EMBiz: How to Rebrand Your Business

Cody Owens

How to Rebrand your Business

Best Practices for a Smooth Transition

Hello everyone, Cody here with Elevate My Brand. And today, in EMBiz, I want to talk to you about how to implement a rebrand. So if you've recently gone through a rebranding process, meaning you have a new logo, new color palettes, new messaging or audience targeting, then you may be wondering, what do I do with this now? How do I implement this? So that's what I'm here to help you with. 

Soft Launch vs. Hard Launch

The first thing I would say, is decide if you want to do a soft launch or a hard launch. A soft launch is deploying pieces of that brand, little by little, so you can kind of test that with different audiences. Does it resonate? Where does it work? Where does it not work? It also lets you kind of delegate responsibilities and do it a little by little over time, which helps if you're a smaller business. A hard launch is putting out everything everywhere all at once, choosing like one date and time, and putting out everything at that one date and time. The benefit to that is you create a groundswell of excitement about your new brand, but that may not be possible for everyone. So, decide what works for you. 

Developing a Channel-Specific Approach 

Whether you do soft or hard, I have a couple of tips on how to implement your brand. One is develop a channel specific approach. So develop that strategy of, okay, where do we need to implement this across social channels, internal collateral like your letterhead, maybe signage on the outside of your building, on your different pieces of print collateral like flyers or posters. Create a comprehensive list of everywhere you need to implement this new brand, and then assign dates and deadlines, and who is going to be in charge of that. So you can say this needs to go out on March 30th, but we can actually wait until later in April to update the signage on the outside of the building. So, create the comprehensive plan so you know exactly what needs to be changed and when and who is in charge of it. 

Creating Exclusivity Around the Rebrand

Number two, if you can, create some sense of exclusivity around the rebrand. So if you can, like on a Facebook group, or something internal with an internal team, or a focus group, implement your brand, little by little so that you can create some exclusivity with some people. It also gives you an opportunity to see is this really resonating? Is this really working? But, it really ingratiates them to the brand and then gives them a sense of brand loyalty to be the first ones to hear about it, right? 

Expressing Your Mission, Vision, & Values

And then, the third and final tip that I'll leave you with, is to express your mission, vision, and values. So if they changed, if you tweak them, it is of critical importance that you reshare that with people, right? Because they may not connect with that in the same way, or maybe they connect even more deeply with that. So you need to give them the opportunity to decide and evaluate how they resonate with your mission, vision, and values now. Or, if they haven't changed, it's still critical that you communicate that to them, because they may look and see oh, they changed how they look and they've changed their website. What else has changed, right? So, make sure you're re-communicating your mission, vision and values or communicating your new mission, vision and values, so that people really understand how to evaluate this new rebrand. So, those are a couple of tips for you. And of course, if this is a lot to handle, you can always come to Elevate My Brand and we will support you with the strategic rebranding process.