It’s not uncommon for small businesses to consider rebranding their business at one point or another. In fact, modernising a business website or refreshing a current image is an excellent way to expose your company to a whole new audience.
For many business owners, rebranding can be as simple as updating their logos or as complex as changing the company’s mission statements. Rebranding can also involve using the embroidery services Sydney organisations rely on to create new company uniforms.
Tips to Ensure Your Rebrand is Successful
Whether your rebrand involves renaming your company, changing your business model or even extending your customer base, it’s important to consider the impact these changes will have on your existing customers.
If you’re wondering how you’re going to rebrand without losing your existing customers, then this article is for you. Our experts have a few smart recommendations for you to consider.
1. Create an Extensive Rebrand Plan
Rebranding isn’t a process that you “deal with as you go along” especially if there are loyal customers involved! You need to understand your own reasons for wanting the rebrand. Additionally, you should also give some consideration to how it will affect your reputation and revenue.
Plan the changes you want to make as well as effective ways to explain those changes to your customers. Anticipate the questions they’ll ask and address their concerns before you relaunch the new brand.
It’s a good idea to have a Q & A session on your website and social media pages where customers are allowed to ask questions about the rebrand. Doing this will go a long way to ensuring that your customers don’t lose trust in your products, services and brand as a whole.
2. Prepare Your Existing Customers
Customers in general don’t usually like rebranding. This is because they see it as a potential change in the quality or services they’ve come to associate with the brand. The best way to avoid losing customers when you rebrand is to be transparent about any potential changes.
Ensure that customer service levels are maintained during the change and never use the ongoing change process as an excuse to drop service quality. Notify customers of the expected changes via your website or a general email marketing campaign.
Use words such as “improving” and “expanding” in your campaign. And be sure to highlight that it’s a journey you want your existing customers to take with you.
3. Advertise Your Rebrand
Rebranding doesn’t have to be a process that happens privately or only internally. Talk about your rebrand in your marketing videos on your website, social media and even printed adverts or interviews.
In some instances, this will even lead to an increase in traffic to your social pages and website as existing and potential customers want to see what’s changing. Use your rebrand marketing to boost current customer relations and advertise products or services for new customers.
4. Explain What’s Changing
Many businesses choose to rebrand as part of a “modernise and optimise” strategy. This means they’re taking a brand that’s existed for many years and refreshing it in a way that makes it relevant to current search engines.
Explain these changes as simply as possible to your current customers. Phrases such as “easier to connect with us on social media”, “creating a more user-friendly website”, and “refocusing our services” are commonly used in explaining these reasons for rebranding.
It’s important to emphasise that your product quality will remain the same and that it’s only the exterior appearance of your company image that’s changing. If you’re changing your logo, be sure to highlight your employees’ new custom workwear on your website so that customers will still be able to identify your staff in stores or at local events.
5. Create New Merchandise
If your logo, slogan or brand colours are changing, it’s a clever idea to put this new look out there as much as possible. The more your customers see it, the quicker they’ll accept the change and there will be little risk of losing customers.
Create new customer merchandise with the new brand image and distribute it to your existing customers in the form of lucky draws, competitions and general giveaways. Your online competitions can focus on a mixture of questions about the brand in general as well as the new image.
Be sure to publish pictures of your customers receiving, wearing or using your new rebranded merchandise. Some popular customer merchandise to consider include:
- Caps
- Coffee mugs
- T-shirts
- Backpacks
- Shopping bags made of recycled material
Final Thoughts
Rebranding your small business shouldn’t just be about changing your logo or modernising your website. It should be about improving your current brand in a way that your existing customers won’t feel they’re being pushed to the side along with the old label.
Keep in mind that your first customers were the ones who made you successful and their loyalty will continue to generate revenue. Be sure to make them part of your rebranding process!
