There are many reasons why a small business might rebrand themselves in the marketplace. You might be expanding what you sell or you might be niching down. You might have developed a partnership with another business or even purchased another business and need to bring those 2 business identities together in some way. You might be trying to differentiate yourself in order to stand out in a crowd of other businesses just like yours. 

Whatever the reason is for your rebranding, you are doing it with the goal of bettering your small business.

That also makes it even more critical to handle your rebranding well because you don’t want to negatively impact the things you’ve been doing well while trying to rebrand to make your small business even better.

Let’s take a look at common pitfalls small businesses fall into while rebranding their business.

4 Small Business Rebranding Mistakes

• They don’t look at the data before making a decision Have you ever thought, “I don’t sell that many of X service” and are ready to click the delete button on that service page on your site? Before you do that, please take a moment to check your website analytics. I’ve experienced this with clients who were ready to delete a couple pages on their site…until I pointed out that those pages were the #3 and #4 most visited pages on their site (and with high organic traffic). What brings people to your website, attracts them to your social media presence, or gets the phone to ring might not be as obvious to you as you think. Referencing your website analytics and social media analytics before making big decisions will prevent you from making big mistakes. You never know…you might find that a blog post from 3 years ago is your top performing page or post on your site!
• They assume they need to start from scratch with everything Most of the time, an existing website, website copy, and social media accounts can be updated and reworked to reflect the updated rebranding. From imagery, copy, colors, domains, and usernames, make any reasonable effort you can to use what you already have when rebranding your small business instead of thinking you need to start from scratch. I’ve even come across small businesses who were under the impression that if they wanted a new website built, they needed to change their URL. When in doubt about what to do, check in with an online marketing professional.
• (Too) Different can be bad When rebranding your business, don’t let the desire to differentiate yourself in the marketplace drive you to extremes. What you offer, how you position it, and how it’s offered in the marketplace still needs to be handled in a way that your customers are used to seeing. Before people buy from you, they need to be able to easily understand what they’d be getting for the price, and how that compares to your competitors. If you try to be so different that it becomes challenging for them to understand your offer, you’ll lose out.
• They lose sight of their customers Usability is critical to the online experience. An unusual website layout, organization of content, and use of “clever” naming structures lead to confusion and frustration for your customers. From your standpoint, you might feel that the rebrand of your small business is super clear and obvious and necessary, but try to take a step back and think about whether this is true from an outsider’s perspective. Remember: you are the center of your business. What seems obvious or clear to you likely isn’t to customers or potential customers. Think like your customer, and let that guide your decisions.

Drastically improve your small business’ rebranding success by being aware of and avoiding these 4 common pitfalls.