6 Major Branding Mistakes To Avoid In Your Startups’ Journey

Mistakes are something everybody hates, but unfortunately, we make mistakes, and only later we realize where we went wrong! But yes, that’s what life’s all about.

Mistakes are prevalent in the corporate business world. After all, failure teaches us more about ourselves than success. Now hold on, we are not telling you to make mistakes intentionally; if you made a mistake, learn from it; that’s all. Simple, isn’t it?

However, when startups make branding mistakes, the consequences are often much more severe than if, say, an established business with a trusted audience makes a mistake.

When an established organization makes a branding mistake, they have brand equity built up. While the mistake may be exposed on a bigger stage, later on, they’ve done good enough – sold more products, build good relationships, proven their existence, etc. — survives during the crucial time and creates moments for success. A sensitive, mature business’s pre-existing reputation serves as its safety.

The same method cannot be implemented in a startup. When a startup makes a branding mistake, you don’t get a chance to see back. Unfortunately, this often results in a disaster and shatters growth before you can even think to start.

When it comes to branding, startups have to be very careful and need to keep their eyes open and analyze the market. One branding mistakes can demolish your entire plan, and trust us; it can seriously damage your chances of success. That’s why we’ve listed some of the most common branding mistakes generally startups make. Thanks for being with us until now readers; we will discuss those crucial points and kindly be with us till the end to know all about it. 

Mistake 1. Not Monitoring Your Brand Online.

You may have an outstanding vision for your brand, congratulations, but what matters is what people say and think. And the internet allows anybody, anywhere, to share their thoughts about your brand. Ah, overall, every person has a right to express their views and ideas.

Blogs, social media presence, YouTube reviews, etc., these are the things that build up your online brand. And if you’re not monitoring them, you will lose control in the competitive online market.

 Monitoring your brand online helps you find out how your brand image looks currently.

That’s the first step – if you don’t know what’s working and what’s not, it’s tough to work trying to improve anything.

There are many brand tracking tools available. You may choose Mention, where you can track your brand’s conversation anywhere online and generate analysis and reports with a few simple clicks.

 But if you’re just starting your startup, and you don’t have a budget to invest in a tool, nevertheless, you want a quick pulse of your online brand; you can try this free tool, the Brand Grader.

Note- We are not promoting any tools; it’s just for your reference. Unboxing Startups is committed to providing the best information possible. Therefore, we avoid advertising content in our blog.

Mistake 2. You Ignore the Value of Employees.

Startups need to control their branding efforts, but this doesn’t mean you have to handle everything from within a corporate silo. Trust us, one of the best resources you have is in your office employees, something we search for, and we forget that we already have a solution; all we need is to trigger at the right time. 

People today trust person-to-person communication and tend to ignore direct advertising by brands. Thus, personal consulting takes precedence over corporate communications. By letting your employees be on social media, you introduce a fleet of small personal brands to help in your business branding.

Mistake 3. Not Having a Customer-Centered Brand Policy.

Companies like Amazon, Flipkart, and many others built their brands around their customers. They sell only customer-centric products, and for them, customers are everything. This is what has helped them to become multi-billionaire companies.

If your brand is not customer-centered, you will struggle to go ahead and face a situation when you may decide not to go beyond. But, when you have a customer-first policy, your users will be more inclined to be brand advocates, and advocates are worth their weight in diamond.

Mistake 4. Not Being Responsive Online.

Gone are when social media used to be only for talking and communicating with friends and family. Now, social media is the right marketplace for marketing, and you also get a chance to showcase our brand to the world and build chaos. Therefore, you must pay special attention when it comes to being responsive on social media platforms.

 Consumers today are vocal and expressive, and social media has given a platform to raise their voice and express their feelings. If you’re not responsive to questions and feedback on your social media platforms, then the image you portray online will be a business that doesn’t care about its consumers. And trust us, it might seriously hurt your brand name.

Mistake 5. Not Innovating and Experimenting.

Innovation and experimentation are the brain and heart of marketing and branding. If you fail to innovate, you will be left behind by your competitors who are trying and experimenting with new things, and we are sure you don’t want that to happen.

The mistake of not innovating and experimenting is not one a successful startup can make. Start thinking outside the box, and for more referrals on related information; you can scroll from our 100+ blogs on Unboxingstartups.

Mistake 6. Social Media Mistakes.

Social media is a great platform to help your business to grow and create networks. At the same time, it’s also a dangerous resource to utilize in certain situations. For a startup, you’d love the possible attention you can gain from social media but make a mistake, and you’ll end up receiving the wrong kind of attention you want.

Two mistakes that should be avoided, such as:

1. Never picking a fight

2. Going off-brand

The first point is pretty straightforward. The last thing you want to do is get in a dispute with a customer online because it can quickly go public.

The second mistake relates to your brand, making posts that are entirely unrelated to your brand/business/sector. These are some examples of how posts have backfired or mistakes have been made.

We hope you have understood these branding mistakes; wait; we have a small surprise for you. We are going to discuss a bonus point for you. Cheers.

We are one of the fastest-growing startups in India; therefore, we always believe in giving our readers extra knowledge.

Bonus Mistake – Not Building A Community Around Your Brand

It would be best if you endeavored to have a healthy and thriving community of customers. You do this by allowing added value that goes beyond your main product or service.

There are many ways to attain this, such as creating content that enriches your customer lives or by creating forums where you can engage directly with your customers and engage with each other.

Yes, We Are Wrapping.

Getting from where your brand is now to where it wants to be is a long journey, but you can get to where you want to be a lot sooner by avoiding the above common branding mistakes.

If you have any other doubts about the information, we would suggest you read again, which is not that difficult. Also, you can write to us at hello@unboxingstartups.com

Karan Jain

Born in the family of entrepreneurs and have inherited the same. Started building applications in order to pay for my tuition. Later founded a tech company, marketing agency, and media outlets.