3 Quick Tips To Help You Rebrand Your Business

There’s something about a rebrand that just seems so refreshing – change always seems to wash away the old in an instant making you feel better – and different.

New is always better right?

The quick answer is no, new is not always better when it comes to rebranding your business. There are countless examples of rebranding failures out there – just ask Hershey and Airbnb. Both found out that there is much more to your business’s brand than a logo, a website or pretty brochures.

Take a look at the way Radio Shack tried to rebrand themselves – they were trying to revitalize their slumping sales, however their rebrand attempt, which only changed their name to “The Shack”, was widely dismissed as an identity crisis, rather than a rebirth for their company. It must be remembered that a rebranding only really works when the company’s products/services are enhanced or altered or more importantly the brand philosophy changes. Merely changing a name, a logo or a website does not a successful rebrand make.

However there are legitimate reasons for doing a rebrand for your business such as:

• Your target audience is changing with the times
• Your competition is taking a sizable chunk out of your market share
• Your company has grown and as such has outgrown the original brand

So what happens when your company outgrows your brand – do you update, totally rebrand or just refresh? And how do you do it without spending way more than you can afford?

Luckily Eric Mason, the director of strategic marketing and communications at Wix.com, tackles those questions on a small business help video made by Infusionsoft.

In this video you’ll learn:

• Employees are critical brand ambassadors
• Build a relationship with loyal users
• Focus your message

Check out all of Eric’s suggestions in the full video!

In Summary:

Take a step back and think about how your brand makes people feel, how it resonates with them when they think of you. Eric had three suggestions for small business owners to rebrand themselves or build their brand and deepen their engagement with their users.

1.Employees are critical brand ambassadors

The first thing is to take a look to your left and right to your employees. Your employees are your number one brand advocates. If you’re building a brand, your best sellers, marketers, people that can go out and spread the news are sitting right in your own office.

Everything from how you’re doing billing to how you’re greeting new clients to your follow-up, those people around you are critical in building your brand and really deepening the engagement that you have with your users.

2. Build a relationship with loyal users

Look to your existing users or customers. They’re the second level of building a great brand. Find out where those users live and what they’re doing and engage with them. Maybe it’s putting together an email newsletter so that you’re building that brand relationship with your users. It’s not just about your website. It’s about building that deep trust with your loyal users first, and then spreading out from there.

So these are really powerful data points that really speak to the fact that if you’re going to build your brand, support your customers. Build that relationship with your existing user base. It doesn’t cost you a penny.

3. Focus your message

Only once you’ve concentrated on employees and customers, can you then look at your visual identity online or offline. Remember great brands have laser focus on what they’re doing. Instead of having all your products and features on your websites home page, think instead of your message.

Think about how people feel when they come to you. Start telling the stories of why people came to you, not just what they needed to get done and what it was about that experience that was so impactful for them.

Conclusion:

Remember that if you’re going to rebrand, or continue building your current brand, it’s about thinking about every touch point with a potential customer. Focusing on your customers and your employees first will have a tremendous impact on your brand far before any major redesign of your logo or website will.

Your brand is made up of many aspects but most importantly it’s made up with how your customers are engaging with your company, your staff and your message. That is your brand. And people often misunderstand that. They think, “I need a new brand so I’ve got to get a new logo.” Well actually, that’s not it. Your brand is something much deeper.

About the Author

Ross Munro Williams

Ross is the co-founder of Inversion Marketing and clothing startup, Fanport.co.za. Ross heads up the marketing division of both companies. In his spare time, Ross is also a keen rugby coach with 10 years of experience under his belt.

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**Video and some content was first seen on Infusionsoft Blog