Post No. 57

The Forgotten Pieces of an Effective Brand Refresh

You’re a few years into business and you’ve hit your stride. You know who you are, what you do, and who you serve — but you just can’t shake the feeling that something is still off. You provide a great service, but your business has plateaued. Things seem harder than you expected at this stage in your business. You’re getting tired of the constant struggle to attract quality clients who value your expertise. You thought you’d be further along by now. If you can relate, it is time to ask yourself a hard question:

Do you provide a great service tangled up in a bad brand? If so, your brand is holding you back and it is time for a refresh.

Let’s assume for a minute that you’ve identified the root of the problem and you’re ready to attack it head-on. You’re tired of a brand that always seems to be three steps behind where your business is today. You are ready to refresh your brand — the right way. You want a brand that drives your business forward, instead of holding it back. Great! Acknowledging the problem is half of the battle. Now let’s see how to approach your brand refresh in a holistic way for maximum results.

The Obvious Brand Pieces

When you think about refreshing your brand, your mind immediately jumps to the obvious things like refreshing your logo, tuning up your messaging, or overhauling your website. Nice work, you’ve identified the “big rocks.” These are the highest-payoff pieces of your brand that will move the needle the most in your quest to attract higher quality clients.

The Forgotten Brand Pieces

While your logo, messaging and website are critical to an effective brand refresh, they’re not everything. Most people aren’t even thinking about their email signatures, office signage and Google My Business profile when refreshing their brands. When refreshing your brand, you’ll want to include any of these things that may display your old brand. Let’s look at some of these “small rocks” that often go forgotten during a brand refresh.

Branded Stationery

  • Business Cards
  • Letterhead
  • Envelopes
  • Email Signatures

Signs & Materials

  • Office Signage
  • Vehicle Wraps or Magnets
  • Team Uniforms
  • Print Materials
  • Branded Swag

Business Social Media Pages

Business Listings

Why it Pays to be Thorough

So, what’s at stake? Why do you care if your Facebook banner aligns with your website banner? We recently talked about the correlation between the consistency and the strength of a brand (see How Brand Guidelines Keep Your Brand Strong). It takes time to build brand recognition. The more consistent you are, the quicker you’ll get there. When building an effective brand, it is important to display your brand consistently across all areas of your brand — even these forgotten ones.

Because so many businesses neglect their email signatures, Google My Business listings and social media profiles, you have a great opportunity. Investing just a little time and attention to these often forgotten brand areas will instantly make your business more credible. Consider them small details that make a big difference.

So how about you? Do you provide a great service tangled up in a bad brand? If so, it is time for a refresh. Hopefully you’ve found this post a helpful resource to point you in the right direction. If you’d like to talk further about refreshing your brand, book a time to talk with Sarah, our Co-Founder & Brand Strategist.