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Are you constantly finding yourself tweaking your branding? You come across a cute colour palette or a font you fall in love with or some amazing inspiration on Pinterest and you find yourself tweaking your branding again for the 3rd time this month. This is a common problem for multi passionate and creative business owners. We fall in love with so many styles and elements and constantly experiment on our own branding, trying to express a part of who we are and what we love.

It can feel like there is no one way to visually express yourself and your business, and that picking a single brand aesthetic just doesn't quite say all you want it to. It can feel limiting and boring.

The trouble is that constant changes to your branding can hurt your brand more than help it and can leave your audience losing trust and feeling confused about who you are and what you have to offer.

While it is tempting to update your brand every time you feel the urge to re-invent yourself, it can negatively impact your businesses growth, consistency and trust.

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The Danger of an Inconsistent Brand Identity

One of the biggest problems with constant re-branding and brand tweaks is the loss of consistency. You can't build up consistency and become memorable and recognisable when you are constantly changing things. Think of it like compound interest. The more we expose people to our brand the fast it builds up recognition and trust. Every time you change things its like starting from scratch again.

A brand isn't just about looking aesthetically pleasing or being trendy, it's a cohesive experience, where your customers begin to feel like they know you better and better and start to really recognise and trust your business.

If you are confusing people with constant change, they will find it harder to trust your brand. Their will be an air of uncertainty. It sets a tone of being unsure of your business, being inconsistent and unprofessional. They will wonder if your offers are also constantly changing up, if you are reliable and if you will be professional and provide quality services/products.

While there are times when a re-brand is necessary, it shouldn't be too regularly and it should be clearly communicated when it happens, so it feels purposeful rather than you just changing your mind weekly.

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When you change things up regularly it is also more than likely that you miss things. Perhaps you update your website and your Instagram, but forget about some of your other less used platforms. It can be a lot of work to do a complete re-brand as you need to update every touchpoint in your brand. When this happens to often, you will easily forget about and overlook things, and before you know it you r brand begins to look inconsistent. It is harder for people to recognise your across different platforms as some things have older versions of your branding and others newer.

This will look messy and means your audience are less likely to recognise you, and this means losing that build up of consistency. It than becomes harder for people to build an emotional connection with your brand and spot you in places they don't normally connect with you.

People need to be exposed to something at least 7 times before it feels familiar. And we trust familiar. So to build that familiarity you need to make sure every opportunity someone has to notice and connect with your brand feels consistent.

Think about the big brands that you instantly recognise. The reason you recognise them even without seeing there logo is because they have worked hard to build up that consistency.

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TIP: Whether you are starting from scratch or realising you need to rebrand to better reflect your business. Take time to build a clear identity then stick with it for at least 6 months before considering changing it. Often we can get swept up in new ideas only to realise they weren't really the right fit. If you feel the temptation to make changes keep your ideas filed away somewhere and if after 6 months of staying consistent you still feel that need to change, you will know it is the right move rather than just a spur of the moment thing.

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You are Diluting Your Brand Message

Every change and tweak you make to your brand risk diluting and confusing your brand message. Every part of your brand identity should be communicating a message about your brand. This means if you keep on changing things that message begins to become confusing at it is always shifting. Your audience will begin to feel confused about what you stand for, what your business is all about and who you actually help.

This is why branding should always start with getting clear on your message. Clarity in branding is crucial. Without it you risk sending the wrong message and attracting the wrong people.

If you are finding you keep getting the wrong kind of customers/clients and those dream people never seem to show up, it's more than likely your message isn't clear and is drawing in the wrong leads.

If you want the right people to fall in love with your brand and for them to clearly understand what you stand for and what you offer you need to get clear on your message. Once you have clarity about your message you can then craft and identity that communicates that message.

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TIP: Build strong brand foundations before even considering your aesthetic. Consider your mission, values, story, audience and offers. Know what your dream audience are looking for. You can then build a brand that communicates that message and resonates with your dream audience.

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Stop Wasting Time- Focus on What Matters

Be honest... how often are you procrasti- branding. You know, procrastinating doing the important but perhaps less exciting things that you should be doing in your business. It could be because they feel mundane and less glamorous or that you are feeling resistance because it is challenging or requires something of you that makes you feel uncomfortable. So you waste time on Pinterest looking at pretty inspiration dreaming up a new look for your brand, that really isn't necessary.

Maybe you think you are just one font away from big business success. If you could just nail that perfect look.

It's time for a check in. Yes branding can be powerful, but constant brand changes as we have already discussed can be detrimental. It's more than likely you are just wasting time rather than focusing on what matters- running your business and serving your customers.

You need to think like a professional. Take your brand seriously, get clear on a strong identity and then get to work running your business. If you are spending all your time playing, it is becoming a distraction and leading your business to be treated more like a hobby.

If you are feeling unsure about the right direction for your brand. Start by keeping it very simple then get out there and start connecting with your audience and customers. Find clarity in your brand message by doing. Discover who you most enjoy working with, learn what matters most to your in business, find out what your audience are looking for and what resonates most with them and how you can best serve them. Then when you feel more confident about your messaging you can spend time getting serious about your branding and build a strong identity you will stick with.

If you try to keep tweaking as you go, you will slow down the process of discovering and lose time that could have been spent getting the clarity you need to build a strong brand.

Remember your branding should support your business growth, not slow it down. There are times when simple but done is better than trying to endlessly perfect it.

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TIP: Review your brand every 6-12 months. Evaluate if it still aligns with your business direction and message. Instead of being carried away by styles, this will allow you to approach branding more strategically noticing if things need to shift for a reason rather than on a whim.

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When is it time to make Changes?

There is still a time and pace to make changes to your branding. So don't panic and think your decisions must be perfect because they need to last forever. There are times when re-branding or making updates is necessary to keep your brand growing and relevant.

So how can you know that it is time for a change? As I mentioned before it helps to do regular brand reviews. Here are some things you should look out for:

• Your business has taken a new direction. Perhaps you have pivoted your niche or audience or have made some big changes to how your business operates.
• Your current branding no longer aligns with your values or offerings.
• You have outgrown your branding. Perhaps you have been in business a few years now and have a lot more skill and clarity and need n identity that better reflects that growth.
• You realise that you never branding correctly in the first place and want to do it the right way this time.
• You are attracting the wrong people. If you realise your message isn't clear and the wrong people are being drawn to your business it may be time to get to know your ideal audience better and adjust things.

The key is not to change things to often and when you do, do it with intention and take your time to make your updated branding meaningful so it won't need to change again for a while.

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Remember consistency is key to growing a strong brand, but it only works if the branding is purposeful and conveys the right message.

So don't let the urge to tweak things and experiment on your brand derail your business growth. Branding is powerful but only when done the right way.

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READ ALSO: How to Build a Strong Brand with Consistency

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Learn more about common branding mistakes and begin working on your brand the right way, grab the Vision to Visuals Workbook.

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