Your brand is your business’s identity. So, your branding is the reflection and culmination of your business’s personality, appearance, voice and overall vibe.
It takes about seven seconds for consumers to make an instant decision about whether or not they like and trust your brand. Keep in mind that consistent branding across all channels can increase your revenue between 10 percent and 20 percent. Brand consistency means that consumers get the same impression and experience when interacting with your business regardless of the marketing or communication channel.
A successful brand is clear, compelling and consistent.
Check out our nine tips if you need to build your brand from scratch.
But it’s entirely possible for a brand to not work how it’s intended, which can impact your overall consumer engagement and sales conversion rate. The following are five signs that your branding is broken.
No brand style guide
Think of a brand style guide as the rulebook for how your business presents itself to the world.
You can use your style guide as a reference to help maintain branding consistency no matter which of your team members is involved. About 59 percent of consumers prefer to buy from brands they trust, and consistency is a huge part of that.
Your style guide would include key branding elements, a collection of visual examples and more, depending on what you want and need.
Check out our five tips to create a brand style guide for your small business.
Your branding is visually inconsistent
Your visual brand identity includes your logo, company colors, chosen typography and any imagery that exudes the look and feel of your brand across all marketing channels. That includes your website, social media accounts and anything else.
As previously mentioned, a brand style guide can make a big difference on this front.
When done right, your company becomes unique and recognizable among your competitors. Visual branding consistency helps put your target audience at ease and builds trusting relationships over time.
Ask yourself:
- Does your website reflect who your business truly is?
- Are your typography, photo selections, colors and logos matching across all channels?
- How do your visuals make your audience feel? Positive or negative?
If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” then you know where to start.
Visuals are powerful. Check out these six ways that visuals can increase your email conversions.
Big drop in the middle of your sales funnel
Acquiring leads simply feels good for any small business. But if your increase in leads doesn’t result in an increase in revenue, there’s a disconnect.
If you’re noticing a drop within your sales funnel, it could mean that what you’re saying in your marketing is different than what you’re actually offering. Your messaging could be too aspirational. Take a look at where that conflict could be happening. Something inconsistent is happening in the messaging with your leads.
That being said, if you’re struggling to even get leads into your sales funnel, that’s a signal that your branding is broken as well. It means that your brand is not resonating at all with your target audience.
Check out the seven benefits of using a sales funnel in your digital marketing.
Obsession with your competition
Understanding your competition can benefit your business and marketing strategies. But there’s a difference between understanding your competition and obsessing over your competition.
If your branding exists mostly in relation to your competitors, who they are and what they’re doing, then you’re living in their shadow and not creating your own presence and identity.
Some signs of this include citing your competition in your marketing messages or spending a majority of your marketing planning discussing your competition.
But again, there is a time and place for analyzing your competition. Find out more about what a proper competitive analysis is and how you can start yours.
Lack of repeat business
If you’re bringing in new business but can’t build customer loyalty, this is another sign that your branding is broken.
Just a 5 percent increase in customer retention can lead to at least a 25 percent increase in profit. You want to keep your customers purchasing from you once you acquire them. But as important as it is, customer retention is a big challenge for many businesses.
There could be a brand disconnect that is holding your growth potential back.
Check out our six tips to improve your customer retention rate and grow your revenue as a result.
In conclusion
If your brand is broken, you can definitely fix it. You don’t have to ride it until the wheels fall off of it and your small business. While rebranding may cost some time and money upfront, the potential to reach more clients and generate more revenue is worth it.
Just make sure that you:
- Define your business’s purpose, vision, mission and values.
- Identify better, compelling brand messaging.
- Upgrade all visual elements as needed.
- Develop (and use) a brand style guide.
As you’re evaluating the effectiveness of your branding, consider optimizing your digital marketing process, which includes automation, audience segmentation and enhanced email marketing capabilities, to name a few. DailyStory can help. Schedule your free demo with us today.
