Here’s How to Rebrand Your Business in #7 Steps
When it comes to knowing how to rebrand your business, I’m a pro. I’ve helped multiple clients rebrand their outdated websites into client attracting machines. Today I wanted to chat to you about something a little more personal. I wanted to share with you how I rebranded my own business and why I chose to do it.
If you’re in a similar boat, where you don’t feel like your brand & website reflects who you are anymore - then this is the post for you.
Let’s do this!
This is How I Knew It Was Time to Rebrand My Business
I’d never fully loved my website like I knew my clients did after we’d worked together.
I would hear them say how much their website reflected them, how they now felt confident charging the prices they wanted to charge, they could showcase their services to a higher level of audience - the list was endless. I think mainly though, it was the confidence it gave them, knowing that their brand and website was top tier awesome and authentically them.
I didn’t feel that way about mine and that sh** is important!
You have to absolutely love your brand & website so that you can show up with confidence when you’re having those new client calls, when you’re pitching yourself for speaking gigs, appearing on someone's podcast or putting yourself forward for an article in the press.
For years I’d been a website designer who didn’t love her website. Ever heard the saying, the cobbler's children have no shoes? In the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, I looked at what others were doing, the people I thought were succeeding. This is not what you should do! You aren't going to attract your tribe if you’re trying to be someone else.
During the pandemic I made some major shifts in my personal life. I took up running after having never exercised in my life before to eventually running a half marathon within a year. I moved from London after 13+ years to the Cotswolds and finally I lost over 2 stone.
I was no longer the woman I was in the photographs on my website and the whole aesthetic feeling of my brand didn’t align with who I was now.
I needed a rebrand to reflect the new me.
These are the #7 Things I Did to Rebrand My Business from Start to Finish
Knowing that it was finally time to rebrand my business - when you know, you just know - I went through the exact same process I take my clients through when they’re in this initial concept stage and then some!
Here’s how to rebrand your business from my own personal experience…
How to Rebrand | Step #1: Aesthetic
How do you want your brand and website to look? This is the really, really fun part, though it can be quite daunting. You’re right at the beginning of this process and anything is possible. Now is the time to really get creative and dream big.
You don’t have to do anything the way it was before. Or you may want to only slightly change it up and if so, how would that look?
My first port of call here is to imagine the things that you like at that very moment (colours, interiors, fashion etc). Things can be tweaked but it’s good to go with something you feel you would like for a while. No point in doing this if you think you may go off it in a month or two.
For me, I really thought about the colours I was attracted to right then and there, easy. I was obsessed with neutral colours. In the past my website had been bright pink, oranges, greens you name it! Now I was feeling a lot softer and calmer in how I dressed, the interior of my home etc. So I knew I had a direction.
I suggest thinking about colour as your first point in the aesthetic process. It could be that you’ve always been attracted to nature, in particular the trees in the autumn, you love the red and orange colours that appear.
My absolute favourite way to decide what you want your brand to look like is to get pinning and brainstorming in Pinterest. Create a new board, title it, Brand Vision Board and if you’re anything like me - make it a secret board.
Here some ideas on what you can search for within Pinterest to add to your board;
Colour palettes (add in a descriptive word that matches your vibe, mine would have been neutrals)
Fonts
Logos
Images / vibes
Shapes / Patterns
Photoshoot Inspiration
Website Design Inspiration
TOP TIP: Find what shapes / branding ID resonates with you most and perhaps add them to your brand. They can play a huge influence on how your brand looks.
What I mean by this; I always doodle stars on my notepad when I’m on calls, it’s just something I’ve always done. Now I use these same stars in my branding. It’s also fun for the ‘fairy brandmother’ thing I have going on.
Yours may be that you love flowers like my client Jodie so I used flower illustrations throughout her site. Or you could be like Anais who loved the natural patterns found in crystals so I created her website around the look and feel of those gorgeous curved lines.
How to Rebrand | Step #2: Clothing
This step is important for you if your website and social media channels feature lots of imagery of you. Your photos need to reflect the look and feel you want for your brand.
Say, you want your brand to feel really ethereal and you’re wearing business suits in all your shots, then it is naaat gonna look how you want it to. There is a fine line of what you may want your brand to look like and also keeping it congruent with who you are as a person. So if you do like wearing business suits and never wear floaty ethereal clothes, don’t pick it for your brand, m'kay!!!
