In business, perception is paramount. How your customers perceive your company is almost as important as the actual products or services you provide.
It’s no surprise then that more and more companies are choosing to hit the reset button and rebrand themselves in an attempt to bolster sales and customer engagement. The only problem: rebranding costs time and money. Ironically, businesses that most need to rebrand often can’t afford to start over and craft a new image for themselves. The good news is, you can identify several crucial elements of rebranding –– so that when your company’s ready for a facelift, you won’t be paying through the nose for it. Here are six ways you can rebrand your company on a budget:
Do Your Homework
Even worse than paying too much through the rebranding process is splashing the cash on a rebrand when you don’t even need one. Sometimes, a rebrand isn’t the answer to your problems. Indeed, in some instances, a rebrand of a recognizable feature of your company can serve to irritate loyal customers and turn off potential leads. So before you make any big decisions regarding rebranding, perform due diligence on the matter. Consider your place in your market. Explore alternative options that may alleviate some problems you’re experiencing. Take the temperature of your consumer base to test if they’d be receptive to a rebrand. In that regard, you can consult the help of a market research company. Paying a little to conduct a survey to determine if you need a rebrand is eminently preferable to spending huge sums on a rebrand when you don’t need it.
Listen and Develop
One way you can save money on your rebrand is to have a fully fleshed out plan of attack before you start spending. And the best rebrands are ones that enhance the best parts of your company. Interviewing employees and customers is a great way to identify the traits of your business you should emphasize –– and also what you may need to change. Too often companies panic and attempt to rebrand without having a solid vision for the future in mind. Inevitably, they end up shifting course again and again –– and paying for redesign, after redesign in the process. Don’t let your company fall into this trap.
Finance Wisely
Undergoing a rebrand is going to cut into your capital and require a hefty amount of work in-house to complete competently. However, your day-to-day operations need to continue running smoothly despite the shake up occuring behind closed doors. To that end, you may consider applying for a business loan or a cash advance to keep your cash flow stable and ensure that you don’t lose any clients while undertaking your rebrand.
Hold on to What Works
If you’ve done the hard work of collecting data from your customer base, you’ll no doubt recognize that your clientele appreciates aspects of what you do. As such, it behooves you to retain the elements of your operation that have functioned well in the past. Just because you’ve encountered a rough patch, doesn’t mean you should completely start over. To use an old cliche: don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Plus, determining what works will save you time and money in your rebranding process; after all, you won’t need to change what already works!
Go Digital
Fixing up your website is one of the cheapest and yet most effective elements to a successful rebrand. And the good news here is, you don’t have to be a computer wizard to optimize your site for vital search-engine metrics. Simply doing some basic maintenance on the back-end of your website can go a long way to making your rebrand a breeze –– and improving your web-traffic numbers at the same time!
Think Ahead
A rebrand is not a quick fix. Nor is it a cure-all for a business’s ailments. However, when done well, a rebrand can position a company to grow in profitability for years to come. That’s why when your company decides to rebrand, you need to think long-term about your goals. Otherwise, you’ll constantly be scrambling and looking for ways to boost sales and crawl into the black. Take your time and make your rebrand count, so you can begin recouping your expenses right away.
The Bottom Line
Rebranding is not an easy task for any business to tackle. That’s why it’s essential you take every aspect of it seriously –– and monitor your progress at every stage of the process. The main thing to remember is, the more attention you pay to the details of your rebrand, the better you’ll spend your money in the end. And that’s the key to keep in mind: don’t scrimp and pinch pennies when rebranding. Instead, spend your money with a smart game plan already in mind.