10 practical steps to remember when rebranding — it's more than a vision thing!
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So last week , I wrote about what I see as the 3 key points you need to reconsider when branding or rebranding.
To recap they were
- Know your audience
- Know your why
- Know your brand personality
So this week, I am focussing on 10 practicalities of a rebrand — all the bits and pieces that you need to change to ensure that ALL your digital material reflects the change.
Being organised here will help with any headaches 3 months down the track and avoid you are still finding references to your old look, language and logo both online and offline.
Get your style guide sorted.
This should be a reference guide that outlines all your brand colours, font styles for both headings and normal text as well as samples of imagery that you might use. You might even include standard phrases (taglines) or words that are part of your brand vocabulary.
For example in my business I use words & phrases like
Conquer Digital Marketing and Elevate your Education
In addition I also use words like Summit, Peak, Climb, Base Camp, Together, Upward etc.
Set up a Canva for Work palette that reflects this.
Not using Canva for Work yet — what are you waiting for, get onto this ASAP as this handy tool (and so cost effective) will save your hours of time creating graphics to use in your digital marketing activities as well as money.
You can also upload your fonts into CANVA for Work and your logos and also create separate folders to help with any standard imagery you might use. It makes for a organised approach for you and saves you time!
List all your social channels — and then update every single one.
Grab my handy social media sizing guide so that you know what size each of your NEW banners/profile images need to be.
Often rebranding means a brand new website
So this can be a great opportunity to clear the decks and rewrite all content in your new brand voice. As a developer myself, I do recommend a website rebuild as part of a rebranding exercise — but you need to allocate enough BUDGET for it.
Create a new email signature style
A rebrand should mean everything gets refreshed, make sure that also update your email signature as often, this can be the first taste of your new look to your contacts
Get some new professional headshots completed.
If your brand is changing colour, make sure you get some photos taken in your new colours/theme. These photos can then be shared across your social channels, helping to cement your new look in the minds of your customers.
Business Cards
Do people still need these? Apparently yes, so if you don’t feel you have a business without a business card, get these refreshed. I personally see these as a waste of good money.
Office Signage/Stationery
Get your parking spots, office welcome signs, street signage and office internals amended to suit. This is so much easier if you are working from home, just change up your desk a little — maybe splash out on folders in your new brand colours. Any excuse to update Stationery in your new brand colours is a great excuse! Go crazy maybe and get all the gear if it has been a while since you ran amok in the stationery aisle!
Recorded phone messages
Do these need to change to be in alignment with your new branding language? Don’t forget your smartphone voicemail either. What about your actual phone answering wording? Does this need to change as well?
Internal Documentation
I think I have saved this for last as this is in my opinion the worst one! Think about every document you may have created internally. Not just letterhead, but what about downloads that you provide to clients? Templates for all your reporting, project plans, proposals, product offerings, service offerings….
Yes this one is the worst one — and this is where I am at right now!
Elbow deep in rebranding all my material!
