PPB September 2019

name, look and brand, while acknowledging its previous iteration. It’s kind of like how consumer goods will add “New Look, Same Great Taste!” to their packaging. If you’re simply updating a logo, a transitional brand may not be not necessary. But it is highly recommended for any brand change that includes a change in the company name. What is a “transitional brand”? Recently, we completed a rebranding campaign for a health care startup that was changing its name from Fit4D to Cecelia Health. To avoid confusion for its existing audience, we designed a transitional logo that included the new name with a small line under it “formerly Fit4D.” Depending on your sales cycle, you can leave your transitional brand on your digital profiles and website for up to six months after your rebrand. The goal is to give your existing audience reassurance that they are still in the right place. Once the transition is established and you have no prospects in the pipeline who would be confused by landing on an unfamiliar brand’s website, you can swap out the new brand without the transitional message across your digital profiles. Step 4: Develop Brand Launch Messaging Why is this brand change happening? Your customers and prospects will want to know, and it is in your best interest to make it a transparent and positive change. For Cecelia Health, I created a personalized spin on the brand change. It appealed to the customer as a human, not a sale, and added a hook to get web visitors to want to learn more about the change: Because of Cecelia Because of one remarkable CDE, our mission is to improve the health of people living with diabetes and other chronic diseases. #becauseofcecelia This concept drove the updated profiles across the web and inspired social posts and website messaging to clue the audience in on why the change was happening—and why it was a benefit for them. While you might not think there’s a story to be told behind a rebrand, there always is one. Learn it, humanize it and tell your audience about it. They’ll remember the brand and understand the reason behind the change, which is a smart way to decrease any potential churn during a rebrand. Step 5: Develop New Brand And Rebrand Assets Comb through your website and digital marketing hub as it exists today and identify what downloads you will need to edit and re-upload that carry the new branding. These might include: • Calls-to-action • eBooks • Whitepapers • Tipsheets • Email templates • Landing pages Develop newly branded versions of these in advance, so on Launch Day you simply need to update the links to the new files. Keep a list of what you update so you can check them all off on Launch Day. Step 6: Build Out An Explainer Page In our sample List of Changes, I included a “New Look, Same Results” explainer page task. If you’ve developed your brand change message in Step 3, creating this new page will be simple and straightforward. The explainer page should be easy to find, so include a link to it in your homepage hero for Launch Day and a month or two afterwards. Consider adding value to the page for prospects and include a conversion path as well as all brand change details. If you use a marketing automation platform like HubSpot to track conversions, create a new landing page and form so you can tell which conversions can be attributed to this explainer page. This will come in handy when you get to the reporting stage after your launch. Step 7: Plan Social Media Transition Social media platforms have strict rules about how to change your company’s profile and associated pages or groups. These change regularly, so check directly with the different platforms to best anticipate the process each requires to change your brand in time for Launch Day. Some platforms don’t allow a name change and require a new company profile or page The goal is to give your existing audience reassurance that they are still in the right place. 76 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | THINK