HOW TO REBRAND SUCCESSFULLY AND STRESS FREE.

Hey, hello, hi! It’s been super busy at Branding by Nicki HQ and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, working and collaborating with some amazingly inspirational female entrepreneurs. Honestly, it’s got to be one of, if not the favourite parts of my job – I absolutely love it! Obviously not everyone I speak to is just starting out, and quite a few people have been looking to freshen things up with a rebrand. So that got me all inspired, and that’s what I want to chat to you about in this blog. It can be a very tough decision to take, with lots of factors which lead you into it, and what I want to do is help you rebrand as successfully and stress free as possible.

I mean, often rebranding your business is harder than the original journey you started. Because not only will you be (hopefully) more established, you’ll also have orders and clients depending on you, which may not have been the case the first time. So while it’s exciting, inspiring and can get you feeling more motivated about your business, dedicating the time and energy to defining where you want to evolve can be tricky.

So I hope this little blog gets you inspired, and confident that the rebrand direction you choose will bring you the results you need, without you becoming confused or overwhelmed. Balancing everything can be an exhausting process, but if you stick to the core principles, and work with a great branding designer or studio, who take the time to get you know you, your business and your goals you’ll be onto a winner.

I’m going to keep these short, sweet and super actionable – so you don’t feel overwhelmed before you even start.

#1 – WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?

Now I’m sure you review all areas of your business, from your timelines, to your social media and your money goals, so why would you not review your branding? This is so important before you decide to take the rebrand plunge. Take your time (I’ll come on to this later), analyze what’s working well, what’s not right and think about how you could change things.

#2 – WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?

Following that point, one of the key reasons entrepreneurs and brands feel they need to freshen things up is that they’re not reaching the right people – they’re not connecting with their ideal client. First and foremost, they are the people your branding needs to appeal to. They’re the people you want to buy from you, so while you need to love the final results, they need to do the same.

#3 – DEFINE THE BRIEF

So you’ve analyzed what’s working and what’s not. You’ve looked at your audience and worked out how to better reach your ideal clients, so now it’s time to build the rebrand brief that you want to move forward with. This is your rebrand mission, and learning how to distill it down into key words and phrases will really help you to focus on achieving the outcome you’re after. This also gives you an amazing reference point and filter for the rest of the rebrand journey. It’s your hitlist and you can check all of the ideas and work you do against this mission statement.

#4 – KNOW YOUR COLOURS

Now you have your mission statement for the rebrand you can start to think more visually. And without a doubt, the best place to start is colour psychology. I can’t tell you how much of an important role this can play in making any branding successful, but especially rebranding. Why is that, I hear you ask? Well, the beauty of colour psychology is that it gives you an objective opinion on a subject which can be so personal. You might love vibrant colours, but they might be completely wrong for your business, your ideal client and your success. Again, this is something your branding designer can help with, but the more knowledge you have, and the more you know your business, the smoother the process will be.

#5 – GET PERSONAL

So working through the rebrand step by step, the next thing you need to tick off is which seasonal personality best represents your brand. Now this is very close to point 4, however, there’s one key difference. Seasonal personalities cover everything from fonts, to colours, patterns, textures and tones. There’s a lot to think about, and a whole world of inspiration out there on Pinterest, so the more focused you can be on where you need to take the visual elements the better.

#6 – SET THE MOOD

So now you have all the elements in place to start pulling together all those amazing visual mood boards. It’s time to hit Pinterest and go to town. But always have your brief, your brand colours and your brand personality in mind. That’s your filter for everything you pin. You don’t have to get super precise and exact at this stage, but it should all feel like it’s in the same world. By the end you should have a visual representation of everything you’ve covered during points 1-5.

#7 – STAY FOCUSED

It’s absolutely inevitable that during the process you’re going to see some branding which you think looks amazing. But what works for one person, and one brand may, and probably won’t be right for you. Also, who wants to be a copycat ay? So you need to stay true to your goals and all the work you’ve put in so far. Commit to your rebrand direction and stay focused on making it as amazing as possible. If you’re working with a designer, they may often go off brief to throw in a curveball, but you know your brand and where it needs to be, so trust your instincts and go for it. After all, it’s your instincts that got you where you are today.

#8 – TAKE YOUR TIME

As the old saying goes, this is a marathon not a sprint. It’s a constant journey that will ebb and flow, and evolve as your business grows. And your branding is absolutely key to enabling that growth. By creating that famous know, like, trust factor with your ideal client you’ll become more visible, reach more people and sell more of your fabulous products – whatever your niche. So if your brief does change, or it takes more time than expected to get it right, then make sure you invest both the energy and the money. If you rush through it, you won’t be 100% happy, and I can almost guarantee that you’ll be back here, in this very same situation, in 6 months’ time – maybe less. Trust me, this is definitely an investment worth making, and you’ll reap the rewards down the line.

#9 – FILTER, FILTER, FILTER

No, I don’t mean Instagram filters. I mean filter your ideas, your visuals, your typography – in fact filter everything. Review everything you see against your key mood board and your brief. You have to question each element until you’ve absolutely nailed the changes you set out to make. Have you been suckered in by a trend? Does the final outcome answer the brief you created? Have you completed the mission? Do you feel more confident representing your new branding? Some of these may sound daunting, but it’s so important to love and believe in your branding. You want your ideal client to love it, and because you’re the face of it, you need to love it too. You need to embody it and want to share it with the world. Because when people see it, multiplied by your confidence and personality, they’ll start to fall in love with it too. And that’s when you’ll make it happen

So there you have it, my 9 steps to rebranding successfully and stress free. Personally I would always recommend finding a branding designer you’re comfortable with, who can help guide you through the process fully. I hope this little post will help you whether you go down that route, or you go DIY, and especially if you’re going through this process at the moment.

Good luck on your branding journey!

Nicki x