Top Website Branding Mistakes to Avoid

If we had to mention, one of the most important things that any business today–regardless of its industry–needs to have is branding. Strong branding is crucial to attract and maintain the right audience for your business. Additionally, a website has become the first and primary point of contact with your customers and future clients. Keeping this in mind, communicating your branding correctly through your website is vital. 

Nonetheless, this is no easy task. Even successful companies with substantial marketing budgets have made catastrophic mistakes. But we would be lying if we didn’t say that hiring a reliable branding agency is the best thing you can do. Even if you trust your brand identity to the agency, it is always good to understand what’s happening–making sure there is less room for mistakes and more eyes looking. Additionally, learning how it all works will let you do a better job once the agency’s work is finished. 

Now, let’s go through the most common branding mistakes businesses make on their websites and how you can avoid making them:

Why does website branding matter?

According to Clay, a website design agency in San Francisco, a good website has to accomplish a few important things such as:

• Being easy to use
• Communicating clearly to customers
• Ranking well on SEO and attracting traffic
• Successfully convert users or visitors into customers

However, this is not all. It also needs to be visually appealing to keep users engaged, but more importantly, it needs to represent your brand. A website will be one of the first things potential customers will see about your brand. If the brand identity is not conveyed clearly, they might pass along and forget you. Remember, nowadays, people don’t become customers because of a product or service. They do it because of the brand and the story behind it. They want to connect with something, not just exchange money. 

Your brand’s voice and values need to be deeply ingrained in all of your communication: email, website, social media, etc. Wherever your potential customers interact, they need to encounter the same branding. Paying particular attention to your website is mandatory. After all, 97% of consumers said they looked for a product or service online at least once a year. So, the chances are that the first thing they will come across is your website. This means your site needs to clearly and thoughtfully represent your brand to its visitors. 

Most Common Website Branding Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Inconsistency 

As mentioned before, to show a solid and robust brand, you need to be consistent. If the visitors see one brand on your website and another on your social media, it will not connect and honestly care about your brand. But, inconsistency is not only a mistake when it happens across platforms. Inconsistency can also be harmful when it is seen on the same website. Don’t confuse users and customers. Showing who you are by being consistent will make them trust you and realize that you are genuine when presenting yourself. 

Of course, to present a consistent brand, you need to have a well-defined and robust brand story first. You can get a branding agency to help you in building one. If you already have one, make sure you communicate all of your company’s branding to the web designer right from the start. This means to provide them with your brand strategy, brand story, fonts, color palette, logos, and all the other elements that comprise your brand. Make sure you constantly check on their progress to ensure they are not going off-brand. 

Ignoring Competitors 

Of course, you should focus on being you and developing your unique brand. However, this does not mean ignoring what your competitors are doing. Some tricks and techniques will prove successful for them, and you need to gauge if they are helpful for you. And also, if they are not beneficial for you, you can still realize what trends are popping up and remain ahead of the game. Remember, success is not just about doing well but about being the most attractive option on the market. 

Additionally, checking on your competition will let you foresee possible mistakes on their part–or yours–and identify gaps in the market. Knowing these things and the ones explained previously will help you be successful. 

When building your site, ensure you have previously done the competitor analysis. It is always better to create something well-thought-out than to fix it along the process. But, of course, once your site is up and running, constant competitor checks need to be done to adapt your strategy.

Playing it too safe

It would help if you avoided mistakes; we understand that. However, you can let your fear of committing errors stop you from trying new things. After all, taking risks is not a bad thing. Although something can not come off as you planned, something risky, daring, might get you to just that level you have been dreaming of. 

No successful business has gotten to where they are from playing it safe. Neither should you. Of course, knowing your history and seeing the competition will help you avoid mistakes, but making a few in your career won’t break you. Risk-taking is essential to innovation. Take the risk–as calculated as you can–but take it. 

Some precautions that might help you take the risk without risking too much are:

• Take advantage of everyone in your company, not just take ideas from executives. Your most recent recruit might have a brilliant idea. Hear them out. 
• Make a risk assessment of all the possible ideas your team has. How would each scenario play out? What measures can you take to decrease errors? 
• Get people’s opinions. Having only one set of eyes proofing what you plan to do is never a good idea. Check with others at your company and ensure your brand is always consistent. 

And last but not least, the need to innovate is not just a nice plus; it is a requirement to survive in today’s business world. With the vast number of websites, customers already know what’s generic and basic and don’t like it. Prove to them and your competition that you are different and learn to provide value without missing your brand. 

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Presenting your brand on your website is key to connecting with your customers and creating a business people love. Take the tips given here to avoid these common mistakes, but do not forget to take risks and innovate in your way. If you are looking to improve your branding, a reliable brand design agency needs to take care of your company’s branding needs. Let them do their job, but know you know what’s important and needed.