So you’ve gotten an inkling that it maybe time to rebrand your business. Rebrands are costly, and not always necessary depending on your intent. With that said there are many situations wherein a rebrand is just what your business needs. The intent of this blog insight is to help you decide if your business & the problems it maybe facing can be healed with a rebrand.

For the purpose of this insight rebranding also includes what I refer to as Brand Upgrades. These are when you may not be starting your whole brand identity over from scratch but instead simply re-aligning to the soul of your business. Brand Upgrades also include Brand Expansions, when the elements of your current branding are still in alignment you simply need more to create a more well-rounded brand imagery experience for your audience.

None of us want to wear the same outfit everyday in the same sense your primary logo can get tiresome to your audience – no matter how pretty. A Brand Expansion allows you to expand upon your originally brand identity with the creation of supporting elements. Maybe you only have a primary logo an expansion could look like a sub mark, brand pattern, alternate logo, even a secondary color palette. Branding is multi-faceted like a crystal – sure a crystal is beautiful in its own right but all those facets are what make crystals shimmer & shine in their own uniqueness. This should be the same for your brand. These 7 signs will help provide clarity in where you should invest your time & monies and think through what facets of my branding isn’t working.

 

  

1. Clients just trickling in

This happens for 2 reasons

Reason numero 1: Your audience isn’t connecting with you enough. Your audience needs to feel as if they know you & feel as if they can trust the version of you they have created in their minds. Granted you can’t control this but you can definitely encourage it through expression & consistency. Consistency in how you show up in your business and the ways in which you serve your clients.

Reason 2: low visibility / poor expression. How visible are you in front of those who need your services – no don’t just continue reading here – actually recall in your mind where your target customer can go to e a s i l y find you? Are you a needle in a haystack? Are you confidently showing up in the spaces where you are present (or at least 1 or 2 of them) or are you playing small? If you don’t feel confident in some facet of your business, either the know how, the website, your visual expression or branding, or even in your processes. Lack of confidence in any of these area will continue to act as a leash, holding yourself back & playing small.

Let’s talk about your expression – your business’ personality – literally who you are as a business. How are you expressing yourself? Be the energy you wish to receive in the world.(Insta graphic & post leading back to this blog) you wish to receive confidence & clients that see your work as high value – then place that energy in your work. what would make you feel more confident?

If your watering down your expression (in fear of turning potential clients off) what your really doing is dimming down your light so those who would book with you in a second because they have connected with your vibe & presence are instead left with questions, wondering is this the right person for me to work with. Which leads us into sign number 2…

   

  

2. Attracting the wrong type of clients?

Theres something to be said about the delicate balance between designing your authentic brand & creating a brand that will serve as a calling card to your ideal audience. This is why brand strategy is so very important. Prior to any actual design work takes place, before theres even a sketch book brain dump theres hours of research that is poured into identifying & defining your target market, how you serve them, and your unique selling point that makes you the most profitable. By strategically designing your brand from this starting point & through this lens success is inevitable.

Struggling to sign clients at higher price points? What quality are you communicating to your clients – let’s look at the case of coaches using selfies. I’m sure they look great in them, but that’s not the question. Selfies communicate unprofessionalism. Even if your brand is all about off the cuff, attitude, throwing the book out the window & doing things your own way – even then still your selfies are no bueno. I’m not saying it can’t work – Hell, one of my own coaches used selfies. But amount of education she was able to impart and the length of time it took me to book with her is a direct reflection of how much I trusted this lady with the selfies. It was only after nearly a year and half of following her & being educated in all the free ways that she had finally won over my trust. If you’ve invested in branding then it should work for you by significantly closing that gap of when a new audience member finds you to converting them into a client.

  

   

3. Your initial business direction has changed.

Let’s say that you’re a business coach, and after your first few years in business you become a first time mom. After figuring out how to successfully run your business & be a bomb ass mom.com you find you most enjoy working with entrepreneurs who are also new mothers. Helping them to plan & implement systems to help keep their lives running smoothly is your jam! But most of your clients either already have older children or don’t need as much help when it comes to that facet of their lives. You already have a steady stream of new referrals & clients so you don’t want to start from scratch & you don’t have to! By rebranding you can shift your business into alignment of what truly sets your soul on fire – as well as gaining the confidence to be seen going after it! It’s about putting an end to the client chase by creating a visual identity that serves as a point of attraction that flows with ease.

