Today I’m letting you in on the top 5 branding design mistakes I see business-owners make

These mistakes could be costing your business money right now:

1. Just having a logo

In one of my previous blog posts, I busted the biggest branding design myth – that branding design is just a logo! So if all you have is a logo you don’t actually have branding design in place for your business. Click here to read the post so know exactly what you need to have to actually have branding design set out for your business.

2. No design strategy behind their branding

If you haven’t spent time with a designer working on the strategy that informs the design decisions that are made in your business, then most likely all you have is a logo that maybe looks pretty but achieves absolutely nothing else. Strong strategic thinking behind your branding is what not only makes your ideal clients stop and look at your brand – but it will be what makes them make an emotional connection to your brand! And that’s the kind of reaction you want from your audience! You want them to feel catered to and to feel excited to engage with and (most importantly) buy from your brand! Design strategy is how you achieve this so start working with a designer now if you haven’t already.

3. Not sticking to brand guidelines or being consistent

Your brand guidelines are in place for a reason. You’ve spent all this time and money on getting branding design that is so you and sells your business brilliantly. But as you move on with your business after your project with your designer ends, be sure to stick to the rules that are set out in your brand guidelines. If your social media posts, let’s say, are inconsistent with your brand colours and fonts, they will look messy and unprofessional – and your followers will notice! You have to keep your standards high and stick to your brand rules to really make the most of your branding and get the results you want. I know for a lot of business-owners once the contact they have with their designer reduces after their project finishes, they can feel a bit lost even with their brand guidelines to help them. Let’s face it you’re not a design expert so it makes sense that it could take you a while to get the hang of everything design. That’s why with my branding design packages I offer a 1-hour Branding review session 2 months after your project has launched. In this review I can see how you are doing with your social media templates and you can ask me anything so you feel confident you are keeping your brand cohesive online. Check out my design packages here.

4. Not having the correct colour values for screen and print

Saying my brand colours are “orange, blue and pink” isn’t going to cut it for a professional business. You need to know exact colour values for each of your colour across screen and print (Don’t worry, you don’t need to know them off by heart or anything but they should be in your brand guidelines). The reason for this is because the way a specific colour, let’s say “orange”,  looks on screen is not not going to look the same when it’s printed out. This is because it won’t have the light from the screen making it nice and bright. To make up for this, you have to have a different colour value for your brand “orange” when you are using it for print. Then you have to be aware that there are two main ways professional printing is done – Number 1: CMYK colours and Number 2: Pantone colours. Then you have to take into consideration whether the finish of your printed object is uncoated or coated. All of these options will lead you to using a different colour value. So things with colours can get kind of complicated, but if you have brand guidelines that has all this info laid out for you and a designer you can trust in your corner, then your brand colours should always appear correctly, no matter where you use them.

5. Thinking you can create professional level branding design without hiring a professional designer.

Sometimes design seems to be one of those skills that is marketed to business-owners as something they should be able to do themselves. Even though so many business-owners out there know full well that they don’t have a creative eye or the technical skills to do their design themselves – they have the knowledge and skills to be an expert in their own industry. So many people come to me and say they “Aren’t artistic” or they “couldn’t draw a straight line” and therefore wouldn’t know where to start with the design for their business. And that’s ok! I know there are things in my business that I need help with because I don’t have those exact skills. I think we need to normalise the fact that design for your business is something that should be left to the professionals – especially if you want actual results from your design. Do you want a random logo you did yourself/got a friend to do/got on fiverr, or do you want professional, strategic design that grows your business? I also think it is helpful to think of design for your business in these terms – do you think the most successful businesses world-wide in your industry/niche uses professional designers for their design or do they do it themselves? Chances are it’s professional design all the way and that’s a huge part of their success!

Let me know if you’ve made any of these mistakes in the comments, and I can see if I can help you fix them. No judgement, we’ve all been there – DIYing everything in our businesses 🙂