3 signs it's time to rebrand your business
Let’s first define what a rebrand is.
I want to start by making sure we’re on the same page on this. The words brand, branding, brand strategy, visual brand and even marketing are used in so many different ways and almost seem to have become interchangeable. So let’s start with some definitions, so you know where I am coming from. I like the explanation from Tom Ross Media:
Your brand is what people say about you
Branding is you intentionally influencing what people say about you
You could see it like this: with brand strategy, you are establishing the base of your business, your foundation. This is your positioning, how you differentiate from competitors, the customer journey and how you are going to talk to your audience so that you appeal to your ideal client.
Your visual brand (the look and feel) is helping you express your brand’s message, and your marketing used to get your brand’s message out.
So when you define rebranding, you want to change the way your audience sees your business. You could just change your logo, colours or fonts to change the look and feel of your business. If done right, this can absolutely help you with a more professional look that can impact how others see your business.
But with a rebrand, it’s about more than just your visual brand because you need to have a solid brand foundation in place to build the visuals upon. Otherwise, you will be rebranding again in another year, and I would hate to see that. Before you update your look and feel you need to think about what has changed for you personally or in your business, that would be the reason for a rebrand. Maybe you narrowed down your vision, or you feel disconnected with your company and are lacking motivation, or you keep discounting your pricing because the only clients who want to work with you don’t have the budget for it.
When not to rebrand?
Having fun in changing colours and fonts is not a good reason for a rebrand. You either need to become a designer if you’re not already one or you need to take a step back and work on the direction of your business first before you make any more changes.
And I get it; this was me not so long ago. Looking back, I put the cart before the horse. I just wanted to get my business out there and designed a logo, created a website and came up with my services by combining services I saw from other designers. And the more elements I added to the business, the further away I went from my original mission. I had no clear direction, and the consistency in my visuals was well … non-existent.
I knew that there was so much more I could help my clients with but first I needed to do the work on my business. Going back to the foundation and building it back up from this base, was the best thing I did. And only after I had a clear vision again, was I able to see what elements my visual brand needed to have to express what both I and my business were about. And that feeling that everything is coming together and falling into place is fantastic.
When you are clear on where you want to go, you have the strategies set up to get there and the visuals to represent your message, everything in your business is in alignment. But then when do you rebrand? Let’s have a look at three signs that show you it is time.
When is it time for a rebrand?
So now you what the wrong reason is to rebrand, let’s walk through a couple of examples for when it is a good time to rebrand.
Not attracting the right clients
Attracting the right clients is actually quite a big one, and I hear this one quite often. What it generally comes down to is your brand’s positioning. Remember I said that your brand is what people say about you? It’s the same with positioning. So your positioning is how your audience sees you in comparison with your competitors. This can be competitors in the same field like another brand designer, copywriter or mental health coach.
But do not forget to think out of the box when thinking who your competitors might be. You might be a brand designer and only compare yourself with other brand designers. But you will likely lose business to logo designers who only charge a fraction of what you do. Or a family member that is good with Canva. It might not be the same service, but there is an overlap in the target audience.
To stay with this example of a brand designer; if in the eyes of your potential clients they do not see you as the expert or that you don’t offer more value or better design vs a logo designer or another brand designer with a much lower price point. Then there is a disconnect between who you want to attract and how they see you. You are not clearly communicating what it is that you offer, what the value is for your clients business and that you are worth the investment. So something is off in your positioning.
As a result, potential clients ghost you after a consultation call where you talked about the price, or after sending pricing information. You don’t even get the requests for a call or more information after they have been to your website.
And suppose you do manage to convert the client by lowering your pricing. In that case, you might find yourself feeling like an order-taker and just recreate your client’s logo ideas in illustrator instead of being valued for your knowledge and experience in creating a brand. Or a project was taking 2x the amount of time because they are not respecting your process and approach.
Suppose this is what you are always running into. In that case, it’s definitely time for a rebrand where the focus needs to be on your positioning and how you are different from competitors so that you can develop a unique brand message that can help you stand out in the market.
Narrow down your vision or niche
Your business is always evolving. There is a big chance that when you have been in business for some time, you’ve gotten to know your audience better. Your services have changed to better align with your client’s needs, and/or your views of who your ideal client is have changed. This essentially means that you have started to narrow down your vision or your niche. Which is great. The clearer you know who you are targeting, and who you want to work with, the better you will be able to serve and attract the right clients.
But while you know this in your mind, have you also taken some time to write out this new direction and adjusted your brand strategy in terms of positioning, message and look and feel to reflect it?
If not, then it’s definitely time for a rebrand where the focus needs to be on re-aligning your brand’s foundation so that it’s reflecting your new positioning.
I would advise you to go back to your brand’s vision first. Has your vision or big dream of how you would like things to be for your business changed? What would success look like now? What do you aspire your business to be? Your vision is not about how you are going to do it, but about what you want your business to become.
And then take it from there to work through creating a new ideal client profile, market research, define your new positioning, check if you need to update your customer journey and building your unique brand’s messaging.
You’ve lost your motivation
It’s Monday morning, and you turn in your computer only to stare at the screen as you’re not sure what you should be doing. Well, you know you should be working on your visibility and be on social media every day, and you know you need to build an email list, and making passive income sounds amazing so, you want to do that as well. But you don’t feel like doing any of it because you’ve done these things and it feels like you’re not getting anywhere.
So you spend some time scrolling through Instagram comparing yourself with competitors, going to their website to see what services they are selling and getting frustrated because you feel they’ve got it all together. Only to find out it’s already 4 pm and another day went by without really doing something that is making an impact.
Sound familiar?
To me, it sounds like you are missing a clear direction in your business. Something that you can go back to each time you’re unsure what to do next, something that can be your brand’s true north. When you’re unsure where you are going, how to get there, don’t have fun working with the clients (or niche) you have now or just not seeing the results of all your efforts it’s easy to lose motivation.
If you are feeling unmotivated or feeling there is a disconnect to where your business is and what you want it to be, then it’s definitely time for a rebrand. And in this case, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. So the focus needs to be on your brand’s foundation as you will need to re-evaluate where you want to go with your business.
I would advise you to start working on your brand’s foundation from scratch, beginning with your vision. And only once you have a clear new direction (and take your time with this) have a look at how you can make your business stand out, do market research, create new ideal client profiles, update your services if needed and work on building your unique brand’s messaging.
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