should you rebrand before a conference?
figure one. abstract person with megaphone announcing new branding in browser with heart and three stars.
Website no longer doing it for you? Replace it with attracting people who want to work with you or generating phone calls or emails. Whatever your it is, your website isn’t delivering on your business goals.
You may be thinking you need a new look—a minor brand refresh or maybe a total rebrand. Stop! And hold on for a moment. Do these three things first.
one. ASK YOURSELF WHY YOU WANT TO REBRAND.
Think about what you hope to achieve with a new look. More traffic? More leads? Just more everything?
Are you bored with your current look? Do you want a fresh outlook because your font choice or layout screams the last decade instead of now? Or do you need a new direction because you have outgrown your current branding or changed the focus of your content?
"Rebranding can breathe new life into your business but it can also be rather risky. If done for the wrong reasons, a rebrand can bring about the exact opposite effect of the intended goal. A long standing company with a solid reputation that suddenly decides to change their look just for the sake of change, might do themselves harm rather than good. (Source: Onextrapixel)"
get clear on what you do.
Rebranding should not be a knee-jerk reaction. If your existing brand no longer aligns with your business goals and priorities. If your existing brand perception is outdated. If your brand image and messaging are a patchwork. These are all valid reasons; rebranding may be the right solution for you.
"There is no real rule of thumb on how often to refresh a brand, or what timing is appropriate. ... Branding transcends fashion or trends, so it is often difficult for business owners to know if what they are presenting to the market is out of style. (Source: GCI)"
Substance 151 offers five questions you need to ask yourself before redesigning your website. Curious what successful versus unsuccessful rebrands look like? Onextrapixel walks you through a few and explains what works and what doesn't work.
figure two. arrow pointing from left to right connecting 1) trio of abstract people under thought bubble that includes a heart; 2) trio of abstract people in front of a browser containing a heart and three stars; and 3) abstract person holding letters with heart seals.
focus on your calls to action.
If your look doesn't feel new, reconsider an overhaul. Instead, think about how you can convert new visitors. Are you asking them to take a specific action? Sign up for a newsletter. Register for a class. Schedule a consultation. Tell them exactly what you want them to do.
You'll be meeting lots of new people at the conference who may be visiting your site after you exchange business cards. If you don't have a New Here? guide, focus on that instead of a rebrand. You want to hook new visitors and the way to do that is to serve them your best work.
two. DEDICATE TIME AND RESOURCES TO YOUR REBRAND.
Here's the hard truth: if you're looking to rebrand, you can't continue operating the same way while you're scuttling everything. Rebranding is not a side job. Rebranding, especially if you don't want to impact SEO, is a full-time job.
Trying to rebrand and keep your old branding alive in parallel with limited resources is a recipe for disaster.
start with the end in mind.
Now, do you have a date in mind by which everything needs to happen? A fresh look isn’t just bound to your website. So, before committing to that date, be realistic with whether you can roll out your updated branding across your entire online footprint--your website, your blog, and all of your social media channels--as well as your business cards.
revisit your why—your purpose.
If you don't know why you're doing what you're doing, stop. Don't jump into a rebrand focusing on a logo or a new look. Neither are going to help you and once you discover your why, it may be wasted time and money.
"[You] will not be able to just invent a reason why [your] existing product is so great. The why claim must be a true starting point based on which [your] product is developed. That will allow [you] to inspire other people to do things that inspire them." Source: European Institute for Brand Management (no longer available online)"
pause other marketing initiatives.
If possible, you should pause what you're doing. Tell your audience. Lay out a timeline of when they can expect to see new things. And then do the work.
figure three. five-week schedule for updating or refreshing your brand ahead of an event. First week focuses on your brand: do you have a well-thought out why? Yes, hone your elevator pitch for the event. No, think about why people need to work with you. Refine your elevator pitch. Second week focuses on your website: update or create your Start Here page and update your About Me page. If you’re speaking, create an event-specific download or registration page. Week three focus on your social media bios. With character limitations in mind, are your bios consistent. One week before your event focus on your social media channels. Do you have the same avatar across all social media channels? Have you directed inactive channels to active channels?
three. PRIORITIZE BRANDING ACTIVITIES TO GET THE MOST IMPACT.
Before you jump into the doing, know this. It's perfectly OK to go to a conference with an idea (or a few ideas) about what you want to do.
Let the speakers and fellow attendees inspire you. Brainstorm with them. Use them as sounding boards. But don't rush into a rebrand because you think you have to.
If you make the right connections, you can reach out to them after the conference when your site and why are live and still see value from your attendance and networking.
be realistic about what you can get done.
Looking at another month until your conference? Take a deep dive into your why. If you're likeable, people will want to work with you--even if your why isn't fully formed. If you have a well-thought out why upon which you base your elevator pitch, you'll have those you speak to sharing your story more widely. Get your why wrong and you attract the wrong community.
Got three weeks? Put your best foot forward. If you don't have a Start Here page on your website, create one. Update your About Me page. Your website is one of the first places sponsors and fellow attendees are going to visit to get to know you better. You want to make it easy for visitors to find out what you're about and to peruse your best work.
Have two weeks? Look at the bios for each of your social media channels and, with character limitations in mind, craft them so that they're consistent.
Only have a week? Be sure that you're using the same avatar across all of your social media channels. Not active on all of them? Tell visitors where to find you in your bio. It's a win-win: they can tag you on their favorite social media channel and they know how to get a response if they're trying to contact you.
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Post updated December 2020 to remove links to content no longer available online. Abbreviated version of this post originally appeared on Altitude Summit's blog November 12, 2014.