When is the right time to rebrand your business
If you’ve been in your business for a while, you’re probably wondering when is the right time to rebrand my business? This question often pops up when you feel something is off but you can’t say with absolute certainty what exactly that is.
Rebranding a business is a normal part of “growing up” as an entrepreneur and usually there are some tell-tale signs that can help you recognize it’s time to breathe new life into your brand identity.
In this post, I want to talk about those tell-tell signs and also share what goes into a rebranding process.
When is the right time to rebrand your business?
So let’s talk about that million dollar question: When is the right time to rebrand your business? Without further ado, here are 10 signs telling you SHOULD rebrand your business:
1. Your sales have decreased (or they’re non-existent)
If you have plenty of website visitors but no one is buying or converting to email subscribers, then there’s a pretty good chance there is a disconnect somewhere. Either your brand is off and not connecting with your audience or there is no strategy behind your brand. Either way, there’s something that needs fixing.
2. You get lots of traffic but no one sticks around
All of the above applies if your website gets a lot of visitors but they’re all leaving after reading the one page or the blog post. If you’ve done your market research (in other words, you know there is a demand for what you offer) and you’re not offering underwater basket weaving… something clearly needs to change.
3. You've changed your business direction
It’s not unusual for many business owners to pivot after reaching a certain point in their business. Nothing wrong with that… but you do need to rebrand in that case.
4. You're attracting the wrong customers
If your brand is attracting the wrong clients and customers, this is the biggest sign that it's time to rebrand. The funny thing about branding - you only attract what you reflect, so make sure your brand style reflects the kind of style your ideal clients are looking for.
5. You’re ready to take your side-hustle full-time
If you’ve been working in your business on the side, chances are you either don’t have a brand identity to begin with or you DIY-ed the whole thing to the best of your ability.
6. You’re changing your business name
If you feel like you’ve outgrown your business name or you want to expand your services and feel like you need a new name to reflect that, you should also consider a rebrand.
7. You struggle to raise your prices
As your business grows and you start to get more clients and more experience under your belt, it’s normal to raise your prices. But if you find it hard to justify the increase to your existing clients and you can’t close any new clients, then your ideal audience has a hard time seeing the value in your services. As you re-evaluate your brand strategy, you should consider a rebranding process as well.
8. You want to attract a new audience
You probably had some idea of the type of client you want to serve when you first started out with your business. But, over time, your ideal client avatar may have changed and that’s perfectly fine. However, if you’re trying to tap into the new market and attract a different type of audience, then it’s definitely the right time to rebrand your business. Remember, branding is all about how your customers feel about your business and the values you have as the badass boss babe you are. Millennials won’t necessarily be attracted to the same things as Generation X nor will they have the same values.
9. Your brand message feels all over the place
If your brand and business feel all over the place without a single concept that ties everything together, then you should rebrand your business. If you’ve introduced new offerings as a spur of the moment thing and without a long-term strategy, your business may now seem like a hodgepodge of things that don’t really make sense together. In that case, step back and think about your overall brand strategy: do you want to simplify and focus on one or two core packages or do you want to expand and diversify?
10. You’re embarrassed to hand out your business card or tell people about your website
It’s not unusual for many entrepreneurs to bootstrap everything in the beginning. But if you now cringe a little when you hand out your business card or tell people about your website, if you find yourself telling them you need to update your website at the same time, then babe, it’s time to rebrand your business.
What goes into a rebranding process?
The rebranding process is very similar to what you did the first time around when you defined a brand for your business. It’s the process of defining your brand values, mission, and vision, identifying your ideal client avatar, and understanding which parts of your brand identity need to be redone.
It could involve redesigning your logo, coming up with a new color palette, refreshing your website and other brand collaterals. It could be a simple refresh or a complete redesign from scratch. The scope of your rebrand depends entirely on the problems you’re trying to solve.
Final Thoughts
Aside from the signs above, asking yourself when is the right time to rebrand your business is often the best sign that your business is in serious need of a rebrand. If you've reached that point in your business, congrats babe! It means your business is ready to grow and go to the next level.