Naturally, as a growing business, new opportunities to develop and expand will arise. However, careful consideration is crucial in these situations as the smallest changes can have the largest impact on brand awareness.
In this article, we’ll identify the main risks associated with re-branding and what solution you should have in place in order to avoid complications further down the line.
Company recognition
If you’re a well-established brand and rely predominantly on local traffic, you could find a re-brand to be particularly difficult with these customers.
Whilst this is gold dust for companies who bank on word of mouth, the knowledge of who you are already can throw a spanner in the works when contemplating a re-brand.
With this in mind, there are ways in which you can pre-warn existing clients or those who know of the company.
For example, use your social media pages to inform loyal followers about the change. This is especially important as your branding will change across these platforms. For your local traffic, you could keep them in the loop by posting flyers around the area, or by submitting a feature to the local newspaper.
In regard to existing clients, be sure to give them enough notice when you see them so they’re not taken by surprise.
Search implications
When it comes to your online traffic and the potential leads this brings, a change in domain name could be risky if someone wants to find your website online and only have your old domain name to go by.
To avoid this being an issue, ask your web developers to set up redirects from the old domain name to the new one. This guarantees that anyone typing in the old domain name will still end up on your website.
Another search implication with re-branding is the prospect of losing all the hard work you previously put into building your domain strength. Although, changing the domain name isn’t as detrimental as it once was. All you need to do is redirect your old domain on to the new one correctly and as soon as possible. From there, most of the acquired domain strength should be passed over to the new domain name.
Building trust
In line with confusing clients and leads who already know of your brand, a change could make those users suspicious.
Without any prior notice, it wouldn’t be out of the way for a user to be unsure as to whether they’ve landed in the right place or if something cynical has occurred.
Ideally, making sure existing customers and followers are aware of the change should help to maintain the trust you’ve earned over the years. Nonetheless, to reassure users landing on the new domain, you could implement a temporary pop-up on the website for when users first arrive to the site. This could detail that although there has been a re-brand, you’re still the same company you were before.
Cost
Of course, the expense of a re-brand can be viewed as a risk for many companies. Before making a final decision, you should review whether you have the capital behind you to cover the costs that will inevitably crop up.
When choosing to revamp your business, remember that brand consistency is crucial in preventing any confusion for customers and leads.
Namely, your website, social media platforms, printed documents, building signage, packaging, and even corporate mugs used for meetings, all need to replicate the same branding.
All in all, if a re-brand is the next organic step for your business, none of the above should be a deterrence for going ahead with it. One would simply recommend that a contingency plan is put in place to provide an answer or solution for any risks that do transpire.