At every stage of the business journey, marketing in some form is essential. If you’re just starting up, it will get your name out there, and you can begin building your relationships. If you’ve been going a while, it’s an opportunity to extend your reach and reinforce your brand values.
But marketing is also one of the ways we can build trust with our clients and prospects. And ultimately, all sales are based on trust.
So, in this Halloween-themed blog post (as if you hadn’t already guessed!), we list our top six scream-worthy marketing mistakes, which, when avoided, will stop you and your brand from looking like pumpkins!
Striking fear into designers everywhere, pixelated images look shocking. Beyond not being able to see the image clearly, it gives a bad impression. To both clients and prospects alike, it’s not obvious what the image is there to portray. That brand new gleaming café, those beautifully renovated rooms, or crisp close-ups get lost without detail.
Regardless of your actual intentions, to the world at large, it could look like you either don’t care about your brand and clients or don’t have the time to take a better image.
In a designer’s eyes, stretched and squashed images are equally as horrific crimes. Pictures distorted beyond their initial size and ratio give a strange — and strained — the quality that looks amateurish, and it could show a lack of respect for your brand.
Unless you’re using a watermark to assert your own copyright (which isn’t necessary under UK law), you shouldn’t be using watermarked images. Regardless of the copyright issues when using someone else’s work without their permission, watermarks look unprofessional.
Of course, some design and infographic platforms like Canva, Adobe Spark and Visme automatically place watermarks on your designs. Whether they do will depend on the images you choose and the account you have. If you use images with watermarks for professional purposes, it could make you look cheap.
Prospects and clients are a very discerning lot. People do notice, and if they don’t feel comfortable, they will go elsewhere. Banish watermarks to their rightful grave.
Fonts are great to play around with; there’s such a variety of fun and fantastical ones out there. But before you get carried away, you need to ask yourself which ones suit your brand? We suggest picking a maximum of two fonts for your branding and sticking to them. Use more, and you’ll give a confusing message; the text will be harder to read, and it could look like a spider has scuttled across your page. Oh, and you’ll be way off-brand too!
We don’t think so. Make sure your email address is keeping up appearances too; it will do wonders for the confidence your clients and prospects place in you. With a free email account from Google, Microsoft or Yahoo, you’ll lose your ever-reliable brand front. Which would you rather email a plumber on: hello@johnsplumbers.co.uk or johnsplumbers@gmail.co.uk? The trick is, the email provider gets the treat. So really, it’s a no-brainer, right?
The financial investment is small, but the value you’ll gain in your clients’ and prospects’ trust is more than worth it. Outwardly displaying a look of authenticity will go a long way to convincing your clients that you’re a bona fide, professional business. Simple, but highly effective.
The aim of any brand is to be recognisable and trustworthy. People can immediately identify who they’re dealing with, and over time brands become familiar faces. Some of the big brand logos are recognised the world over; take those ‘Golden Arches’, for example.
Although brands gradually evolve, presenting the same well-known face to the world is vital. By ensuring the voice, fonts and colours are in keeping with your brand, your audience will know who they’re interacting with, and you’ll build their trust.
There are also benefits in there for you. Branding is a great way to put boundaries in place for yourself, so you don’t get side-tracked with beautiful colours and fancy fonts that may look nice but actually have nothing to do with who you are as a company. If you have a brand style guide, stick to it, and if you don’t, perhaps consider producing one. If you do, whether you’re designing a presentation, posting on social media or writing a blog, you can easily take your brand into account.
Whatever your branding looks like, there’s one word you need to keep in mind, and that is consistency. No hair-raising surprises here, please!
We love Canva; you all know that. But did you know that using pre-made templates is a dangerous game when it comes to marketing and branding? There is nothing wrong with doing so, but how can a template be consistent with your branding if it’s pre-made?
Standing out amongst other companies, including your competitors, becomes much more difficult if you use off-the-shelf templates that everyone else on the internet also has access to. In some respects, it’s just your brand in fancy dress. Don’t be a zombie and follow the crowd; instead, design your own templates and be unique and true to your brand.
All of these points, from pixelated pictures to free email, lead to brand inconsistency. And, unfortunately, inconsistency breeds mistrust. To do business successfully, you need to build trust. Whether you’re in business to business or business to customer, if someone doesn’t trust you, they won’t work with you. Therefore, building that trust is essential.
Do you find marketing and branding fascinating? Want to know how to develop your own brand? You’re in for a treat! Check out one of our upcoming Atomic Branding Workshops! Hosted by our very own Dan Eighty3, find out what branding actually is, what we can learn from the biggest brands around, and what should be at the core of your marketing strategies.
You’re always welcome to get in touch. We’re not that frightening, honest! Contact us over social, email, or Google My Business. Or just visit our website. Happy Halloween!
