Rebranding should be an exciting time for your business, the evolution and growth of your company is a great step, and one that you should be able to share confidently with your customers. When rebranding your business or merging two businesses together, there is often a period of confusion for some existing customers. Follow our tips on how to  minimise disruption to the daily running of your services.

  1. Register your new name, and think about trademarking it.
  2. Get a new logo, make sure it's an improvement on the old one and you continue the branding online and offline. We can help with logo design, van wraps and signage, as well as helping you co-ordinate a re-branding across the entire business.
  3. Set up a website re-directs 301 file to send visitors and links going to your old domain to your new domain, if you delete it completely then your customers will think you have disappeared. The page that the home page URL redirect takes customers to, should ideally should have your old AND new business name/ logo/ branding, and a short explanation about the change of names. Including a brief outline of your services, what they can expect from you, including any upgrades and improvements.
  4. Add a note to the bottom of any emails to say you have changed the company name, and direct all people to use the new email and website address. Reply to all new incoming emails from your new email address to maintain the transition even if a customer replies back to the old address.
  5. Consider setting up an email folder to receive emails sent to your old email address so you can deal with these customers in a different way than brand new leads, who only know you by the new business name.
  6. When customers of the previous business name use your service, include a note on an invoice or correspondence with a brief explanation. Remember to state that they can expect a the same great services, just from a different name.
  7. When customers call the old phone number, remember to add at the end of any call that the business is changing names, so next time they call the phone may be answered in a different way, but not to worry.
  8. Send an email newsletter out to your old customers to let them know about the change of name, it's crucial to let them know if the phone will be answered under a different name from normal.
  9. Use social media to get the word out. Most profiles will have a small bio area, this is great place to say: 'previously known as....." Update the profile images and other photos to come in line with your new branding, but keep a small mention of the previous company name to minimise any un-follows.
  10. In the run up to the change of name, printed leaflets that you can leave with customers are a fantastic way to let people know in advance.
  11. If your old business was established online, there will be business directory listings which you may have setup, or which may have been auto-generated, with your old name and address. Now you have changed the business name, these listings will be out of date and will be classed by Google as inconsistent. An inconsistent citation profile will damage your rankings on Google, so you need to fix these inaccurate listings urgently to avoid dropping down the Google rankings. As part of our monthly SEO campaigns we offer citation consolidation/cleaning services and can do this work for you to fix these inaccuracies and get your website back to being able to rank as well as possible. Order our SEO plans here https://accounts.alloymarketing.co.uk/cart.php?gid=2
  12. Purchase virtual tracking phone numbers for each of the different facets of your business. This is a great way to find out which phone numbers are getting the most exposure and you can also enable a whisper system so an automated voice lets you know which number the customer has called, so that you know how to answer the call, to avoid confusion. Tracking phone numbers with call whisper can be purchased on our website here: https://accounts.alloymarketing.co.uk/cart.php?gid=5 
  13. If you have a business website, make sure to upadte your website terms and conditions pages and the footer copyright message with your new business name and details. Incorrect business details can invalidate your terms and conditions documents s make sure they are changed at the same time.  

Rebranding doesn't have to be a daunting, keep lines of communication open and keep letting your customers know that their service will not suffer in the process. Follow our tips above and you will have a smooth transition and business will be all the better for it in the long-run. If you have any questions or need some help implementing any or all of the above please contact us for more information.