New Year, New Brand: 7 Tips for Rebranding Your Small Business in the New Year

With 2022 quickly approaching, the new year may be the perfect time for those who have been thinking about revamping their brand. You can use this opportunity to recalibrate business strategies, redesign the structure of your company, or simply edit your business’s logo. It may seem overwhelming at first, but rebranding will give your business a fresh look and new identity. These steps will help your rebranding process produce powerful results. 

Reevaluate Your Target Audience

There are several reasons a business needs a rebrand. Whatever your reasons for rebranding, the process should always begin with a reevaluation of your target market. Take time to brainstorm who exactly is your target audience: 

• How does your audience respond to your current brand?
• Are there changing consumer behaviors or preferences you need to accommodate?
• Are there changes in the audience demographics to the point that you will have to repopulate this list?
• If yes, would you have to expand your scope or make it narrower?

Answers to such questions will help you realize how to align your business with the changing customer landscape.

Check Out Your Competition

Seeing how your competitors are keeping up with ever-changing market trends can help you find your competitive advantage. A SWOT analysis can help you break down your findings. A SWOT analysis includes:

• Strengths-this is your internal competitive advantage.
• Weaknesses-this refers to pain points for your current brand.
• Opportunities-this refers to opportunities for your brand in the market like partnerships or product expansion.
• Threats-this is where you get to dive into external pain points like your competitors.

Say you were one-of-a-kind when you started your business, but several competitors have now caught on and invaded your market. While you may have had an advantage early on, the new entrants could have the latest technology by their side or a more mature understanding of the industry. As such, you will have to round up your latest competition and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses to truly know what you are up against.

Set Goals for Your New Identity

 

You can’t tell yourself “new year, new me” until you have a clear idea of what your “new me” is. As stated previously, it could be a tectonic shift in your core product or services, or it could be as superficial as changing the typography in the brand logo. 

Start by listing this rebranding effort’s mission, vision, and objectives. Correlate it with the outcomes expected with this transformation. Formulating these goals right at the initial stages will offer insight into whether or not you should proceed, and if you do, it will focus your efforts to produce the best outcomes.

Devise a Rebranding Roadmap

Once you have a goal in place, setting up a roadmap is a great way to reach your goal. Prepare a step-by-step approach to rebranding and keep your plans as practical as possible. Start by breaking down your larger goals into digestible steps and assign roles to your team. 

You will need to comb over every detail of your in-store and online presence to ensure your new brand identity isn’t competing with your bygone branding. For instance, a business that has changed its logo will have to start by reviewing all the marketing materials, from pitch decks to banners. 

Launch a New Marketing Plan

One crucial step of your rebranding roadmap is to devise a new marketing plan. The primary focus of the new marketing plan would be to strengthen and promote the new brand. 

Start by devising an internal marketing strategy that brings all employees and executives on the same page to take the business’ reputation forward. After that, involve them in developing the marketing plan to win new customers. Rebuild the marketing inventory and gear up for the launch of your new brand.

Make Outreach a Priority

As the launch date for your new brand approaches, you will need to prioritize outreach and promotions. Identify the appropriate channels your target market engages with and focus your outreach on these platforms.

Print banner stands, flyers, brochures, and other marketing materials while sharing updates through emails, social media posts, and blogs. The point is to ensure that every customer or prospect is in the loop about your new brand launch.

Maintain Consistency in Messaging

Your customers are keenly aware of the decisions you make when rebranding. Communicating operational or inventory changes via emails and physical and digital marketing can help everyone navigate these changes. Ease them into it and remind them about your rebranding efforts. The first few months of messaging should largely acclimatize them about the changes and reinforce the motive behind the rebranding so that they can truly understand the new you!