How to use a Brand Audit to Grow Your Business
Many types of audits can be done to evaluate your business; Website Audits, Busines Audits, Financial Audits, Marketing Audits and Brand Audits.
Brand Audits explore different aspects of your business like Internal Branding (Goals, Values, Mission, etc.) and External Branding (Logo, Colours, Marketing, etc.). Having a reliable brand strategy is a very effective way to make sure all the work you put into your business is coherent and bringing you the results you want.
You can have this done by a brand strategist like myself, but the good thing about brand audits is that you can do most of it by yourself. If you don’t find issues, then great! And if you do, you can decide whether you want to work with a pro or fix the problems yourself. Let’s get started!
Is there a business problem?
Are you auditing your brand because there’s a problem you want to address or are you doing it for a business health check? Here are some problems you might be experiencing if you have a branding issue:
Your business isn’t attracting your target audience. This can look like having a lot of website traffic but not many sales.
Your business isn’t standing out from your competitors. Why are they thriving and not you?
Marketing efforts aren’t giving results. You’ve invested time and money in campaigns with little to show for it.
Your business information and brand strategy
As yourself these questions first to assess what you want.
What are your business goals? Do you want to expand to multiple locations, create a larger product range, set up more income streams?
How do you want your brand to be perceived? Use words that could be used to describe a person like friendly, energetic, reliable, fun, relaxing, sassy, etc.
Who is your target audience? Where are they from? which social media do they use? Where do they spend their time?
How do you want your users to feel? Do you want them to be invigorated by working with you (think business coach) or relaxed (think spa).
Compare your marketing platforms
Put together side-by-side each of your social media feeds, your website, your ads, your business documents and printed assets like product packaging.
Do they all fit together?
Do they align with your target audience and your goals?
Your branding and visuals
For each of the following items, ask yourself if what you have is in line with your target audience. And remember your target audience is probably not you so try to set your own preferences aside!
Business Name and tagline - Are they in line with your business goals and values?
Logo - Is it memorable? Is it scalable to small and large formats? Does it communicate a single concept? Logos with too many elements tend to get cluttered.
Fonts - How many fonts are you using? 3 is usually a golden number with a main font, a more simple paragraph font and a fun accent font (like a handwritten one)
Colours - How many colours are you using? Do you have set values or do you use approximately the same shade of [Insert your colour here] every time you create a new graphic?
Photos - Do all your images have the same style? Do they incorporate some of your brand colours?
Make a plan, execute and monitor for improvements
If you answered no to multiple questions, you probably need to tweak some things to create a more cohesive and unified brand that will uplift your business. The right branding will directly speak to and attract your ideal clients. Have you ever discovered a new brand or product and felt like it was made just for you? This is what we’re aiming for here!
