After all the hard work rebranding your company, make it a stellar launch with these tips.
Our 10 tips for a successful rebrand launch include a brand rollout plan with easy-to-follow steps you can take before, during, and after your launch. Because when it comes to branding your company, you’ll want to continue creating a buzz leading up to and long after the big debut. Plus, we’ve included internal brand launch ideas that are a sure-fire way to amp up your team.
As unofficial brand ambassadors, your employees interact with your products and services the most. Keeping them pumped about your rebrand and including them in your launch plan efforts is vital to successfully executing your re branding strategies. Ready to let sparks fly? Creating your ultimate brand launch strategy can be a lot of fun and is easier than you think.
"Before the Launch" Tips
1. Use Social Media to build buzz.
Love it or hate it, social media is the fastest way to advertise your rebranding campaign 2021 and have the the farthest reach. If your company isn’t on social media, identify which social platforms are best for your company and start marketing on them prior to your new brand rollout. With 1.85 billion active users per day, Facebook is a great tool for both B2B and B2C companies alike. Here are some Facebook launching strategies 2021 you can use to create excitement:
- Create an Event Page so you can share updates and sneak peeks about your event. This can also allow others to “RSVP” to your event, ask questions, and connect with others who are attending your event. This works for both live and virtual events.
- Create and share your new brand announcement by posting pics, sharing invites, and most importantly, giving people reasons to attend.
- Promote cool prizes that will be drawn during the event. To create a sense of urgency, you might add that you must be present (or watching live) to win
2. Get your employees involved and excited stat!
Including your employees in your rebrand is crucial to a successful event. Not only can they help market your branding efforts, but employees who feel appreciated will be more excited and willing to share with others. Some internal brand launch ideas include:
- Host a mini “relaunch party just for them”. This is also a great run-through before your big reveal to your customers or potential customers. Make it fun by sharing employee-branded merch with your teams.
- Share the reason behind your rebrand and talking points should employees need to explain this to your customers.
- Highlight the parts of your brand/service/products that are staying the same too, since there will probably be things that aren’t changing.
3. Create a fun hashtag and make it trend!
A rebranding announcement sample could be as simple as creating a unique hashtag for your event. Every time you, your employees, and even possible attendees post about your event is an opportunity to use your hashtag. Just make sure your hashtag can’t be confused with one that already exists. (We’re looking at you Burger King!) Then:
- Ask for your employees’ help in sharing your event online and tagging the company and your hashtag.
- Continue giving your customers and intended audience reasons to attend your event. For example, is there a product launch or new service?
- Tease them about a special deal that will be announced at the launch. This is definitely a balancing act. It should make them want to know more, but not so be some specific they hold off purchasing anything until your event.
"At the Event" Tips
4. Make it a live event that’s everywhere.
Regardless of your budget, treat your relaunch like it’s the event of the year.
- Make it live and promote it on all of your social platforms, including your website. You can offer a play back for later so anyone who can’t attend has access to it. And, if you’re not comfortable hosting live, try using a service like Restream to make your event feel “live” even if it’s using premade videos.
- Invest in a guest speaker that’s respected in your industry.
- FOMO is real, whether you have five people watching or 5k+, the relaunch is just beginning and having an event video or playlist available to share afterwards is an invaluable way to keep your marketing efforts going.
5. Promote your rebranding efforts everywhere.
Everything at your virtual event (and beyond) should reflect your rebrand. Branded apparel, hats, backpacks, laptop cases, totes, tumblers, balloons, notebooks, pens, etc. should all highlight your amazing new rebrand.
- Make it fun and all about your audience by thanking them for attending and communicating how your company’s products or services is designed for them. Don’t forget to sprinkle in fun drawings and giveaways that incorporate your new look.
- If it fits your brand, make the most of any “give back messaging” you are doing within your community, etc.
- Launch a rewards program to keep people interacting with your brand after your launch. For example, give a discount to a future product or service when someone your customer refers makes a purchase.
- If you’re promoting a flash deal, let your audience know it will be announced at the end of your event so attendees don’t log off early. Remember to keep it a somewhat short time frame to create a sense of urgency.
"After the Event" Tips
6. Offer cool drawings/giveaways in the form of branded merch.
Who doesn’t love an opportunity to score free merchandise? To increase engagement, you can offer giveaways for:
- Giving a referral
- Following your company on social & tagging in a post
- Signing up for emails
- Downloading your app
7. Launch a limited time promotion or discount on services.
Everyone loves a great deal and by advertising a promotion after your event, you can continue celebrating your new rebrand. In addition to having a clear call to action and a short timeline to create a sense of urgency, you may also want to:
- Invest in paid ads to help promote it.
- Add a branded thank you card to orders
- Give those who took advantage of your promotion a reason to shop again soon. This could be offering double rewards points or a future discount or online code to shop again soon.
8. Keep your brand rollout momentum going with customers, prospects, and employees. Remember, out of site, out of mind.
- Invest in an influencer to promote your brand
- Have automated campaign emails ready and make sure to customers a reason to come back.
- Create meaningful dialog on social media. Remember it’s about building community and interactions not just selling.
- If someone asks a question- reply lightning fast. If someone tags you, comment. If someone asks a question. Answer. Personal interactions from companies build engagement and engagement helps contribute to brand loyalty.
9. Keep your employees’ excitement high.
They put a lot of effort into creating your own brand and launching it, so make sure you recognize and thank them. Remember happy employees translate to happy customers. You can reward them with:
- A personalized card and company branded tech gift
- Time off with pay or something else of monetary value.
- Special branded merch and company-wide recognition
10. Plan for the worst and make it the best!
No matter how carefully you plan your brand rollout, nothing will ever go 100% flawless. Servers crash, mailing mishaps happen, inventory runs out, and shipping can take longer than expected. Use every opportunity to further engage and delight your customer.
- If you are able to turn a bad situation into a promising one, ask your customer to leave you a review.
- If for some reason, you get a bad review, make it right. If it’s on social media, before you take it offline, post a reply expressing your desire to make it right. This way everyone knows that you are addressing the issue.
- If you are able to poke fun of yourself in an endearing way, that will do wonders for your audience. Chick-Fil-A and Coca Cola are two extremely successful brands that faced backlash after changing the recipe to one of their beloved products. And aside from momentary panic, it’s in the way they handled the situation that makes the public love and appreciate them even more.
When rebranding alone isn’t enough, you may need to rethink your business model in order to find success.
In 2015 Dress Barn enlisted a fun, new branding campaign to overcome their challenging name. We’re guessing the barns and livestock visual their name created didn’t exactly translate to women’s fashion. As entertaining as their campaign was, their brick and mortar store sales continued to decline. In the fall of 2017 Dress Barn began rebranding select stores with the name Roz & Ali. However despite their efforts, in 2019 Dress Barn closed all of its approximately 650 stores. After completely overhauling their brand strategy, they re-emerged with a successful branding strategy as an online-only retailer in 2020. In that short time, Dress Brand has experienced extremely successful results each quarter, even in the midst of a pandemic.
Launching a new business and relaunching a current business takes hard work. As you work through successful branding strategies it’s important to remind yourself your “why”. Let that same passion and desire for why you started your company carry into your branding steps.