  

  

4. Your branding simply isn’t aligned any more.

Life/God/the Cosmos/the Universe/Source doesn’t care about “time”. In the last year I have changed more than I have in the last 3 years of my life combined. Elements of decor in my home are still sitting with price tags as I stare at them from across the room wondering, what version of me bought that thing? Its so not me. The same goes for the ways in which we style our business. The ways in which we express it. Ever thrown a top that still fits in all the ways it used to & you just can’t put your finger on it but somehow it simply doesn’t *feel* like it used to? Energetically you are no longer in alignment with that item. Which is fine but life is too short to surround ourselves with things or express our selves in ways that are inauthentic to our true selves.

On the flip side you may be thinking okay so what happens in a year when I maybe vibin’ something different – here’s the great thing. You don’t suddenly begin hating boots, over time you simply realize you prefer pointed toe with a wedge heel. When you build your brand from a researched back position it won’t matter as much if your immediate style has changed because the tenants behind the why of your business & the how you do business in your own unique way will still be the same and when you create a brand outside of the constriction of contemporary styles your freed from the stress of having dated looking branding in the future. This is why when I begin building your brand strategy it starts with hours of research to ensure that I’m building a brand that can stand the test of time.

A great example of this is my work with Emerge Juice. For a deeper look into that work just click here Juice bar Branding: A Case Study.

To recap what signs we’ve gone over so far:

1. Clients only trickling in

2. Attracting the wrong type of clients

3. Initial business direction has changed

4. Your branding is out of alignment

   How many signs has your business given so far? Let’s continue down our list – only 3 more to go!

  

  

5. You experience FOBS – and globs of it!

Fear of Being Seen

You feel that tinge of embarrassment when someone asks for your card or web address, that awkward uncomfortable shift in your inner world, a physical cringing maybe even? Have you avoided even talking about your business – telling yourself, they don’t really care (read because I’m afraid I won’t be taken seriously as a professional) sure sometimes people suck & don’t care (but who’s waisting their time talking to those people?)

Allow me to set the stage, you work your ass off on a great blog post that has so much great content in it that its going to blow your audiences minds! You’ve done your research, your editing rounds 1-upteen bajillion, you’ve decided on the pull qoutes from your post, your keywords etc. Now the time has come to make this thing pretty with insta photos, pinterest cover photos, stock imagery, pull qoute visuals, graphics galore! This is where it all unravels fast af. “Which fonts have the right expression? Which ones are easily read but attractive & interesting? Which colors will appeal to my demographic, where the hell on this blank art board do I even begin to place all this info! Ugh! I don’t have space for my logo!”…there there.

By having a thorough brand strategy all these and so many more are are mute points because they are properly thought through way ahead of time, it’s having a design game plan. This free’s your mental space (not to mention time) to tackle the really important questions & tasks. Also it gifts you the confidence to know when you go to hand that business card over that if the receiver thinks anything less then, “this is amazing!” they simply aren’t your ideal audience. You aren’t for them & they aren’t for you & knowing that’s okay because you presented in yourself in the best possible light.

  

  

6. Feeling a lack of a sense of clarity in your business purpose, customers, and/or direction

Lacking clarity in your business in relation to any of these facets is holding your business back in a major way! Without knowing your customers what drives them or their pain points how can you ever serve them? How can you fill a their needs? First from knowing your customers you can identify your business purpose and finally its direction. A business that begins to purely make money is not one that is sustainable. A business that exists to first serve is one that will easily attract its customers rather than having to chase them.

  

  

7. Your business has grown & its time to expand upon your original brand

You started as a blog, after some time nurturing & growing your audience you begin to monetize this blog with content upgrades, courses, and even a podcast. You did it big! But does it make sense for each of your business assets to be under a single brand? The answer to that lies in your audience. If your audience for all channels are one-in-the-same and the vibe, tone & messaging are then this system works under 1 brand because all facets are a merely a fragment of a larger entity. Each doing their role to support the brand over all.

But take one of my clients, a Life Coach and Pod Caster. While creating her brand she knew she wanted each of these entities to have a distinctly different vibe but one that would still be cohesive to her overall brand. Rather than create an all new brand we developed her brand & planned for the distinction in relation to her color palette & font system. Her brand is cohesive but by utilizing distinct colors & fonts in a particular fashion we create a distinction between the entities that make up her brand. Stay tuned for the case study on that amazing project!

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About the Author :

Warm greetings! I’m Krystle, the mindful creative behind The Enlightened Studio. Im a Visual Designer who is all about helping health & wellness companies, conscious personal development coaches & soul-aligned entrepreneurs. Through strategic web design that converts site visitors in customers, branding that aligns to your authenticity and to the soul of your ideal clientele as well as graphic design that communicates your professionalism while educating your audience & positioning you as the guru in your field. My passion is using my creative gifts to empower others to carry out their best work. Welcome to The Enlightened Studio!