If you’re looking to give your digital brand perception a new look with a digital rebrand, you should first consider why you want to rebrand yourself, what to do before rebranding, how to manage your rebrand, and what to do after you rebrand yourself.
Why Rebrand Yourself
If you can improve relationships with your customer base, you may want to consider digital rebranding your business.
The rebranding process is cumbersome and can take a great deal of time and effort. To effectively execute a digital re-brand, you must ask yourself why. Why would a rebrand provide a strategic advantage for your business or organization?
Here are four reasons why you may want to execute a digital rebrand:
1. Gain competitive advantage
A customer’s perception of your brand can impact your bottom line. A digital brand that is aligned with the current trends and designs conveys that the business offerings, products, or services are on par with the industry standard.
This standard is a consumer’s expectation of high quality products and services available in the marketplace.
Today’s consumer is more savvy than before, and can spot a shoddy business from a mile away. So, if you believe that your business’ digital brand is behind the curve, you should consider a digital rebrand to gain competitive advantage.
2. Stimulate growth
As technology advances, so does the ability of consumers to easily conduct digital transactions. They can purchase goods and services via social media. They can access highly relevant content based on their specific interests.
As a result, they also migrate to other corners of the Internet which may be difficult for brands to find and engage with niche audiences. So, if you’re looking to stimulate growth, you may consider a digital rebrand to open your business to emerging markets.
3. Long-term market expansion
A rebrand can become a public expression of a company’s evolution.
If you are looking to remain relevant in the digital space for more than 10 years, you must consider a digital rebrand. If you know me personally, you’ll know I’m competitive and I love using sports analogies. So, to remain consistent, here’s a good one.
If you understand football, you know that the quarterback rarely throws directly to the receiver. The quarterback throws to where the receiver is going to be.
So, if you’re looking for long-term market expansion, consider digital rebranding as an attempt to proactively go where your consumers will be in the digital space.
4. Innovation = profitability
If any aspect of your brand is associated with technology, you must keep pace with the latest digital branding trends. Perception is reality in the marketplace, especially in the technology space.
If your digital brand is not aligned with the industry standards, it will reflect poorly in your perceived quality. And if you’re perceived as having an inadequate or outdated brand, it will negatively impact your profitability.
If you don’t continue to rebrand at the rate in which digital branding practices evolve, you can fall victim to an upstart competitor that has a more relevant digital brand.
So, if you don’t want to be upstaged by a younger and more attractive brand, you should consider a digital rebrand.
Overall, digital rebranding is essential to convey your level of quality, relevance, and innovation to your target audience.
You Know It’s Time To Rebrand Yourself When…
Let’s take a look at some of the signs that it’s time for a change.
Your Website & Graphics Are Outdated – Does your website look like it’s out of the 90s? Your digital brand is extremely important. No matter if you are selling yourself or a product or a service, it’s important that people are attracted to you in a visual way.
You Use an AOL Email Address – This may offend some readers with AOL email addresses, but it must be said. Owning one leaves a negative impression of your understanding of technology.
You Are Looking For A New Career – If you’re looking for a new career or applying for a new job you may want to execute a digital rebrand for yourself. First get rid of that AOL address and get a Gmail.
SEE ALSO: How to Use Your Digital Brand to Launch a New Career
You have to look at yourself as a package of skills and strengths.
When developing this ‘package’ be sure to showcase your desire to be in your new field or career. For example, your previous office desk job showcased your understanding of office administration.
Your new ‘package’ should highlight the work you’ve done in the community for your new program coordinator position.
You Found A New Audience – If you’re switching careers or becoming an expert in a certain field, you may need to rebrand yourself in a new light.
Have any suggestions for another thing to add to the list? Let me know in the comments section below.
Before Rebranding Yourself
Ask these questions:
What’s Your Mission?
Before rebranding yourself, take stock of your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Try to understand the total picture and not just a snapshot view. How is your mission meeting the challenges and needs of consumers?
How are you planning to differentiate your brand from the competition? How will you improve on your weaknesses and optimize your strengths? As you begin to discover your mission, determine how it will align with a digital rebrand.
What Is Your Audience Saying?
