Business today is really competitive, and consumers have more choices than ever. This change in pace has been the catalyst for countless choices to rebrand.
Some companies undergo a rebranding in the attempt of reaching a wider audience, improving their image, showing a change of ownership, or any other combination of reasons you can think of. Of course, everybody recognises a big company’s rebranding, and it either comes out as a lucrative success or devastating failure.
The companies that fail to execute a successful rebrand often alienate their core audience and as a result, lose their audience. The companies that are able to successfully undergo rebranding can widen their audience and often gain greater rapport with their existing audience.
So, how do you rebrand your business and keep your audience?
We have 6 essential tips to get you through rebranding without losing your audience.
6 Essential Tips for Rebranding So You Don’t Lose Your Audience
When you’re rebranding, most of your considerations need to focus on your audience, lest you lose your core support. Here are the tips to help you rebrand, and retain your audience:
Stay Genuine
Your core audience has been there with your business when prospective customers didn’t even know about you. They recognise the message, ideas, and values that you’ve worked to cultivate. For a lot of your core audience, that is the heart of your business, and the reason they keep staying around.
Stay honest and true to your company’s message while you’re rebranding. A business that suddenly turns its ethos topsy turvy often alienates an otherwise devoted audience. This can cause a much greater loss than the gain you’d get with new audience members.
Keep Your Audience In The Know
People are naturally resistant to change, it’s a fact. If that change involves a brand they’ve come to trust and rely on, they are often even more resistant. You do yourself no favours to do an abrupt, overnight rebrand. This creates a sort of startle reflex that leaves your audience feeling unsure or confused.
Start announcing your rebranding well in advance. Ff you have a prospective date or time frame in which you intend to rebrand, let your audience know as well.
It’s a good idea to use these announcements as a way to connect with your core audience. Let them know what you plan, and your reasons behind rebranding.
That way, when the rebranding actually happens, they’ll feel as though they’ve gone through the process with you, not just sat by as a spectator.
Promote, Promote, Promote
That’s right, you need to promote your rebrand. First, it informs more casual parts of your audience. These are the people that may not be part of your more devoted core, but they casually come to your brand and would be confused by a change.
Unlike core audience members, they may not regularly check your brand’s blog, site, or social media pages. A rebrand they didn’t know about can lose them altogether; they may even think your rebrand is actually a different company.
Use creative promoting that captures the essence of your rebrand. This is a great opportunity to really reel in your target audience and widen your audience to those people that aren’t yet familiar with you.
Highlight Improvements
When a company rebrands itself, people may think, “Why bother? What’s the point?” Like we discussed before, people want to know why you’re rebranding, but they also are looking for reasons to consider it a positive thing.
Are you offering more services, products, expanding your target audience to be more inclusive, revamping your design to fit your brand ideals? All are solid reasons, and you probably have a strong list of your own. The point is this:
You need to give people something to look forward to with your rebranding.
Rebrand Strategically
Don’t go through with a half planned rebrand, there’s nothing good that can come of it. You may be eager to rebrand, but don’t let that make you hasty. Thoroughly plan all areas of your rebrand, from image (down to font type and colour scheme) to website copies, to scripting on communications and promotions.
That’s a huge amount of work, and it’ll take a dedicated team to make it work. That also means you’ll need to allow a lot of delegating to get your rebrand to go seamlessly. Ensure that there are contributors in every facet of the rebrand and that everyone has a clear direction for their responsibilities.
Discuss timelines and due dates well in advance of beginning the process. It’s a good idea to also leave some extra wiggle room in your timeline planning, that way if something is held up, or isn’t received well, you have ample time to make the necessary changes.
Get Your Audience Involved
Everybody likes being heard, your audience included. Getting your audience involved makes your rebranding an interactive event, and it drums up extra excitement, rather than reticence. In our digital age, there are more ways than ever to reach out to your audience.
Social media platforms are a great way to reach your audience on a more casual, more personal level.
For instance, you could offer contests that encourage audience members to share content about your rebranding, opinion polls (or even allow the audience to vote on branding changes), or just plain use comments and posts to have an actual discussion with your audience.
No matter how you choose to do it, involving your audience spreads awareness of your upcoming rebranding and brings audience members closer to your brand.
Conclusion
If you use these 6 tips in your rebranding, you can create a change in your brand without hurting your connection to your audience. If you make rebranding exciting and desirable to your core audience, they’ll continue to stick by you. Truly, at the end of the day, there’s one, most important thing you have to remember: your audience is everything.
