If you’ve reached the point in your business where you’re thinking of rebranding, you might actually be more nervous than excited, right? Rebranding can feel like a huge undertaking. I know a lot of business owners that struggle with the idea of rebranding and allow it to weigh heavily on their shoulders. If your new brand direction is causing more anxiety than excitement: 1. those feelings are incredibly common, and 2. it doesn’t need to be that way.
Rebranding doesn’t have to be daunting. It can and should feel like an exciting next phase in the evolution of your entrepreneurial journey and not an identity crisis. Rebranding is not only a great opportunity for you and your business to get a fresh start, but it can be incredibly beneficial to both your bottom line and happiness in the long run—IF you know how to successfully rebrand yourself or your business. And that’s where I come in.
Rebranding: What It Means
A rebrand can cover a lot of different areas but overall it occurs when a business is changing a significant element of their brand, like the brand image, brand identity, or brand personality. Rebranding a business could mean anything from changing a logo to taking your product or service-based business in a completely different direction—and everything in between.
That being said, a brand is much more than just a logo. A brand embodies the feelings and the experience your ideal clients, customers, and consumers when the encounter it, which is why it’s so important your brand speak to your core values and offerings.
Rebranding is a great way to stimulate growth and gain that competitive advantage in your market.
Most every business or company will need to consider rebranding sooner or later to make sure it evolves with times. To survive in this ever-changing business environment, you need to make sure your brand strategy is 100% on point and aligned with your vision for the future.
Reasons For Rebranding
There comes a time in every business when a rebrand is just what the doctor ordered. Don’t worry about being pigeonholed because humans (and brands) are naturally going to evolve. It’s completely normal and should be embraced!
Brands need to stay relevant in this competitive online environment in order to resonate with their target audience. Even an established brand sometimes needs a little fixing up in order to keep up with the latest market trends. Plus, if you want to maintain your brand loyalty, you need the quality of your branding to match the quality of your business.
Below are some reasons that businesses choose to implement a rebrand:
Your Brand Doesn’t Represent Your Products or Services
A rebrand can be a simple case of outgrowing your current brand. It’s inevitable for successful businesses to grow, change, pivot, or alter elements of your business. Even if you’ve just added another service or made a new product available, your brand needs to encompass this change. This could mean anything from a subtle tweak in your messaging to a small design change to your logo.
Your Brand Isn’t Attracting Your Target Audience
If you have a target audience you are trying to reach and they aren’t getting the message, that may mean your branding is unclear and needs some attention. You might even be attracting the wrong group of people who want to work with you—which is flattering but, ultimately, they are not your ideal customer. If this is happening, take this as a clear indication that your brand needs some tweaking and you should look at a rebrand.
Your Brand Isn’t Helping You Grow
If you’ve made changes to your product line, services, or want to include a new potential customer group, then you need to make sure your brand effectively represents this new change. As you or your business grows, so will you brand. If your brand ever hinders your growth, you know it’s a sure sign for a rebrand.
Your Brand Doesn’t Represent You
Being known for whatever you want to be known for in your business might take a second or two to strategize. Even if you’ve nailed this in the beginning of your business journey, don’t be afraid to “re-brand” or reinvent yourself if you feel your brand no longer truly represents where or who you are in your business. Always stay true and authentic to you.
You Don’t Love Your Brand
The same love and pride that you have for your business should be reflected in your brand. If your brand is missing this important element, you may start feeling a disconnect or dislike towards your brand. Your customers will feel this same disconnect and dislike, too. Make sure you create a business and brand you are proud of.
Whether it’s your brand name, brand image, or brand identity—if you don’t feel connected to it, you should consider a rebrand. Make your brand is everything you want it to be and don’t hold back.
Your Brand Isn’t Memorable
Having a simple brand can be a good thing, but you need to make sure your brand is memorable. If you are often mistaken for a competitor or your audience isn’t easily recalling your brand, products, or company, you need to evaluate what’s gone wrong with your branding. It should be obvious that your brand belongs to your company.
Your Brand Feels Stale
As with any industry or an established brand, there will come a time in your business journey where your once-shiny, new brand just isn’t cutting it. Remember, this is totally normal. Not all brands can stay fresh. If you want to avoid having a brand that feels stale or is starting to dim, then you definitely want to start thinking about a rebrand. Rebranding can help breath new life into your business.
How To Rebrand Yourself Or Your Business Successfully
It’s critical to make sure your branding strategy is on point. Here are a few fool-proof ways that you can start rebranding yourself or your business.
Ask Yourself these Important Questions
Depending on your rebranding needs, you need to take a good look at your existing brand and consider what needs to be changed.
- Are you looking to rebrand and overhaul your company or business completely?
- Is it your business goals, your mission, or your message that needs a makeover?
- Or does your branding look or style no longer match the work you do?
- Are you truly looking to rebrand or are you more looking to “refresh”?
- Are you making slight tweaks to your existing brand or are you looking to pivot or introduce new service or product offerings?
- Do you want to change your brand identity and who you are as a company?
These are all important questions to consider and you need to decide what is working for your brand and what isn’t. This will help you determine if you need a small tweak or if a massive revamp. Just make sure you are choosing what is right for your business. (If you need help with this, check out this Brand Audit ).
Change Your Domain Name
Before you even start the process of rebranding or changing your business name, make sure it’s available as a domain! (And also check on trademarks!) Nothing is worse than putting in all the effort just to find out the name isn’t usable. This can include your domain name, company name, social media handles, etc. Once you’ve confirmed it’s available, set up your old domain to redirect to your new one.
Secure Your New Brand’s Social Media Handle
Do this as soon as you’ve confirmed your domain name! You really want your social media handle to be as close to your business name as possible to avoid any confusion and to increase your chances of them finding you.
Legally Changing Your Brand
If you are changing the name of your business, you will need to file a new business name in the states where your business is registered. There are a few other legal things to make sure you check off but if this is totally out of your element, talk to a lawyer! They can help you get all your I’s dotted and T’s crossed. Especially when it comes to statements of information, copyright, trademarks, etc.
Match your mission to your new brand
You want to make sure your mission, vision and values align with your new brand. Sometimes these will need to be adjusted depending on how intense your rebrand is. You always want to make sure your branding choices are true to you and your business’ core beliefs.
Create a style guide
Creating a brand style guide can be so helpful during the rebranding process. Plus, it’s a great reference point for any internal reviews that you and your team can use as you update all the elements that aren’t on your rebranding radar! This style guide can be a shining light in helping you adjust your email signatures, letterheads, or anything other visual branding elements. You can also send this style guide to partners who need access to your logo and new brand identity.
Announcing Your New Brand
This is probably the best part of rebranding—announcing it to your audience! You and your team will want to come up with a strategy for announcing your new brand. Make sure you communicate why you chose to rebrand and how this new brand will be beneficial for them going forward.
Building Your New Brand: What’s Next?
Remember, announcing your new brand isn’t the end when it comes to rebranding. There is a lot of work that goes into building a successful new brand. It includes staying consistent in the promotion of it. You also want to keep letting your audience know about your new brand.
Here are three valuable resources to help you on your rebranding journey:
- If you want to discover the simple way to uncover and amplify your personal brand so you can get paid to do the work you love (and make it easy!), check out my FREE Masterclass on 3 Secrets to Building a Profitable Personal Brand.
- Personal Brand Audit to make sure that your brand is communicating exactly what you want it to communicate and where you might want to tweak your messaging.
- The Clarity Course, my proven process to build a profitable brand that attracts your ideal audience, grows your business, and stands out from the competition that will help you through any rebranding you’re doing now and in the future.
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