation is a significant problem because it results in the loss of customers, trust, and likability, ultimately impacting sales. It's a precarious position to be in.
5. Undelivered Brand Promises
What happens when there's a conflict between how people perceive your brand and what your brand actually represents? It results in undelivered promises, leaving people confused and disappointed. For example, if your brand promises cruelty-free products and an environmentally-conscious approach but then makes decisions that compromise these values, customers will feel disappointed. If your brand promises premium, luxurious offerings but the user experience falls short, customers will also be disappointed. When you offer high-quality products but price them lower than expected, customers become confused and disappointed. If your products are visually appealing and you promote high-quality services, but your website offers a subpar user experience, people are once again disappointed. Premium products and services are incongruent with a poor user experience.
When you promote luxurious beauty treatments but your branding, drawn from the Creative Market, doesn't reflect an investment in your brand, people won't trust you with their money.
Your brand is much more than a professional design or a mere logo. Start by establishing a solid foundation. By dedicating time, energy, and resources to creating an exceptional experience for your audience, you can finally do justice to your remarkable work. This approach will allow you to create a brand that is memorable, professional, and capable of winning people's hearts, prompting them to invite others to engage with it.
We'd love to hear from you in the comments: which point resonates with you the most?
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