If you’re in the midst of rebranding or playing around with the idea, we know exactly what you’re feeling. Excitement, joy, and nerves! Quite frankly it’s overwhelming. We’ve been there. We’ve stayed up long nights making those tedious decisions on fonts, packaging, and galleries – wondering if anyone would notice those small details. But it was all worth it. Because people did notice. Something amazing happens when you genuinely put your heart and soul into anything. People can feel your efforts reflected in all the touches you curated just for them.
At the core, creatives inevitably come to a fork in the road when they’ve outgrown their previous identity and need to reinvent themselves to better represent who they are now. It’s a natural progression and a good one. It means you haven’t stopped learning and it means you’re dreaming bigger!
Being a husband and wife team and photographing weddings together as Christopher Nolan Photography, it seemed the next step was to become ‘The Nolans’. What we didn’t realize was that we weren’t taking time to ask ourselves the important questions we should have been. After two weeks of our rebrand making it’s official debut, we hit a bump in the road. There was something pulling at our hearts telling us it wasn’t quite right. We spent a lot of time talking and thinking about our future. Suddenly we had a clear vision of who we wanted to be as artists, as creatives, and as people.
Why are you rebranding?
This seems like a simple enough question. Even so, many people fail to dig deeper and ask themselves why? Is it because you you’ve outgrown your previous style? Because you’re now going in a new and exciting direction? If you’re like us then you’re rebranding because you’ve changed. You are no longer the same artist you were a year ago.
The best way to figure out why you’re rebranding is to make a list and write down all the things that have pushed you towards this new path. Use those things to help you define every aspect of your new story. For us rebranding to Weddings by Christopher & Nancy was a million times better. Not only are we being very clear about who we are and what we do, but now we are able to showcase who we are as two individuals.
Be proactive – A practical tip
Changing your name runs the risk of losing a few fans and referrals. To combat this we planned ahead – we were proactive about setting the tone for our new brand and about informing our community. Instead of just sending an email saying, ‘Hi guys… We changed our name… again…’ we took that opportunity to show everyone what we were about. Aside from an email and a blog post, we also sent out goodie boxes to our vendors. We wanted to be informative, however, we also wanted to show that we care about our relationship with them. We want every interaction with our clients/vendors to be meaningful. One way we accomplished this was by putting something together specifically for them.
Here’s what was included:
White boxes – We love the feeling of lightness and how it fits our new branding. A letterpress card – A brief refresher on our former brand and introduction to our new name. We wanted to let vendors know how much we have loved working with them and have appreciated their support. We made it concise, informative, and fun!
Business cards – Don’t just inform your community of all of the exciting things you’re doing, give them the tools to help you. A handful of your new business cards is an easy way to do that!
Champagne and a cookie – Who doesn’t love a little bubbly and something sweet! We included these as a small token of our appreciation but also to celebrate each person and all of the amazing things they are doing in their business. Being self employed isn’t always glamorous and sometimes no one even thanks you for the job you’re doing, so we wanted to make sure they knew their work wasn’t going unnoticed.
A Motivational, but Important Tip
Don’t just rebrand, rebuild and be better! It’s easy to change your name, add a few new images to your site, get new business cards and feel like you’ve done a great job recreating yourself. In reality, that’s just the tip of iceberg. A very large, ongoing, amazing, frustrating, but oh so worth it iceberg. If you’re going to take the time and invest the energy into rebranding your business – no matter the field you’re in – do it and do it better. What are some of the things that are lacking in your current brand? What more could you be doing to give your clients the best possible experience? Don’t just change, improve. Push yourself and play to your strengths.
For you maybe this means making more meaningful connections with vendors, submitting your work more often, or taking risks. Or perhaps, if you’re like us, it means figuring out what you want to say with your voice, and then putting it all out there for the world to see! Is that scary? Of course.
But we are all originals, we all have something unique to offer and only we can deliver it. Take this time to reflect on you, on where you want to be in five years, on what you want your legacy to be. Use every bit of that inspiration and rebuild a better business. Remember, every step along the way matters, every details counts, every effort you make is worth it.
“There are far better things ahead than we leave behind” – C.S. Lewis
