1. Can a stranger tell what you do?
Open your homepage and ignore the logo. In five seconds, could a stranger explain what you sell, who it is for and why it matters? If the answer is ‘sort of’, your customers are doing unpaid detective work.
2. Is there a reason to choose you?
Good service and quality work are the entry fee, not the whole show. Look for a specific difference in your approach, experience, audience, offer or point of view. If the same line fits five competitors, it is not doing enough.
3. Does the experience match the claim?
A premium promise followed by a vague proposal is not premium. A friendly promise followed by robotic emails is not friendly. Compare what you say with what customers actually encounter.
4. Would anybody recognise you without the logo?
Recognition comes from repeated choices: language, colour, layout, imagery, behaviour and subject matter. If removing the logo makes every communication anonymous, the identity has not spread far enough.
5. Is the next step obvious?
A useful brand makes decisions easier. Visitors should know what to read, buy, book or ask next. A maze of equal buttons is not customer choice. It is administrative revenge.
The prescription
Do this next.
- Ask someone outside the business to take the five-second homepage test.
- Highlight every claim a close competitor could make unchanged.
- Choose one customer handover and compare the experience with the promise.