5 Tips to Launch a Rebrand Without Losing Your Mind

A rebrand comes with a million moving parts. You have to be sure you're doing it for the right reason, you need the right team behind it, and above all, you need everyone on board.

You could have the sharpest brand in the world, but if the rollout is sloppy or half-finished, it won't land the way you want it to. That's why a solid launch plan matters before you go live. The good news: a few smart moves can take most of the stress out of the process.

5 tips to launch your rebrand the right way

From the visuals to briefing your team, here's how to roll out a rebrand and set yourself up to win for the long haul.

1) Get organized early

You know the saying: fail to prepare, prepare to fail. One of the best ways to keep your rebrand running smoothly (and protect everyone's sanity) is to anticipate, plan, and spot the traps before they bite you. A big part of that is mapping out your rollout well ahead of time.

Who needs to be told? Who's building the assets? When does it all go live? Who handles the announcements? Who fields questions from the press? Build timelines and checklists, put a point person on each task, and give every department the tools and info they actually need. That way everyone hits their deadlines, and even better, you start spotting smarter ways to use what you've got.

2) Line up every touchpoint

You don't want to launch a website with a new logo and then hand out business cards with the old one. The moment your rebrand goes live, it should be live everywhere — every asset that needs the new look carries it.

Getting stuck in limbo hurts you on two fronts, both how the public sees your brand and how your own team buys in, because:

• Visual inconsistency waters down the impact of the big reveal.
• It confuses your team, which makes it harder for them to follow or enforce the new brand guidelines.

So nothing slips through the cracks, here's a handy checklist of items that may need updating:

Administration

• Emails
• Email signatures
• Business letterhead
• Internal documents (employee handbook, financial docs)
• External documents (sales materials, presentations)
• Financial materials (invoices, for example)
• Trademarks
• Signage
• Ad copy
• Third-party directory listings

Web

• Domain names
• Redirects
• Metadata
• Site titles
• Tags
• Logos
• Favicons
• SEO and keywords

Marketing

• Brand style guide
• Media kit
• Brand asset library
• Content guidelines
• Newsletter templates
• Promotional materials

Social

• Handles
• Profile photos
• Bios
• Tags

Distribution plan

• Brief your stakeholders
• A clear, tight rundown for the internal team
• Prep posters and public announcements

Some brands won't be ready to flip everything overnight, and that's fine. If you have to roll out in phases, spell out exactly which changes are happening, when they're happening, and what people should expect. Put your big-ticket items first, things like signage, the website, and your core brand assets.

3) Have your rebrand style guide ready

People always push back on change, so make it as easy as possible for your team to understand and apply the new guidelines. A brand style guide is your best friend here. Make sure yours is easy to get around, packed with real-world examples, and as thorough as you can make it.

Your team should also know who to ask when they have a usage question, and the style guide needs to live somewhere easy to reach, whether you hand it out in print or post it online. Right alongside the guide, keep every asset within reach too, things like logos, color palettes, fonts, and so on.

4) Launch internally first

Think of an internal launch as your soft launch. It's the best way to get everyone involved, work out the kinks, and bring the whole team into the brand story so they can represent it better. A few ways to pull it off:

• Roll it out 4 to 6 weeks before the public launch.
• Explain not just what you did, but why you rebranded. Talk through the problems you were solving, the strategy behind the creative calls, all of it.
• Consider throwing a special kickoff event.
• Have the creative team walk people through the brand story, from the first spark to the final execution. (A good rebrand is a good story; if you don't have one, that's a red flag.)
• Invite feedback and questions, and name point people to answer them.
• Put the brand in their hands (fun swag, games, contests, or parties themed around the new colors can build real excitement).
• Coordinate across departments if you're rolling out to multiple offices around the country or the world, plus any remote employees.
• Show everyone where the style guide and brand assets live.

Most important of all, make sure everyone knows who to go to for questions, approvals, and anything else down the road.

5) Make your public launch an event worth talking about

Once the big day hits, there's no going back. So make sure your team feels ready and confident to put the new brand out into the world.

1. Prep your press releases, blog posts, marketing newsletters, videos, and more. Heads up: if you're an international brand, you may need to translate the content. Example: QVC made a demo video showing off its new look.
2. Create promo assets for every platform (think videos, infographics, Instagram, and the rest). Keep assets handy to share easily with press, partners, and others too. Make sure everything is high-resolution and sized right. Example: to announce it was dropping its name from the logo, Mastercard built an infographic walking through how its look evolved.
3. Know your brand story. How does the new brand reflect the company's journey? Why should anyone on the outside care? You can walk people through the story like Uber did (its design team built a deep-dive case study) or keep it casual (the way Slack announced its new logo). Example: Zendesk's wildly creative rebrand video is a brilliant behind-the-scenes look at how it all came together.

Remember: your brand wasn't built overnight

A rebrand is an exciting push, but it's not the end of your brand's story. Protecting your brand's integrity matters if you want it to sink into people's minds and stick around for real, and that takes steady, diligent work.

After the rebrand, your content does the heavy lifting of telling your brand story. So make sure your team is trained to do it well and do it consistently. A few tips and resources to help:

• Figure out how to build the right content team (even if it's a small department).
• Learn how to design a content strategy that helps you tell the right stories.
• Tighten your content process so you can work more efficiently.
• Work smarter, not harder, with tools that help you create quality content.
• Show people who you are by turning your culture into content people want to read.
• Brainstorm fresh ways to tell your brand story.
• Experiment with different formats, whether that's infographics, videos, or interactive pieces.
• Track your buyer metrics to see if what you're doing is actually working.

And if creating high-quality content at scale is wearing you down, don't feel bad about calling in backup. Try these tips for vetting a content agency, and let us know whenever you want to talk shop.