Ask everyone that comes in contact with your brand their opinion about your business or organization.
Customers, clients, consumers, contractors, employees, business partners, and industry experts should add insight to your rebranding process.
Find out how hard it is to do business with your company or if you need a little revamping or major digital branding overhaul?
Have you properly streamlined your business processes via digital?
Are you using the best digital tools to better serve your target audience? Start with these questions when gathering feedback from your audience.
How Savvy Is Your Audience?
Understanding the digitally savviness of your audience is key when considering a digital rebrand. You must determine their user behavior in the digital space before deciding on which direction is best.
You should know if most of your audience utilizes broadband Internet services. Or if your clients are heavy mobile users. Or if your customers mostly conduct business transactions on a desktop computer. You must consider these questions before initiating a digital rebrand.
You must consider these questions before initiating a digital rebrand.
What to Do Before You Rebrand
Before you launch your rebrand, do your prep work.
Research What’s Taken
You can use Knowem to check all the main social media websites (along with trademarks and domain names) see if your brand name is already in use.
If you find your name is unavailable, you should use a variation of the name that works for you.
SEE ALSO: Social Media Image Size Guide [Infographic]
Do advanced promotion.
Your current audience is the most important targets for advanced promotions. Since they’ve interacted with your brand most recently, they are going to provide the initial reaction to your rebranding.
As a result, you should promote your rebrand in advance so they know what to expect. One way you can stimulate early interest is by letting them know something big is coming or possibly offering them a sneak peak of what to expect.
Be prepared for likely questions and comments.
It’s always best to be prepared for potential backlash of any new digital rebranding campaign. I would put a list of questions and responses together for any feedback that arises from the rebrand launch.
This list of questions allow for a quick response to user engagement. I would have someone monitor all online engagement throughout the first few days of the rebranding campaign.
What to Do When Rebranding Yourself
The process of rebranding yourself may be as difficult as the decision. There are several steps necessary to shift from your old brand to the new one.
Below you will find the appropriate steps needed before, during, and after the rebrand to transition your social media identity. I focus on the four major social media platforms.
Rebranding Your Profiles
Before launching your new brand, you’ll want to make sure your social media accounts are set up and ready to go.
SEE ALSO: The 2015 Social Media Image and Video Size Guide
You also want to make sure your messaging is consistent across all social media accounts. I would create a checklist to ensure you’ve converted all your active accounts. This will prevent any confusion when you roll-out your new brand.
After Rebranding Yourself
Launching your new brand is just the beginning. Now you’ve got to get your new name out there.
Introduce your new brand
During your introduction, you may consider explaining why you choose to rebrand yourself in the first place. It will hopefully alleviate some immediate concerns and help users understand why it took place.
You also want to reiterate your brand promise and mission. Some people aren’t as comfortable with change as you might be. Paint a picture that outlines what this rebrand means for customers.
Promote your promotional content
You are naturally going to have promotional collateral created to promote your rebrand. Be sure to share this content via social media to get consumers accustomed to seeing and engaging with the new brand.
This can be a video, blog post, or infographic that give them more insight into the rebrand.
Consider digital ads
Digital ads are a good way to get your new brand in front of people. It will increase exposure of your new brand to current and potential customers. Consider the following social media ad products:
I suggest launching a campaign where most of your customers reside. If you’re not sure, send them a survey to get a better understanding of preferred platforms.
Socialize
People will become comfortable during change when they know that you’ll be there like you’ve always been (actually, you may want to ramp up your socializing during this time to amplify the buzz created from your rebrand).
Continue sharing content and responding to what your audience is saying.
I suggest participating in Facebook groups, LinkedIn Groups, and Twitter Chats as a way to engage with your audience and define how you want them to receive your new brand.
In Conclusion
You’ll have many reasons to digitally rebrand yourself, but the most important is remaining consistent with what technology has to offer your business.
Digital rebranding will allow you to showcase your level of quality to your customer base and convey that innovation is an important attribute of your brand.
Remember, your digital brand is the face of your business and a well-executed rebrand can allow your business to gain a competitive advantage and become the leading voice in your industry.
Have you successfully executed a rebrand? How did you overcome the challenges?
