A Guide to Rebranding: Why and How to Do It Effectively

After a couple of years running this blog, I've just done some rebranding recently. It took me a while to finally execute my plan to rebrand, but I'm glad I finally did it. Ignorance was bliss as I didn't know how to start a brand when I started my blog a few years ago. But now that I know better, I've been through the rebranding process a couple of times now in an attempt to make my blog better.

This was my second time to do rebranding for the blog, and I figure now that I've had some experiences to do it, I'd like to share with you why and how I do rebranding for my blog. Rebranding sounds quite simple, but believe me… It takes so many considerations to finally do it.

Now, if you run your own business or you've built your self-brand and then at some point you think you need to rebrand, the whys and the hows could really take their tolls in your rebranding process.

So, at what point do you need to rebrand? And how can you do it effectively, but as efficiently as possible? These are my whys and hows!

Table of Content

3 Main Reasons Why You Need to Start Rebranding

My first rebranding process was not only just a choice, but it was also a necessity.

I made a small mistake that led to a significant impact that became a total loss as a new aspiring blogger then. I came up with a blog name in Indonesian at the time because I initially thought it would give me some sense of identity for being an Indonesian blogger.

While that might work if I write in my native language, as it turned out, I became more comfortable writing in English. Not only had the name become somewhat redundant, but it was also not so friendly for my target audience, who are mostly non-Indonesian.

Now, you've probably come across my post as you're trying to weigh whether or not it's worth the effort to rebrand your brand or business now. So, I've come with 3 main reasons why you need to start your rebranding process from now.

So, what are those?

1. Repurpose your brand or business

When I decided to rebrand my blog for the second time, I knew that I needed to do it partially as I've been quite happy with the blog in general.

However, I realized that so many changes happened in the past couple of years. Like it or hate it, I've changed too as a person that I feel like I needed to revamp my blog again this time.

When I first created this blog, it was more like the platform where I killed time. I only wrote the articles for fun, if not as a form of therapy, since I quit my full-time job and struggled to adapt as partially unemployed in 2017.

Well, not anymore. I'm in a better place right now, where I keep myself busy with many things that I can do at home. Better yet, because I haven't lost the adventurous side of me since I still periodically go traveling until Covid-19 came along.

Source: Pexels.

The call-out for quarantine ensured me that it was time for me to rebrand this blog's purpose. Previously, I only focus on the beau-beauty-travel as the main themes of the blog. Still, I want to bring more values than just some tacky love stories that eventually failed in the middle.

I want to emphasize what makes me different than some of my friends in my inner circle. And that would be the idea of being able to travel while mostly spending my time at home.

With the quarantine imposed in almost all over the world, my personality is somewhat a win, so that's when I knew it was time to bring it out into my blog!

2. Re-identify your target market.

As a person, you will change throughout the years, and so will your brand. Maybe you started your brand when you were single, and now that you have your own family, your brand is no longer relevant since you engage more with mompreneurs.

One of my local Indonesian clients started her business in the baby's clothing industry when she was with her first newborn. Initially, she only targeted infants to toddler sizes for their collections.

But now that her firstborn is almost 5 and she's expecting her second child in the family, she added the kid's size in her collections. Not only does she bring the values to her audiences, but she also caters to the firstborn's needs through her business.

After all, that's the beauty of running your own business. You can adjust it to your personal preference, as long as you know how to connect with your target market. And when you think it's time to readjust your audience, do it!

3. No particular reason, you just need a fresh new start.

Yep, sometimes you don't need any reason to rebrand… You just do need to rebrand for the sake of a fresh new start!

I've been blogging since I was in high school. Initially, I only kept my blog for personal purpose, in a way that I had my blog as my journal and whatnot. I tried almost every platform from LiveJournal, Blogger, Tumblr, until now that I'm on self-hosted WordPress.

Whenever I started a new blog, it was usually the start of a new milestone in my life… And for a good reason.

