In our last blog post, we defined rebranding and talked about ideal situations where rebranding could solve business problems. If you didn’t read Rebranding Your Business, I recommending starting there first.

The Rebranding Checklist is an easy to follow guide that can be a valuable resource for you if you’re ready to take on rebranding in-house or even if you’re outsourcing it, but you’d like to get a better understanding of the process.

Step 1: Clarity and Confirmation

The first step in rebranding is to really make sure that it’s right for you and your business. You do not want to take on this type of project just because it feels right. Ask yourself:

• Why are you rebranding? Are you changing your target audience, expanding, adding new products, etc.?
• How do you think your current customers will feel about the rebrand?
• Are the benefits of rebranding worth the investment of time and money?
• What do you expect to achieve from rebranding?

Step 2: Define Buyer Personas

Once you’re clear on rebranding, you’ll need to define your ideal buyer persona(s). Buyer personas are fictitious characters that represent your target customers. Creating these personas will help you with marketing, sales and creating products/services.

Step 3: Company Brand Assets

Your brand assets are components that make it easier for your customers to identify your company. They are elements that are unique to your organization that help you stand out from competitors and make you memorable to your target audience. When rebranding, you’ll want to review the following brand assets to see if they work with the new vision and ideas.

• Create a visual mood board
• Create brand manual
• Company name
• Logo
• Tagline
• Mission statement
• Positioning statement
• Brand attributes
• Typography
• Typeface
• Company mascot
• Color scheme

Step 4: The Website

Your website is your virtual office and you’ll need it to reflect your rebrand. Some items you’ll need to take care of include:

• Update About page
• Logo and favicon
• Copy-writing in footer
• Set up page redirects if needed
• Review and update SEO if needed
• Color combinations
• If there’s a company name change, you’ll need to update each page that mentions the company name
• Imagery and graphics

Step 5: The Admin Stuff

Here are some of the administrative items you may have to take on. All of the items may not need your attention, it will depend on the type of rebranding done.

• Update email signatures
• Change domain name (if there’s a company name change); set up redirects if needed
• Claim social handles
• Update letterhead
• Update all internal documents
• Create new email addresses
• Register trademark
• Update invoice template
• Update all company signage
• Update name badges
• Change name and logo on all business software
• Update company phone greetings
• Update employee handbook

Step 6: Marketing

• Update business cards and all marketing collateral
• Update media kit
• Write a press release
• Update adwords and online marketing campaigns
• Update social media bios and profile pics
• Create rebranding post
• Create rebranding email for current customers
• Revamp social media guidelines

This is just a short list of items you’ll need to consider addressing when rebranding. There could be more or less items on your checklist depending on the type of rebrand. If you need help, schedule a consultation today.

If there’s something you want to add, feel free to join in on the conversation using the comment box below.