You just wrapped on rebranding your small business and are thrilled with your new brand identity that finally represents the business you are today. It was an investment of time and money but seeing it now, it was so worth it for your business’s long-term success.
So, you have a new brand identity but what you don’t have is a rebrand launch plan. It’s clear you’re determined to do things right in your business and having a rebrand launch strategy is no different.
Follow along as I walk you through how to launch a rebrand effectively and professionally, so you can simply check things off a straight forward to-do list (psst—you're going to want this free download to help with that), rather than sit in a panic, getting nowhere fast.
CONTENTS
THE PRELIMINARY REBRAND LAUNCH PLAN
To truly set yourself up for success as you prepare to launch your new brand, your number one priority is to get organized and familiar with all of your new brand assets.
Your brand designer has likely created an organized folder with all of your new visuals including your style guide. Before you prepare to launch your rebrand, it’s important to get acquainted with the new brand you worked so hard to develop.
GET FAMILIAR WITH YOUR NEW BRAND ASSETS
Go through all of the assets you now have as part of your brand identity. Organize your files for logos, patterns, graphics, etc. in a way that works best for you and how you’ll use them. Make sure you have your brand fonts downloaded and easily accessible. It doesn’t hurt to back everything up somewhere too: Google Drive, Notion, Dropbox are all great options.
READ YOUR BRAND STYLE GUIDE
Your brand guidelines are your golden ticket to honouring your brand in the way it was designed to exist. Read through your brand guidelines and keep your style guide nearby until they become second nature to you.
In particular, you’ll want to play close attention to your brand’s primary and secondary colour palettes and the role each typeface has as you prepare to changeover your styles from your previous brand identity.
Brand consistency is a powerful tool for building your brand awareness and growing your business, so rely on your brand guidelines.
EDIT YOUR TEMPLATES AND CREATIVE ACCOUNTS
Let’s make your transition into your new brand as easy as pie. If you do your own creative in Canva, be sure to update your Brand Kit with your new brand colour palette and typefaces as well as your go-to logos. This will make content creation so much easier as you debut your new brand.
If you have existing templates you use, carve out a half hour to update those colours and fonts to reflect your brand guidelines as well. Trust me, this will be such a time saver in the long-run.
BRAND ROLLOUT PLAN: TAKE INVENTORY OF YOUR BRAND TOUCHPOINTS
How to launch a rebrand effectively depends on your business’s brand experience. What I mean by that is you’ll need to take stock of each and every one of your brand touchpoints. This will give you the scope of what needs to transition to your new brand identity and allow you to create a rebrand strategy that will guarantee cohesion and lead to a high-converting brand experience.
Here is a list of common brand touchpoints that you may need to factor into your rebrand launch plan. Make a list of all of your business’s brand touchpoints.
BATCH THE WORK LEADING UP TO YOUR REBRAND LAUNCH
With your list of brand touchpoints in front of you, you can now see the work that lies ahead in terms of style changeovers and general updates. Some of these brand touchpoints are easy updates where others, like your email list and subsequent workflows, will be more time consuming.
It’s worth noting that this is a great time to audit your email workflows and make sure the content still feels relevant and on-brand. Be sure to calculate extra time if you go that route—which you 100% should.
If you’re delegating some of your rebrand rollout tasks to contractors, virtual assistants, or designers, make a note beside each brand touchpoint as to who will be responsible for what. You’ll want to reach out to those individuals ASAP to get their approximate timeline for completion as you structure your rebrand launch strategy.
For the remaining tasks or, if your entire brand rollout plan is just you, make a note of the estimated time it will take to update each of your brand touchpoints. Chances are, your third-party apps, invoices, and checkout pages will take the least effort to update, so group those together as one task.
Next, organize your list of brand touchpoints by:
Top Priority
Second Priority
Third Priority
Depending on how you want to launch your rebrand to the world, your tertiary priority items could be left until after you launch. Consider it a soft launch.
HOW TO SET A LAUNCH DATE FOR YOUR REBRAND ANNOUNCEMENT
If you want to know how to launch a rebrand strategically and effectively, you’ll want to set your launch date and work your way backwards.
With your rebrand rollout tasks batched by priority and overall time-spend, look at your calendar and see how much time you can dedicate in the coming weeks to these tasks. Set your ideal rebrand launch date in your calendar and block off the appropriate time and deadlines for each of the tasks ahead. Don’t forget to block off extra time to prepare your marketing materials for your rebrand announcement.
PRO-TIP: Be sure to track your progress as you go. If you’re finding tasks are taking longer than anticipated, adjust your launch date accordingly. You don’t want to rush this process.
REBRANDING YOUR WEBSITE
Your website is your home base and will be a top priority for your rebrand launch plan. There are a few ways to make this changeover easier on you. Remember not to publish any of the changes until you are ready to officially launch the new brand.
Let’s look at a few of the key areas that will need focus as your rebrand your website.
