How To Successfully Rebrand Your Business
In today's post, I'd like to talk about how to successfully brand your business. In one of my earlier posts, I talked about how to know when is the right time to rebrand your business, and if you read it, then you know that the right time to rebrand is:
if you're changing the direction in your business
or if you feel that your original idea or name doesn't align with your brand values anymore.
If you’re getting ready to embark on a rebranding journey, watch the video below or read the transcript to learn how to successfully rebrand your business.
Start With Research
The first step on your rebranding journey is some research. You have to dig deep into your existing brand and figure out what exactly is off, what doesn't feel right, and what doesn't align with your original values, your idea or your mission statement.
Your research should help you understand how your clients and current fans and followers perceive your brand and what they think about it.
Then, you have to dig deep into your mission statement, your vision, and your brand values and see if they still align with how you're feeling today and the direction you want to take your business and your brand in.
The next part of your research is to audit your brand elements and see if they still accurately represent the new direction you're going in.
For example, if you wanted to be perceived as a feminine and elegant brand but now you want to be perceived as a hip and trendy brand; you have to see if your logo, your colors, your brand assets still represent those values. If the visual elements don't align with what you're trying to portray and the emotions that you're trying to evoke, then you're gonna have a hard time getting your customers, followers, and potential clients to actually feel connected to your brand.
Learn how to successfully rebrand your business and download free brand mission statement worksheet | Branding tips from Ley Design Studio | #branding
The last part in your research should be your ideal client avatar.
If you still plan on serving the same type of clients that you used to work with, then not a lot is going to have to change here. But if you're changing the type of clients you'd like to work with then you're going to need to recreate your ideal client avatar.
Once the research part is done, the next part of rebranding your business is to recreate your brand positioning.
This includes:
your brand mission
your brand vision
your brand values
your strategy
your name and your tagline.
You want to revisit those elements and either re-create them from scratch or take a look at what can still be applicable to your new brand and transfer those elements into the new and improved brand positioning guidelines that you're going to create for your brand.
For example, in some cases, you're going to find that you want to change the name because it doesn't suit you anymore. This is something that often happens with people who start off on one path and then realize that they want to expand into other areas. Let's say you started off with offering virtual assistant services for creative entrepreneurs, but as time progresses, you realized that you also enjoy offering some coaching or some consulting or another type of service.
In that case, if your business name was Happy Virtual Assistant, you'll realize that it doesn't accurately represent your brand anymore so you might want to change your business name. However, that doesn't mean you immediately have to change other brand elements. For example, your mission statement might remain the same and even your brand values — you might still value integrity or authenticity or audacity or boldness and those elements can then transfer over to your new brand.
Revisit your brand identity.
Once you're clear on your brand positioning, the next step is to revisit your brand identity. This is also the fun part and the process for this will be pretty much the same as the first time around when you were creating your brand.
During this step, you'll get into the tiny details that represent your brand -- your logo, your colors, your fonts, your branding assets, your workbooks, letterheads, business cards, any visual aspect of your brand -- this is where you have the chance to recreate it.
Keep in mind that if your brand messaging is still accurately represented by your brand elements, then not a lot will have to change. But if you're going in a drastically different direction, you might want to revisit your visual brand elements.
Finally, you will need to revisit your systems and processes.
You'll want to take a look at your client onboarding process, your accounting systems, your client management process, your content marketing process or social media marketing, your email newsletters, any client and partner materials that you have such as contracts, invoices, letterheads, -- basically anything that needs to be updated to reflect your new brand identity.
When it comes to the actual rebranding process, there are two approaches that you can take.
You can do just a simple brand refresh -- when you're not going for a full re-design but you want to refresh your colors to accurately represent the new direction that you're taking.
You can go for a full rebrand where you actually have to come up with a new name. new direction. new messaging. new positioning. new visual identity design -- basically new everything. This is the best choice when you're absolutely certain you want a "fresh start" and want to position yourself as a new brand.