You know what? Sometimes it's okay to go back to square one if it only allows you to refocus on everything from scratch. If you're not sure whether or not you should rebrand, sometimes the answer is, in fact, you need to do it.

Let alone rebrand your business. Sometimes, the situation also applies when you second-guess the need to pivot your career. Am I right or am I right? 😛

Source: Pexels.

4 Things to Do for Rebranding Effectively

It takes a lot of energy and sometimes money for a rebranding process. Trust me, it does no matter how small you think your progress is.

For precisely the same reason, you need to make sure that you can do it both effectively and efficiently when you do it. Because the last thing you want when it comes to rebranding is to waste a lot of time and money for a rebranding process that leads to failure.

So, how do we start rebranding effectively?

1. Outline your current vision and mission when it comes to your brand.

Does it still have the same vision and mission as you started your brand initially? From there, you can identify how much of changes that you need for rebranding.

The more similar vision and missions you have on the list, the less effort you need to start rebranding. Try to see the bigger picture so that you're sure that the change is required and relevant for your brand.

Do you want to change it because you're bored, or do you simply have to change it as the current mission doesn't resonate with your own way of thinking today? If that's the latter, start to mindmap the rebranding process from scratch!

2. Are you in for partial or total rebrand?

Once you identify your brand's vision and mission, you can probably calculate whether you need to do rebranding partially or you need to make the whole change for your brand.

Partial branding is easier because you can just decide which part of the brand you need to change. Is it just the logo, or is it just your brand's name with no essential change in particular?

When you require total rebranding, your potential obstacle is one thing: the budget.

It took me months until I changed my blog's name to The BeauTraveler. I already spent my time and money for things like logo, hosting, domain, and the content with the blog's watermark. At the time, I just quit the full-time job that I didn't have a stable income to cover all the things needed to rebrand.

So, what I did was that I created the logo first while waiting until I got financially ready to purchase another domain with the blog's new name.

Suppose you're in the same situation as I did, I'd suggest you spend your energy starting something that doesn't require money for your rebranding process. Once you have the money to invest in other things, you just need to put everything together and start informing your audience about your new start.

Source: Pexels.

3. Create your own brand guideline.

A brand guideline is quite common to use for professional agencies. Even if you run your blog or business on your own, don't stop it from creating your DIY brand guidelines.

It doesn't have to be complicated, as you can easily write it down in your agenda, if not your digital planner. I created mine on Trello and share it with my team for their guideline.

Apart from the files of things like logo and favicon, I also added other information like my brand hex code and the fonts used for my brand. It's super useful to maintain the uniformity of the brand.

Especially now that I work with a team, the guideline really helps us to work together.

That way, whenever I ask my assistant to help me create some graphics for my blog, they could just refer to the guidelines so they will use the exact brand colors for the graphics. They also don't have to reach out to me to find out what script fonts I use for pinnable images. It's all great!

Source: Pexels.

4. Start executing your plan to rebrand.

A plan is nothing without action, that's for sure. You can plan anything entirely from A to Z. But when it was not executed, what's the use of it, right?

So when you think the plan is ready to execute, start your rebranding process. It won't be easy, and it will take time. But then you still need to start somewhere.

It doesn't matter which part you can begin the process. For example, maybe you can start with the change of the logo first. Eventually, you need to revamp your website or social media profile afterward.

If your brand has reached a broad audience, it's also important to let them know about your rebranding process. Maybe a post on Instagram story already does the magic, but maybe it isn't?!

The wider the audiences, the more you need to inform your readers or followers about the rebranding. That's because you need to make sure that they're still aligned with your new vision and mission.

Mind you, losing followers or audiences when you started rebranding is common… Don't take it personally, because the loss of old audience will just lead to new ones that are more aligned to your current brand.

Always keep “quality over quantity” in your mindset regarding your brand and target market. After all, you want more revenue for the audience who does something to do with your business than just millions of followers who barely know nothing about your vision, right?

So, are you ready to rebrand?! Or, have you experienced any rebranding process on your own? Share your story below in the comment, and cheerio! 😀