So, you want to rebrand your business.
Whatever you got now ain’t working for ya.
And you know your brand is important.
Something as simple as color makes a difference.
Color alone can improve brand recognition by 80%.
The visual side of your brand matters—customers decide what they think about your website in the first 0.05 seconds.
But how do you know if it’s really time for a rebrand?
How should you go about it?
What do you need to know to do it properly?
Y’all, I’m here to help.
Let’s talk rebranding—here are the FAQs.
How do I know if I need to rebrand (and when)?
This one is different for everyone, and I’m not going to give you an answer you like:
You know you need a rebrand when it’s right for you.
Yeah, sorry-not-sorry, but those are the facts—everyone, and I do mean everyone, is going to need a rebrand at different points in the life of the brand.
For some folks, it’s a time thing—they just feel like it’s time to shake things up and get a new brand going.
For others, it’s because of feedback. They got some customers who told them stuff they didn’t want to hear, and they decided to pull the trigger and make the change.
For still others, it’s because they just know their branding sucks, they’ve always known it, and they’re finally at a place where they can do something about it.
Maybe your brand is just inconsistent—consistent brand presentation can increase revenue by 33%, so it’s nothing to ignore.
Figure out your why before you start a rebranding project.
Questions to ask yourself before you start a rebranding project
Rebranding isn’t a cheap prospect, and it can have serious, long-term effects on your business and your brand.
Before you start, ask yourself these questions:
Why are you rebranding?
A rebrand isn’t something to take lightly. You need to have a really good reason for doing it.
Not only can it take a long time (and a big budget) without someone guiding the process and keeping stakeholders accountable, but it can turn into a mess if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Make sure you have a clear idea of what the benefit of a rebrand might be.
For example, maybe you just want to modernize what you have, or maybe the company has shifted its customers/products/services/price points, and you want a brand that reflects the new shift.
Make sure all your stakeholders are on board and agree that a rebrand is necessary—and necessary for the right reasons.
What’s the goal?
Come up with a clear goal for the rebrand. What do you want the result of all your hard work to be?
For example, maybe you just want to slightly modernize the logo and color scheme of your brand, and that’s it.
Or maybe your goal is throw out everything and come up with something completely new.
Again, make sure all major stakeholders agree to the reasoning behind the rebrand. If goals aren’t agreed on at the beginning, the whole process is doomed, y’all.
What do you like about what you currently have?
Now that you have a goal in mind, what do you like about your current brand?
Make a list of everything that you like, and have all your stakeholders do the same. This gives you a good starting point.
What needs to change?
Now make a list of what you don’t like (and folks, obviously there’s something you don’t like if you’re thinking about a rebrand!).
Think about some of the different aspects of a brand:
- logo
- color scheme
- mission statement
- vision statement
- tagline
- imagery
- fonts
- voice and tone
- website design
- website content
- blog content
- social media content
- social media banners/images
- letterhead
- email footers
- brand persona
These are only a few things to consider when you’re rebranding. A rebrand can affect just about anything related to your business that you can think of.
What are some examples of folks who are doing it right?
Now things start to get fun.
Find the brands you absolutely love, love, love.
Who’s doing it right? Who’s got a brand that makes you jealous as heck?
Who do you feel inspired you or would speak to your tribe (aka your target audience)?
(P.S. A little inspiration is always a great starting point!)
How long does rebranding take?
This pretty much depends on you and your stakeholders, but it also depends on how much you’re wanting to change.
For example, if all you want is a new logo, then this component of a rebrand might only take a week or two if you and all your stakeholders are providing input as soon as logo ideas come in from your designer.
But if you’re doing a complete overhaul, changing everything from your logo and color scheme to your website and content, it could take 8 weeks+, even if everyone on your team is providing feedback right away and is deeply involved in the process.
And if your team isn’t quick on the draw with the feedback, it can take much longer.
