How do you feel when you think about rebranding?
Are you thinking about rebranding? Can you feel the panic welling in your chest? What about my followers? My readers? My subscribers? That sense of panic when you realize that you are going to rebrand can be paralyzing. But rebranding is a serious issue. For many of us, when we get started online we think we have our thumb on the pulse of our niche. We think we have found a terrific topic and a great name and are creating a super brand. Well, maybe you have and maybe you haven’t. Really, the only way to tell is to give it time.
I have found that our initial efforts are not necessarily wrong, but what ends up being the goal of those efforts changes over time. Maybe you thought that your blog was just going to be a good source of information on your site. But over time you realize that you have started focusing on your blog and want to use that to be your primary traffic driver. Maybe it is time to spin off your blog and rebrand it to work in tandem with your site.
Maybe you thought that videos were going to be your cash cow but your unique brand of photography is pulling in more people. Is it time to change your focus and use video to support your photography rather than the other way around?
One of the biggest shifts people make is from company branding to personal branding. Many times we start off branding ourselves with our company or studio. We are one piece of the whole. If your popularity grows, then personal branding might be the shift you need.
Since we are talking about rebranding, lets talk about this blog. I am about to rebrand the blog cubed. I guess the cat is out of the bag! I realized that the blog would be better served if I separated it from the consultancy. Matt Mansfield had some great tips on creating a blog, but also about rebranding and embracing change. His post helped give me some tools to quell the panic of rebranding. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet, grab the bull by the horns, and consider many other cliches too!
Over time you will see the reality of what is working for you, what is driving traffic, what is driving sales, what is most popular and what you want your focus to be. This is often divergent from what you started with. Don’t be afraid to shift gears. Rebranding is not easy, but the payoff can be more than worth the effort.
