The $0 Brand Audit: 5 Things You Can Check Right Now
- Bhumi Agrawal
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
It’s a black-tie event. Everyone important you know is going to be there, so of course, you have to bring your best.
Your tuxedo is sleek. Your white shirt is ironed crisp. Your bow tie sits just right. And your cufflinks? Shiny and on point.
You arrive… only to realise you’re still wearing your Crocs with it.
Yikes.
Suddenly, everyone around you turns into Miranda Priestly: the looks, the silent judgement, and the disappointment. Not because Crocs are terrible (I love them), but they don’t belong here. They break the flow. They belong in your wardrobe, just not with this outfit.
But you’d never do that on purpose, right?
It was unintentional.
Yet, this is exactly what happens with most brands.
You might have a beautiful logo. You might even have a full brand identity. But if the colours keep changing, the fonts don’t match, and the visuals are different everywhere… the impact disappears. Not because your brand is bad, but because it’s inconsistent.
When it comes to branding, having pretty pieces doesn’t mean much unless they are working together.
In this blog, I’ll show you how to audit your brand in 5 simple steps… so that it doesn’t accidentally wear Crocs to a black-tie event.
And yes, it costs $0.
Table of Contents:
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The Consistency Check
Starting off with the big one: brand consistency.
This is where I’ve personally seen most brands slip up. And it’s almost always unknowingly. It doesn’t happen because founders don’t care, but because things grow fast.
The website must be up and functioning. An Instagram post has to be scheduled. A pitch desk is to be made… There’s just sooooo many things! And somewhere, between all this growth, chaos ensues. Your brand suddenly starts looking like it has multiple personalities.
Brand consistency simply means this: Your brand should look and feel like the same brand everywhere it shows up.
This includes the following aspects:
Your logo (the same version)
Your colour palette
Your typography
Your overall visual style
I’ve personally seen brands use different logos across different platforms… No amount of “It’s just a creative choice” justifies it. It’s just plain confusing. For your audience and your team.
It’s not about “I don’t want my brand to be boring.”
It’s about letting your brand feel like it belongs to itself.
Still confused? Don’t worry. We keep things practical over here.
Here’s a quick check you can do right now:
Open your website, Instagram, LinkedIn, and any pitch deck you’ve used recently. Observe them side-by-side.
Ask yourself: Do these look like they come from the same brand?
If the answer is “kind of” or “not really”, that right there is a red flag for your brand consistency.
The Competition Check
A brand audit is incomplete without looking outside your own bubble.
This step is simple yet the most powerful.
Compare your brand with three direct competitors.
The “C” in competition stands for clue, not copy. This exercise helps you to “C” (see) whether you stand out or blend in.
What you should be focusing on:
Their logos
Their colour palettes
Their tone of voice
Their overall feel
Now, look at yours.
If you were to swap logos between brands, would anyone notice?
From The Field:
When a real estate client came to me, we began with a brand strategy session. I always begin my process by understanding their values, beliefs, and what they (wanted to) stand for.
The next day, I sat down to research their competitors. And you know what? Almost every real estate logo I could find looked the same. Buildings. Keys. Rooftops. Houses. Doors. Sometimes, a creative genius would throw in a location pin. It was hard to tell one brand from another.
That repetition made one thing very clear: I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. I just needed to not use the wheel everyone else was using.
So instead of following the norm, I focused on what mattered to them.
They spoke about financial freedom, the number 7 and its spiritual significance to them, and about building something rooted in their values.
The result was an identity built around a bird, which symbolised freedom, with a subtle 7 formed within the wings and paired with a confident typography in a saffron-inspired orange rooted in meaning.
The takeaway? Good competitor research isn’t about doing what everyone else is doing, just “better” (it’s still copying). It’s about spotting gaps and building a brand that fills them.
Mini action you can do:
Put your brand next to three of your competitors.
If a stranger has to guess which one is yours, would it be obvious?
The Team Test
This is the most underrated one.
Here’s a question most founders don’t ask themselves during a brand audit but absolutely should:
Can your team create brand assets without constantly asking for your approval?
If the brand only exists in your head, it’s not a brand, it’s a bottleneck.
Your team should be able to:
Create social media posts
Put together a pitch deck
Design basic assets
…without needing you to guide every single decision.