My clothing journey…
Before I did my whole new rebrand I had a bit of an identity crisis when it came to my wardrobe and style.
I’d lost a lot of weight so none of my clothes fit me and I was excited about buying a whole new staple wardrobe but I had no idea what that even looked like. I wanted to step into the woman I’d always wanted to dress like but how to pinpoint it? ✨⚡️✨
I scrawled through pinterest and spoke with a stylist friend and came up with how I wanted to look and feel. I then bought a whole new staple wardrobe around that look. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with my clothes. I charity shopped all my old looks, they no longer served me and the woman I had become.
Gone were the girly 50s style flowery dresses of old and in came a much more neutral, chic yet casual look. It was so exciting and it came at the perfect time of my rebrand as I matched my website's colours to my new wardrobe.
I have a whole post on what to wear for your personal branding photoshoot. You can check it out here… “Top Tips On What To Wear For Your Personal Branding Photoshoot” Fun fact, in this current blog post I’m talking about how I like wearing neutral coloured clothing but back when I wrote the Top Tips Personal Branding article I was all about bright clothing haha. You see, things change!
Below you can see how my clothing style evolved along with my website rebrand styling.
How to Rebrand | Step #3: Website Site Map
What prey tell is a site map I hear you ask? A site map is a list of the pages you want on your website.
Site map example;
Homepage
About Page
Services
Service #1 (eg website design)
Service #2 (eg all-in-one package)
Contact
Terms & Conditions
404 page
Resources
Once you have your site map, it’s really good to get your notepad and roughly write out all that you want to talk about on each page. This is a great tool for you to have when you start writing your website copy.
How to Rebrand | Step #4: Photoshoot
To studio or to do location, that is the question?!?!
OK so have a think, do you want...
Lifestyle shots where you’re in a home-like environment or out and about ‘working’ with clients in nice venues or maybe you’re outside in nature?
Studio photography where you have plain clean backgrounds in colours of your choosing?
I knew for my website photos I wanted a studio based photoshoot.
I didn’t want to detract from the work I created for my clients so I wanted there to be a very clean look. I also knew I wanted to have writing over my imagery so having a background that was one colour would be clearer to read.
I did later have some more lifestyle shots taken for my social media and the odd one for my website, but yeah I had a clear vision - studio photography. Pretty much all of my clients use Lifestyle Photography for their websites. That’s because I work with a lot of coaches and this style of photoshoot is great for getting to know them and their personalities. They’re not showing a portfolio of their clients' work like I am.
Another thing to bear in mind when planning your photoshoot is this;
What exactly is going onto your website?
What are your products/services?
What photos will you need for your website?
Set List - You want to plan a ‘set list’ of what type of shots you need that will work well on your site. You can also assign outfits to these particular shots but for me, I did this later once I had the photos.
In your set list you may have the following type of shots you’re looking for;
Working at your laptop
Meeting with a client in a nice venue
Shots of you on a sofa looking approachable
You can have these written out, or I find it best to go on Pinterest, pick as many types of shot as you like and print them out for your shoot and give them to your photographer for inspiration. In fact when I had my branding photoshoot, I was the first person who brought in a Disney character as her pose inspiration 😂 Check it out hahaha below 👇
How to Rebrand | Step #5: Copy
Boy oh boy, is this where a lot of my clients struggle. I mean don’t get me wrong, they also struggle on photoshoots, not many people feel comfortable in front of a camera but writing copy is a whole other beast.
This is where you have to articulate what it is you do. Now let me tell you, I have many friends who are professional copywriters and when it comes to writing their own copy for their websites they be like fu************!!! You are not alone!
It is not easy to write your own copy. To tell people what you do without waffling. And let me be clear, you HAVE TO BE CONCISE AND TO THE POINT, you only have your clients attention for a few minutes, don’t let them zone out because you waffled!
I also want you to inject as much of your personality as possible into your copy. Don’t worry if you’re thinking, What? How? If you’re a logical person, write your copy in a logical to the point way. If you’re that ethereal woman I spoke of earlier, make your copy flow and feel soft. Me, I like to think I’m funny, so I try and inject that into my words. Please tell me you think I’m a little bit funny?!?!! Guys, guys, guys??! **tumbleweeds
How to Rebrand | Step #6: Stock Photos
Once you know how you want your website / brand to look and you have your photoshoot imagery and your copy is sorted - you then have to find your accompanying stock photos.
