The Business Dictionary defines branding as: “The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.
Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.
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Yes, branding involves your logo but it also involves your color palette, your imagery, your style, your voice, your tone, your presentation, your content, & your authentic feel. It is more than the visuals.
It is your essence.
When someone sees a picture on Instagram, people should be able to tell that it is your image without even seeing your name attached.
When this unique essence of yours is GEARED towards driving the attention of your ideal audience to your business, then that is when you will be getting to work with your dream clients.
Rebranding. This word scares many. It is a word that is often associated with lots of work & thinking. It means change. It means hiring someone. It means a long process. All of those things can be scary.
However, sometimes all those things can be necessary to take your business from stagnant or hobby-level, to thriving. Here are 5 reasons that you may need to take on that scary word & rebrand.
1. Your brand is Not Attracting The Right Clients
The number one reason you should rebrand is simple. You are not attracting the right clients. The ones you are attracting seem to be the people you do NOT want to work with. They seem to be the people who do not really respect what you do or fuel your passion.
Perhaps you KNOW who you want to work with but they don’t seem to be out there. Or they seem to all be taken by other people in your industry.
You are quick to worry if this entrepreneur journey is even for you. You wonder if maybe you are not cut out for success. Maybe you are just meant to work with the clients you are getting. Who don’t really value your work.
I am hear to tell you that these lies are NOT true.
If you are branding for the correct audience, then you should be attracting the right audience.
A lot of people don’t understand that branding is so much more than just a logo.
Branding is an experience. It is how you communicate to your target audience. It is meant to attract the people you want and if our brand is lacking market research behind it, we can often be missing the mark with it.
2. your brand often confuses people About What You Do
If people are constantly looking at your site or your social media platforms & are still not sure about what you do, it is clear that you need to rebrand.
Your branding needs to be so clear about what you do & who you are targeting that there is no question.
People should be able to go to your site & say “Ok, she works with _____ doing _______.” If your branding is done correctly, then this should be the case. If not, chances are your branding, either your visuals or content, is not consistent or is missing something.
3. Your brand is not allowing your business to grow
When you have a consistent brand that is unique AND you are continuously putting out more content on social media, reaching out to people, & using different strategies to grow a following, then you should be organically gaining more & more followers at a steady rate.
If you are always working on your following & you don’t seem to be growing much at all, (whether it be your email list, your social media followers, or your web page views) you may need to rebrand.
If your brand is truly consistent & authentically you, people should be running from everywhere to be a part of it. To be a fan. To be a follower.
There can be many reasons why a brand goes wrong. Hiring a branding specialist & strategist can help you hone in your problem areas.
4. People Are Not Seeing Your brand as Valuable or high-end and are not willing To Pay Your Prices
Branding communicates so much. People rely on visual communications today more than ever. Images stick in people’s minds better than a paragraph they read. All of this is why branding is so important for your business message.
If people are not willing to pay your service or product fees, your brand is not communicating to them that your brand is high-end enough.
Your brand needs to communicate to your ideal audience AND communicate about the service or product you are selling. For example, a brand that looks juvenile would not do well selling a sophisticated women’s perfume. The childish characteristics of the brand visuals would not speak of the product the business is selling.
5. You Have an Outdated Brand
There are times when brands just become outdated. Technology & Pinterest (I would argue) seems to make trends come & go quicker than ever now.
Perhaps your brand worked great for you in 2000, but now it needs a facelift. It may be looking very outdated which can turn off many potential customers when they see it.
To the people that come across your brand, they may think that you are not within the times of today & perhaps won’t be able to provide them with the service or product they are longing for. Your outdated brand turns away many potential customers.
Sometimes a whole rebranding does not need to happen. Instead, minor updates can work wonders. Just a few years ago Wendy’s & Arbys revamped their branding image by updating their logos.
Some brand designs are timeless, so perhaps your brand still works nicely. (You will know based off of the growth of your business and your sales.)
The Effects of Rebranding Too Often
Like I said, rebranding scares many, although It doesn’t have to. It is an investment worth looking into if it is going to help your business thrive and grow.
There are also those who get excited when they hear this word. In fact, I know some people who struggle with wanting to rebrand themselves over & over again.
Rebranding over & over again just because you are inspired by all these trendy brands you keep seeing on Pinterest is unhealthy for your business … AND your wallet. The reason is, you are not giving your followers time to develop trust and brand awareness with your image because you keep changing it on them!
Rebranding too much can create an atmosphere where followers don’t know if they should trust your business. People like predictability. They like to know what to expect from a business and brand
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This same reason is why it is uncommon to see a businesses rebrand with entirely new colors, logos, etc. They usually just update their brand and bring familiar past branding elements into the refresh.
If you have not already signed up for my free guide to 5 steps to getting paid more, sign up below. It discusses the ins & outs of branding & how it sets your business up for success!
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