A brand strategy defines what your business stands for, it’s a promise you make, and the personality you use to convey your message. It includes your business logo, color pallet, and slogan, but there is more to a brand strategy.
Your brand is your reputation and reflects on your business mission and values. Sometimes, things don’t go as planned in your strategy for your brand, and these incidents can have a negative effect on your brand. Here are seven signs that your brand strategy needs work.Â
1. Not Taken Seriously
You need a strong brand strategy to be taken seriously. It is easy to cross the line though in your branding and end up not being taken seriously, so it’s a balancing act that you need to be aware of. Never embellish your offering, keep your originality, and remain authentic and professional. If you have a strong brand strategy, you do not need to oversell yourself to your audience and followers.Â
2. Low EngagementÂ
If you start to lose engagement with followers, it might be time to consider reaching out to current and past customers for feedback on where you need to improve your brand. Some problems that can cause low engagement are:
- Inconsistency in content schedule
- Emphasizing topics that don’t match up to your audience’s interests
- Not engaging directly with your network
- Being too self-promotional or pushy.Â
View your insights and analytics to see where engagement has been dropping and begin to post content related to your brand again to re-engage your audience.Â
3. Loss of Definition
Sometimes when you spend too much time on your brand strategy, you can lose the definition of yourself and your brand, especially if they are becoming intertwined. When you lose, you are why your originality and purpose begin to fade. When you find yourself slipping on what your main goal is, take it back to the basics and focus on why you originally started your brand to help you regain focus.Â
4. Shifted Focus
You need to find a balance between your brand and personal life. It’s easy for your attention to change into another direction, depending on what you are going through at that time. When you’re shifting your focus into different topics or areas, you need to maintain your brand strategy to avoid losing the followers and momentum you’ve been building.Â
5. Changing brand
To make your brand, it needs to remain constant and recognizable to your followers, so they get used to knowing it. It builds familiarity with your audience and develops their expectations. They know when they see your brand what they can expect. However, if you are changing your brand and not consistent with branding, you will confuse your audience, and it will cause uneasiness with your followers.Â
6. Low Visibility
If you are searching for your business online, and you don’t see as results, then your brand isn’t visible, and you are going to struggle to build your brand strategy. Don’t rely only on social media to grow your brand, use content marketing, and guest posts to help get your name out there and, over time, help you build a following and visibility.Â
7. No Focus
Your marketing efforts are only focusing on what you’ve previously done, such as achievements or old awards. You are not doing yourself any favors and will have a hard time growing. You need to gain a new focus for the future to continue to grow. You want a brand strategy to be forward-thinking and focused on what is coming up and what you are trying to build now for your company’s future.Â
