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6 Things I Learned From Relaunching My Brand

February 15, 2017

Sometimes I have to nudge myself and remember I just launched my rebrand last week. It’s easy to forget after looking at your unfinished website for nearly two months behind-the-scenes… oofda!

While I’ve done my fair share of relaunches in my online brand building journey, this has by far been my most successful one.

You voted this week on Twitter for this topic, and you KNOW I’m excited to dish on everything I’ve learned, complete with successes and a few fails.

I’ve narrowed it down to my 6 biggest lessons in relaunching my business.

 

Give yourself some wiggle room in your timeline

I will be honest by saying this relaunch took longer than any other rebrand I’ve done. Part of this was because I worked with other pros for the first time on creating different design elements (more on this below), but really it’s because I wanted to do everything right this time around. That meant spending more time on the strategy and execution behind-the-scenes.

Instead of deciding on a specific launch date early on, I decided in late December to shoot for early February so I could be flexible as things started to come together. When you work with other people, you also have to work around their schedules so it’s best to reach out early so you can set a deadline that will work for everyone.

There were days when it became SO hard not to just launch my new copywriting email course early or share something that was unfinished, but I kept reminding myself that really good things take time. Remember that whole tortoise and the hare story? It comes in handy when you’re relaunching.

Function > Pretty

While I do love comments I’ve received from my community members who say they love the way the new website looks, I’m even more excited about the positive comments about how it functions.

I was very intentional about how I set up my navigation as well as the wireframes of each web page before writing copy and starting the web design. It’s nice to hear it shines through.


Yes, I want to learn how to organize my website navigation too!

I have a whole lesson dedicated to organizing your website navigation and optimizing it for high SEO-value in my new Copy CPR email course if you want to learn more below. Your visitors will thank you!

 


Be strategic about your behind-the-scenes looks

But why give sneak peeks in the first place?

It’s a great way to create consistent and high-quality content, give your audience an inside look into how your brand is being built, and generate more interest in your relaunch date. Who wouldn’t love the sound of that?

Building buzz around a launch is one of my favorite things to do for my clients and my business. Although you may feel like you want to share every detail all at once, it’s best to tease specific items one-by-one over time.

It’s up to you what you want to share with your audience.

For me, I was happy to share some of my new brand photos ahead of time and my moodboard, but I wanted to keep my new logo as a day-of launch surprise. There’s no right or wrong way to do it.

Here are a few ways that I shared inside peeks into how my brand relaunch was coming together that you can create for your own:

  • surveyed my video workshop participants for their feedback on on-demand brand class topics a month before
  • gave an inside look into the studio space I shot my brand photos on the day of the photoshoot
  • changed my headshot on all of my social media accounts for one of my new brand photos two weeks before
  • shared a sneak peek of my copywriting services page on an Instagram story the week before
  • shared my new brand voice style quiz the day before

Invest in some pro help (no, really)

There comes a time when you can’t DIY every part of your brand anymore. Since I first started building my personal brand in 2013, I’ve been DIYing everything from logos to my website design to even my headshots.

While I’m thankful with how far my DIY spirit has taken me, when I decided to make the transition from coaching into copywriting and content creation, I knew it was time to invest in experts to help me pull off this relaunch.

I enlisted the help of two incredibly talented visual creatives here in Minneapolis. During my relaunch process, I worked with Allison on my visual brand identity (hello, gorgeous logo!) and Carly on all of my brand photography (hello, candid headshots!).

What resulted was a (dare I say) beautiful website that reflects not only reflects me but also connects with my ideal clients SO much more than what I had before.

Be smart about how you’re scheduling all other work

Like many small business owners, I wasn’t able to take a whole month off to solely focus on my own brand. I was (and still am) grateful I had copywriting and ghostwriting client projects flowing in while I was putting the finishing touches on my own website.

In addition, I also spoke at a few networking events, completely changed my onboarding and an ongoing client process, AND added a contributor blog to my #createlounge community during my relaunch.

There were a few moments where I thought “Okay Kayla, you’re close to overloading yourself”, but for the most part I was pretty good about juggling everything.

Get relevant feedback before you relaunch

It scares me to think about relaunching my website without truly knowing if it’s going to connect with my people. If you don’t ask for outside opinions, you won’t know for sure if it’s going to appeal to your target audience… you just have to guess.

When you’re looking for relevant feedback, it’s best to ask people you’re connected with who identify with your ideal client or buyer description, not your grandma or a friend in a completely different industry (although both people are probably lovely for feedback in other areas!).

You can do this by sending a survey to your subscribers, asking for feedback in your local or online mastermind group, or ask for your clients’ opinions.