That’s why it’s so important to get everyone on board from the beginning—otherwise, the whole process can get bogged down and take you months and months to complete.
How do I prepare?
First, you need to check that list I gave you at the beginning of the post of different aspects of your brand, and you need to figure out which ones need to change and which ones you’re not going to touch.
Then, you need to put together your rebranding team.
This will include all important stakeholders, all decision-makers, and whomever you choose to do the actual rebranding work (either your own marketing team or a team you hire).
Ideally, you will have the same people working on the project throughout the entire process.
This is important y’all—if people come and go on this project, I promise promise promise you that it’s going to get slowed down (or completely fall apart).
Don’t let your group get too large. Have one main point of contact on the front end and establish the communication process and decision-making process from the beginning.
People are the largest delay to the rebrand, so make sure your team is super awesome and ready to do what needs to be done.
How should I budget for a rebrand?
This is actually the easiest part of the rebranding process (though maybe it’s the most painful as well).
The average rebranding initiative costs about 10%–20% of your marketing budget.
This all depends on what you’re changing—if you’re getting a new website and a new logo, it’s going to cost less than if you get all your website content rewritten, for example.
What is the rebranding process?
First, you need to do some fact-finding.
Meet with your crew, introduce people, and ensure everyone understands what they’re there for and why they’re there.
Then, do an analysis of everything brand-related that you’ve got currently — a marketing inventory, so to speak.
This gives you a starting point and helps everyone understand what the current brand looks like so that they can get a better idea of what needs to be fixed.
Audience persona
Then, you’re going to want to create an audience persona. This is a document that defines your target customers—who you’re trying to reach with this rebrand, what their wants and needs are, and how you answer those needs.
This is your tribe, y’all—the people you jive with. It’s super-duper important because these are the folks you’re trying to connect with.
Check out our audience persona blog post to learn more.
Brand persona
After that, you’ll want to make a brand persona. This defines everything there is to know about who your business is—what are your values, your goals, your products and services. What do you do, and why do you do it.
We call this your vibe—it’s what makes you you. Get this down so that you can synchronize it with your tribe.
Use our brand persona e-book to help get started on your brand persona.
Content
Update your mission statement, your vision statement, and any content related to your values or beliefs, like an About Us page.
Design time
Get into the design of it—we’ve defined your vibe and your tribe, and now we get to the fun part!
There’s nothing quite as cool as seeing a new, beautiful logo and website come to fruition. This is where your marketing team is going to start throwing around ideas, and where you can give feedback.
Build a storyboard
Let’s just say we were focusing first on your logo.
Pull together some elements that you like and that you think represent the new brand you’re trying to create.
This could be photos, colors, other logos, websites, print materials, heck, even a picture of your dog, the delicious blueberry pie from the coffee shop—literally anything that inspires you.
It’s literally your brand’s story that you’re telling visually, so don’t hold back.
Come up with the initial design
Typically, when you’re starting the design process, you’ll begin with solely the logo as this influences all the other aspects of your brand and incorporates so many of your brand elements, from color and typography to shapes, words, and more.
This is where you need the experts—it’s their job to give you a ton of different logo options so that you can see what you like, what you don’t, and talk about making those small changes that mean so much in the end.
Revisit and review
Time to get it perfect, y’all.
Just follow the same process above—rinse and repeat for any other brand elements or marketing needs that have been determined as part of the initial scope of work.
For example, if you’re redoing your tagline, you’re going to follow a similar process—figuring out what you like and what you don’t, talking about words that have meaning to your customers and your business, getting options from your writers, and then tweaking and narrowing it down to some final choices for the decision-makers to pick from.
And if this is all overwhelming to you, then maybe you need to get some experts on your side.
Get a branding expert on your side
This post simplifies the rebranding process and doesn’t cover it all, but I mean, hey, it’s not simple, which is why having an expert by your side can make all the difference.
If you’re ready to work with an expert and get your rebrand process flowing, let’s talk.