OK when I say stock photos did you cringe? Did you think, mehhh stock photos are so naff? If you did, let me tell you now, you can get some amazing stock photos nowadays.
Check out the following sites for FREE stock photos;
Unsplash.com
Pexels.com
Pixabay.com
You can thank me later! Honestly, when I first found out about these sites about 6+ years ago, my mind was blown!!!
The main thing you want to do is find filler imagery that reflects your branding and will compliment your photoshoot images. For instance if you’re a meditation teacher and you focus a lot on being in nature, then find some photos of beautiful landscapes. Or if you’re a coach and part of your aesthetic is plants, search for particular plants that are your jam. I love a good money plant myself!
Here’s an example of how I used carefully curated stock photography to a clients website, where all she gave me was the copy for her different modules. This is the power of good imagery and how it can make copy leap out off the page!
I personally didn’t really use any stock photos on my website as I didn’t need them. My ‘extra’ photos were of the photographs I’d taken of my clients, the websites I’d created, the brand moodboards. As I said, my website will be slightly different from yours.
I have a fab section in my ‘How to create a brand you love’ workshop, that goes further into detail about how to find the perfect stock photos for you, that aren’t boring standard photos. You definitely need to check it out >>>
How to Rebrand | Step #7: Theme Pages
Haha ok this isn’t as strange as it sounds, promise! What I mean by this, is that you may want to use one particular colour for a page or use the same outfit for that page.
Let me give you an example of how I ‘themed’ the pages on my own site. I wore about 7 different looks on my photoshoot. Once I had all of my photos back and I’d done my site map, I pencilled in which outfit look would go best with which page.
For my homepage, I wanted to look approachable and friendly so I used my casual white jumper look with jeans. On my about page I mainly used my silk burnt caramel coloured shirt where I looked kinda sassy.
I have done this to great effect on clients' sites with colour. A few of my clients offer numerous services and I will pick out colours from their brand palette and use a colour and sometimes outfit look for each page eg. the executive coaching page is dark teal, their career coaching page is the softer teal - you get me!?
All the pieces coming together...
Designing, creating and finishing your website
Hoorah you’ve done all the 7 steps and now it’s time for your website to be designed and built. I am so excited for you!
One thing you may have noticed, is that I didn’t talk about taking into consideration who your ideal clients are, what they would want in your branding.
Controversial opinion time... I believe your branding should be about you NOT your clients!
This is where a lot of people get stuck, you look at what others in your industry are doing and get stuck in comparisonitus or what you think your clients will like. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the case all the time. If you like hot pink and bright colours and you’re a therapist helping people through grief, it may be time to think about other colours that are maybe a little more calming. But on the whole, think about what YOU like.
If you stick to this and create a brand that YOU love, then your vibe will attract your tribe. Simples!
Knowing how to rebrand your business can be a lot to think about, that’s why I really wanted to talk about my own journey and show examples of my process through the 7 different steps.
If you’re wanting more help on this and thinking you’d like to hire me to help you with your redesign, you can book a free call with me here, no obligation whatsoever, simply a great way to see if I can help you with your next uplevel.
You can also sign up to be on my waitlist, to be the first to know when my Website Templates are launching next year. Not sure what a website template is? It’s a carefully crafted template for you to use immediately on the Squarespace platform that has been thoughtfully designed by moi with you in mind. When I say you, I mean the exact type of clients I’ve worked with for over 4+ years; coaches, therapists, yoga teachers, healers - service providers.
You can sign up below…
My Website Rebrands - Before
My Website Rebrand - Now
3 Part Rebranding Series
This is the final blog in a 3-part series all about rebranding your website. If you’re interested in learning more, do check out the other 2 posts. These posts will give you a greater insight into how a rebrand works and also see some visual examples.
1. Ready for a Website Redesign? Here’s how to know if it’s time and how to do it
Your website may be doing your business more harm than good if it doesn't align with your brand. Here’s how to determine if it’s time for a website redesign and how to do it.
2. Rebranding Your Business to Better Align with Who You Are: Website Example
Thinking of rebranding your business? Learn the benefits of business rebranding and how to update your website to align with your new focus and goals.
3. Here’s How to Rebrand Your Business in #7 Steps (case study - THIS POST)
Rebranding your business is a big decision, one I took not too long ago. Learn how to rebrand your business from start to finish from my personal experience.