10 Common Branding Mistakes That Solopreneurs Make

Branding is not what most solopreneurs think it is. It’s not just a side project that can be done in your spare time, but rather a genuine business necessity that you need to focus on every day.

Reports show that 81% of customers buy from brands they trust, while 86% of consumers say that authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support.

We know it can be difficult for a solopreneur to find enough time to build trust and authenticity, but the truth is very simple – if you don’t do it, rest assured your business will fail.

The big question is how to avoid common branding mistakes and solidify your position in the solopreneur business. While there are many dangers to look after here, we narrowed down the list to 10 frequent branding mistakes that solopreneurs make. Let’s check them out! 

1. Fail to make a branding strategy

Trying to build a brand without the corresponding strategy is nothing but a big waste of time, money, and effort. Every company needs a detailed course of action and solopreneurs must come up with highly specific techniques on how to create a strong and appealing brand. 

What are you supposed to do here? Here are the basic steps:

• Determine the style of the brand
• Design a good-looking website
• Think about visual differentiation
• Choose the right channels of communication

2. Trying to appeal to all customers

There’s not a single company out there that can successfully target each and every consumer. No matter how versatile your portfolio may be, you can never satisfy the needs of all consumers. 

A much better tactic is to focus on a smaller niche and target one or two customer groups exclusively. It will help you to adjust the brand and make it look more attractive and trustworthy in the eyes of your target audience. 

3. Not asking for professional assistance

As a solopreneur, you can hardly become a brand-building expert. This is exactly why you have to ask for professional assistance to help you with branding elements you don’t have the knowledge of. 

For instance, you can probably handle proofreading alone, but can you really fill the website with high-quality essay papers and articles?

4. Thinking that logo is all there is

A logo is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. As such, your business logo is by far the most important component of visual branding – but it’s not the only one. Don’t make the mistake of focusing on logo exclusively as there are many other branding aspects to consider, including color schemes, visual templates, typography, image filters, and so on. 

5. Trying to emulate competitors

Your niche probably has a handful of well-established brands that already dominate the market. This is totally fine because that’s how business works these days, but you should not try to emulate any of these companies. 

Why not? 

The answer is easy – you have to stay unique and build a special brand that stands out in the crowd. You will, of course, follow the best practices in your niche, but your branding strategy should come with a simple tweak in order to make your business memorable.

6. Follow trends all the time

Trends are good because they help solopreneurs change the pace and regain the audience’s attention, but they don’t help you build a strong brand. It’s not good to change your style and approach every year or so because you’ll end up running a faceless company that no one remembers by anything special. Sometimes you’ll have to follow the trends (just think about COVID-19 and its influence on modern businesses), but most of the time you can simply neglect them.

7. Not seeing the whole picture

You’ve started a local business with no global aspirations, but do you plan to leave it like that forever? It is almost impossible to predict the long-term development of a company, so do your best to build a brand that can leave a great impression on international customers. 

Apart from using well-known symbols and imagery, you should stay away from branding components that could make the audience feel angry or disinterested. For example, different colors can have completely different meanings in Japan, USA, and Singapore, so make sure to do your homework on time and keep the whole picture in mind.

8. Lacking consistency

According to the study, the greatest negative impact of inconsistent brand usage is the creation of confusion in the market. If you want to build long-term relationships with the target audience and grow the army of loyal customers, you must be consistent branding-wise. It all comes down to this:

• Use colors and other visual details consistently
• Nurture a well-known style of writing
• Let your images and videos have the same connotation

9. You don’t develop writing skills

If you don’t want to spend money on finance assignment help forever, you simply have to try and develop strong writing skills. Don’t think you won’t need it as there are so many reasons to invest in the art of copywriting. 

First of all, you can reduce branding costs by taking over this portion of work. Secondly, you can create a unique style of writing and impress the audience with exciting posts. And thirdly, it will help you to become recognized as one of the key opinion leaders in your niche.

10. Not showcasing your personality

The last tip is going hand in hand with the previous one. Whenever you take any branding actions or publish a fresh piece of content, you ought to showcase your personality. After all, you are a solopreneur and you want people to get acquainted with you and your style, interests, and beliefs. It will strengthen the bonds with the target audience and help you skyrocket the business in the long run.

Up to You!

Being a solopreneur is not easy, but it doesn’t set you free from creating a sustainable and long-term branding strategy. There is no room for improvisation and omissions in this are because even the smallest shortcoming can make a serious impact on your business.

In this post, we analyzed 10 common branding mistakes that solopreneurs make and explained how to avoid them. Have you ever made any of these mistakes? What do you consider to be the greatest challenge in solopreneur branding? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments – we would love to see it!