UPDATING YOUR THEME SETTINGS
Most website platforms have theme settings to make global style rebranding easier. With your brand guidelines nearby, update your colour settings, button styles, heading and paragraph settings. After you’ve updated your theme settings, be sure to do a sweep of your website to ensure everything updated as expected. Chances are, you’ll need to manually edit a few colours or fonts that were customized.
UPDATING YOUR LOGOS
Referring to your style guide, update the logos on your website according to the guidelines for each logo and their proper colour use. This will include your website header, footer, and any other areas your logo may appear.
UPDATING YOUR BLOG
If you have a blog on your website, you’ll need to update your blog settings. Ideally, there is an easy theme setting that will update your blog archive automatically. Beyond that, you’ll want to comb through your blogs that have custom content or imagery within them that will look out of sync after your launch the new brand. This may include items like blog feature images, call-to-action banners, or lead magnet forms.
Much like your email workflows, consider this a great opportunity to do an audit of your blog posts and update the content to be more relevant and current. Add internal links, update the intro, or republish your most popular blogs to a more recent date. Regularly updating blog content is great for SEO.
UPDATING BRAND IMAGERY
Do an audit of the images used across your website to ensure they align with your new brand identity. If you’ve done a major colour refresh, you’ll want to aim to source new images that feature more of your new brand colours. My favourite royalty-free stock photography websites for blogging are pexels.com and unsplash.com
REBRANDING YOUR DIGITAL PRODUCTS AND FREEBIES
As a seasoned entrepreneur, I’m sure you have a freebie or two, possibly even some digital products under your brand. You’ll need to allocate proper time to rebrand these with care. Do not rush this process! These are your lead magnets and so you’ll want to ensure the brand experience that surrounds them is communicating the value you have to offer.
Here is a list of marketing collateral you may need to rebrand as it relates to your freebies, lead magnets, and digital products:
sales pages
opt-in forms & pop-ups
email workflows
marketing banners
REBRANDING YOUR SOCIAL CHANNELS
The number one goal for your social media channels is to have them all look cohesive from one to the next, creating a unified brand experience. Prepare to redesign your cover photos for Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn all at once so that everything feels connected.
Whether you’re using a logo or a headshot for your social media profiles, be sure to use the same one for each channel. This adds harmony to your brand experience and creates a positive feeling in your audience. Especially for those doing research on your business as they prepare to buy from you.
For Instagram, you’ll want to update your highlight icons.
For Pinterest, you may need to update the covers of your boards.
For Facebook, be sure to rebrand any groups associated with your business too.
For all of your social media channels, part of your rebrand launch strategy should include a rewrite of your bio to reflect the current brand mission and have each one be similar in language and tone.
HOW TO ANNOUNCE REBRANDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
When it comes to how to launch your rebrand on social media, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Decide what’s best for your business and how you show up as a brand.
Your number one priority is to craft a message that will articulate why you rebranded and how it benefits your audience. This will accompany any post announcement and should be consistent across channels like Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin. For personal brands, I’d definitely encourage you to get on your stories or go live to open up about the transition and what your audience can expect going forward. Make it exciting for them!
In terms of a visual transition, let me offer you two common ways to go about announcing your rebrand on social media.
1. DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND
Best used when your rebrand is a big do-over or if you’ve changed the name of your business. On Instagram, where many small businesses connect with their community, create a 3-post sequence that splits up your new logo or similar launch graphic that acts as a divide between your old brand and your new brand when looking at your profile feed. You can also do this with 6 or 9 posts depending on how you wish to present it.
You don’t need a different caption for each post, just copy and paste the same caption for each. It’s really just marking a visual changeover.
2. THE HYPE BUILDER
For brands that have gone through a brand refresh and less of an overhaul, I recommend creating a series of teaser posts that hint at something to come. When I did a brand refresh for the Studio in the spring of 2023, I created a few Instagram stories that used some of the new brand patterns and colours I’d introduced, along with a Coming Soon date. This built hype and intrigue leading up to my announcement.
When the date finally came, I posted a carousel post proudly showcasing my new brand identity, along with my announcement for why and what was new for the Studio.
The message that accompanies your rebrand announcement on social media is really the most important piece. So craft it with care.
CONNECT WITH YOUR COMMUNITY
Go that extra mile by sending a personal message to your clients, network, and email list. Use the message you crafted for your social media announcement to craft a personalized message to send to these folks as well. This is also a great opportunity to reconnect with past clients and other connections and see how you may be able to assist them in the future.
The number one thing to keep in mind as you prepare to debut your new brand is to strive for a new and improved brand experience from start to finish. This is your opportunity to audit your brand touchpoints, clear out the clutter and optimize your content.
By now, you should know exactly how to launch a rebrand with ease and grace. It will take time but when done with care, it will allow you to put your best foot forward as you enter this next chapter of your business. Be sure to grab this Rebrand Launch Plan Workbook for free to help you navigate your own launch!
Jenny Henderson Studio improves recognition and revenue for service-based small businesses by developing memorable brand experiences and strategic brand foundations.