When done cleverly and strategically, rebranding your business has untold benefits. However, the risks of rebranding certainly run high. One of the biggest dangers is alienating your current audience. So how do you rebrand without losing any of your followers or customers in the process?
These are the things we were very careful with when rebranding our online parenting community from eumom to everymum:
Finding the right name
Never make any rebranding decisions without asking for actual input from your audience. Test new name and logo options with them to find out which they prefer.
Promoting your rebrand
It’s not wise to suddenly showcase a rebrand without any warning or lead up for your audience. Give them plenty of time to become familiar and comfortable with the rebrand before the change is fully implemented, and do it often. The art of surprise can actually cause confusion and mistrust.
This can include a newsletter, blog posts, consistent social media teasers, and glimpses behind the scenes. Consider the best cross platform promotion based on where and when you reach your audience the most
Reward your audience
Tell your audience just how much you love and value them with exclusive offers, competitions, prizes and giveaways in the lead up to the rebrand and throughout the early stages after the launch. Motivate them to celebrate the rebrand with you.
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
Explain the decision to rebrand
It’s very important to show your audience that the core values of your business aren’t changing, and it’s equally as important to explain to them why the rebrand is happening, and how your business came to the decision.
It’s vital to let your audience know that the decision was built around them and their needs – they are the reason your business is what it is, after all.
Launch your rebrand with a bang
Remember to have some fun with it all! Organise a fantastic launch party to really welcome your rebrand into the world, and be sure to post loads of photos of the happy event on social media for all your audience to enjoy!
SEO
Consider the impact of the rebrand on your search traffic. You’ll need to work out a strategy for URL redirecting if changing your brand name and therefore your domain name. Without doing this, you run the risk of losing all your organic traffic overnight.
Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash
Logo and brand design
Time and effort will need to go into creating a new logo and brand design. This is how your audience recognises you. So, you want to create some sense of familiarity with your logo and design, without looking like nothing was actually refreshed.
It’s extremely important you also create a strategy to inform and make sure that anywhere else your brand or logo appears, be it third party sites like retailers, also launches your new branding.
Of course, depending on the nature of your business there will be other steps which you should consider.
But with the right strategic thinking and processes it is possible to successfully rebrand without losing your audience.
By rebranding eumom to everymum, we successfully retained our audience numbers, social engagement and community loyalty.
And more than this:
– 30% increase in page views to the everymum website
– 42% increase in Instagram followers
– Awarded Best in Social Media for everymum rebrand at the 2018 Irish Magazine Awards
If you’re hoping to rebrand talk to Zahra Media Group about how to achieve this while growing your audience.
