Your business finally got the much-needed makeover you’ve been putting off. You have all the files, color codes, and font palette. Now what? Preparing to launch a new brand involves more than hitting “Publish” on your new site! Planning your launch and taking the time to ensure it’s done well will help make a splash with your unique brand and make an impression on your target audience.

Today I am going to go over seven steps for a successful brand launch strategy. 

1. Schedule a Good Time to Launch

The first and most crucial step to launch a new brand is to set a launch date. This isn’t something in your business that you should do on a whim. Setting an end date will keep you accountable, and creating a plan for your launch will help you plan for the time you need to complete everything on time.

When you’re setting a date to launch a new brand, be sure to avoid holidays and weekends. Your audience might be a bit too preoccupied to notice your exciting new branding, and you’d hate for them to miss out on the excitement!

Next, use your data to see when people are engaging most with your content. Take a peek in your Instagram and Facebook analytics to see when your followers like and comment the most on your posts, and you might also check out your website analytics for traffic trends. Scheduling a date that aligns with peak interaction dates and times will let you launch with optimal exposure.

Lastly, the best time to launch a new brand is when you have some flexibility and time to devote to marketing it. You’ll see in the steps to follow that launching requires work! So, try not to set a launch date in the height of your busy season, amid a big project, or when you know you will likely have a tight schedule.

2. Record Pre-Launch Analytics

Even if you’re not paying much attention to your analytics, this step is essential. Before you launch your new brand, it is a good idea to record your existing analytics. This will help you evaluate the impact of your launch and measure its success.

There are several areas of your marketing where measuring analytics before launch will be valuable. For starters, take a look at your email marketing platform and your current email subscribers. Pay attention to how that number changes after your launch, which will give you an idea of how appealing your new branding (and new offers) is.

Keeping your thumb on your social media followers is another helpful way to gauge the success of your launch. Social media is an especially powerful indicator of how your branding is performing, thanks to its visual nature and your audience’s ability to quickly engage with your brand and your new content. Note how many social media followers you have before and after your launch to see how your new branding is received!

The number of visits your website sees is an indicator of how engaged and interested your audience is, so it’s a good idea to monitor how your traffic fluctuates when you launch a new brand. Your beautiful new brand might draw many new visitors who resonate with what you’re putting forth!

3. Develop Your Launch Messaging

When you launch a new brand, you need to say more than “Here’s my new branding!” New businesses and brands pop up every day. Stand out by sharing with your audience the story behind your rebrand. Why did you change your brand, and what can they expect to see from you moving forward?

Perhaps you refreshed your brand to align better with your values or the niche you’re focusing on serving. Share what led you to make that change and what you’re hoping to accomplish with your new branding.

Your launch messaging will be some of the first communication that new followers and audience members see from your business, so you want to make sure it reflects your brand voice, who you are, and what you can do for them.

4. Brand Your Launch Material

Whether you are sharing it through email, on social media, or your website, you need some designs in your toolbelt ready to go when you launch a new brand! Your graphic designer (aka me!) should provide you with launch images to help you spread the word about your unique branding. If you are DIY’ing your branding, launch graphics are something you should be sure to create for yourself.

Sonrisa typically provides Story and post-sized launch graphics. These can be reused and repurposed for multiple platforms. Sharing these branded graphics help your audience quickly get a feel for your new branding and ensure that you’re launching consistently across all your platforms.

5. Update Your Current Brand

When you launch a new brand, it’s essential to update all aspects of your branding everywhere it’s used. This step in launching your new branding can be the most time-consuming: It’s where setting a launch date and allowing yourself time to plan is critical!

Your new branding isn’t just for your social media and website. Think about every touchpoint your business has with your audience and customers, from online to in-person. 

Here is a checklist for where you should be updating your brand

• Website
• Emails
• Email signature
• Social media pages
• CRM systems
• Favicon
• Print material
• Landing pages
• Opt-ins

6. Create a Brand Guideline

The best way to ensure that your new branding is used correctly throughout your business is to create and use a brand guideline.

 Your brand guideline is the bible to how your business’ branding should be implemented in any area of your business. Having a brand guideline ensures that you and anyone on your team (or anyone you might eventually hire) are consistent and working off the same reference and are consistent.

Your designer should give you a brand guide with clear style guidelines, covering everything from colors and fonts to imagery and other visuals. 

7. Set Goals

A new brand or a rebrand can feel like quite the undertakings, and it’s certainly worth celebrating when everything is ready to launch. That said, setting goals for the launch itself is important to see how your new brand is performing.

It’s not enough to say “I want more followers” or “I hope my website will get more traffic.” Take the analytics we talked about above and determine what a successful launch will look like to you. 

Perhaps you want your launch strategy to increase your Instagram followers by 10%, or you’d like to double your website visitors. Whatever goals you might have, keeping them in mind will be motivating and give you something to work toward in the launch process. After you set your goals, report back after 30 days to see how you’ve performed!

A few areas you might consider setting goals when you launch a new brand could include:

• Average website page views
• Number of followers on social media
• Click-through rates based on your industry standards
• Average social media post engagement

If you want to take your goal setting to the next level and truly hold yourself accountable, check out The Goal Setting Planner.

Ready, Set, Launch!

Whether you’re a brand business or an established one refreshing your branding, creating an actionable strategy and timeline to launch a new brand is essential for your success. It doesn’t matter how established your brand might be, or how far-reaching your rebranding campaign is, your launch will only be as successful as your strategy for it. 

Follow these steps to bring your audience along with you for this exciting milestone, and to grow and engage your following moving forward!

If you are ready to take the next step in rebranding your business check out my Exclusive Brand Package: Now accepting clients for 2022.