This is the part where documentation matters. More than you think.
And no, you don’t need to have a 40-page PDF.
Brand guidelines can be stated in a simple, clear reference document, and it’s more than enough.
And while we’re here, where do your brand assets live?
Google Drive? Notion? Someone’s desktop from 2022?
If your team doesn’t know where to find the right logo or correct colours, brand consistency will continue to be an uphill battle.
Silly “I’m a human too” Moment: I actually learnt this the hard way. When I first started posting on LinkedIn, I’d write directly on the platform and schedule it. No notes. No sheets. No system.
A few months later, I needed a specific post that I knew I had written, but of course, it was lost among dozens of my other posts with no easy way to find it.
Now, thankfully, it was just a post and not something as critical as brand guidelines. But that’s exactly the point. If you can’t easily find what you’ve created, your team definitely won’t.
Documentation isn’t boring (okay, maybe it kinda is, BUT) it saves you from recreating things, second-guessing yourself, and losing consistency over time.
Learn from my mistake. I definitely did.
Mini Action:
Ask someone from your team to create a social media post or slide without any input from you.
If they’re unsure, confused, or keep checking with you, your brand needs better documentation and systems.
The Positioning Statement
This is the clarity test.
Can you explain what you do in one clear sentence?
No, no, no. No paragraphs. Not a pitch. Just one sentence.
And now, the most important part: is what you just said visually supported by your brand?
This part of the brand audit isn’t about clever wording. It’s about honesty. If you describe your business differently every time someone asks, that’s a red flag. Not because you’re doing something wrong, but because your positioning isn’t clear yet.
Strong brands prioritise clarity over jargon. Your audience shouldn’t have to decode what you do.
Mini Action:
“We help do by .”
If this feels hard or keeps changing, your positioning needs attention, and unfortunately, your branding is likely reflecting this confusion too.
The First Impression Test
It’s time to step out of founder mode and get into customer mode.
Imagine someone discovering your brand for the first time. No context, no explanation, no insider knowledge. Just what they see.
Ask yourself:
Can you tell what they do?
Do they know who it’s for?
Does the brand feel trustworthy?
Wanna up the stakes? Show your website or socials to someone who knows nothing about your brand. Their unfiltered reaction is your real first impression. Not the polite feedback. The honest one.
Another step further??? Ask yourself this:
If you were your ideal customer, would you feel confident giving this brand your money?
You’ve got your answers.
Stop chasing perfection. Start focusing on clarity and credibility.
Mini Action:
Share your website or socials with someone outside your business.
Ask them what they think you do and who they think it’s for without correcting them.
What This Brand Audit Is (And Isn’t)
Don’t be disheartened.
Let me honestly tell you that failing parts of this brand audit in no way means that your brand is bad.
It simply means your brand is growing (yayy) and needs alignment (soon to be a yayy).
Most branding problems aren’t about aesthetics; they’re about keeping up with them. This means brand consistency, clarity, and systems. The good news? These are all fixable.
This brand audit helps you figure out:
What’s working
What’s inconsistent
What actually needs investment next
Not everything needs to be fixed in one go. And not everything needs money right now.
Conclusion
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this, it’s this: your brand doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to make sense together.
A brand audit isn’t about tearing everything down or questioning every decision you’ve ever made. It’s simply a pause. A step back to check whether all the pieces you already have are working as a team, or quietly fighting each other.
Because most branding issues don’t come from bad design. They come from small inconsistencies that build up over time. Different fonts here. A slightly different colour there. A message that sounds confident on one platform and unsure on another. Individually, they feel harmless. Together, they’re the Crocs.
And the good news? You don’t need a rebrand every time something feels off. Often, you just need clarity, consistency, and a system that makes it easier to show up the same way, everywhere.
So take a few minutes. Run through the audit. Fix what’s obvious. Park what can wait. And remember: your brand already has the pieces, it just needs to wear them together.
Because when everything finally works in sync, your brand doesn’t just look good.It feels intentional. Trustworthy. Worth choosing.
If you’re still feeling unsure after this, that’s completely okay. Branding can be confusing when you’re inside it every day. And if you’d rather not figure it out alone, I’m always happy to help you get clarity.