You know that feeling when you’re staring at all the items in your closet and… they all feel like they belong to someone else? Those pieces don’t fit right. This one just doesn’t feel like it fits your overall aesthetic. And that dress in that color? What were you thinking? 

It’s not just clothes that can start to feel stale and out of touch. Your brand can start to feel a little “last season,” too.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should bow to the latest brand trends and update your business with new, shiny templates. We’re also not saying that you need to rebrand your business every time you get a little bored or want to jazz up your graphics. Quite the opposite, in fact. 

Before we tell you when it’s time for a brand refresh, though, let’s dig into which parts of your brand might need a little extra love.

Remember the 4 elements of brand chemistry 

There are four elements of brand chemistry: 

• The visual (what you see when you look at a brand)
• The tonal (what you hear or read related to a brand)
• The interpersonal (the experience you have with a brand)
• The intellectual (the messaging, marketing, and overall presence of a brand)

When you feel like your brand is “off,” we’re betting it’s in one major category: The visual. When things don’t look right, they don’t feel right. But before you go and rebrand the look of your business, take a minute. Wait a beat. And ask yourself: Are there any other pieces of my brand that don’t feel right? While the visual might feel like the most obvious or easiest to fix, we’ve found that it’s usually the least important element to update.

Most often, when we talk to clients and leads, their business hasn’t felt right for a while… and they’re hoping the visual “facelift” will help fix how they feel underneath. Dear Reader, it never works. 

We want to save you that heartbreak and help you understand when a brand refresh is needed — and which elements you actually need to update.

Ready? Let’s dive in. 

Tonal (voice) signs you need a brand refresh

We’re skipping the visuals for a moment and diving right into the deeper end of the branding pool. The tone of your brand, or your voice, is often one of the most underestimated elements when a brand feels “off.” 

If you’re thinking you need a brand refresh, you might need to focus on the tonal elements of your brand first if:

• You sound exactly like your competitors (or like the AI tool you used to write your captions)
• You write all your own content and copy, but feel like it always sounds different
• You’ve tried to outsource your content and copy, but nobody can “get the voice” and you can’t answer their questions 
• Clients or customers use entirely different language from you, and you feel like you’re not “up on the lingo”
• Clients or customers have said that your brand feels “too ___,” i.e. “too soft,” “too blunt,” too casual,” etc.
• Your ideal client has changed — but your voice and messaging have not

What if you paired a strong brand voice and copywriting with the current visual aesthetics you have right now? What would happen?

Could you punch up those graphics? Convert more people with your content? Have leads saying, “It’s like you get me!”? 

All of that and more is possible with a little refresh on your brand’s tone.

Interpersonal signs you need a brand refresh

interpersonal
adjective
connected with relationships between people.

Your brand’s interpersonal elements are some of its most important because it’s all about the people you want to serve. 

Think about it beyond your brand: Have you ever interacted with a customer support person over the phone and had a horrible experience? We bet that affected your willingness to support that brand in the future. 

While your brand may not have a customer support team, you do have interpersonal elements scattered across your brand. The autoresponder you have on your email. The welcome sequence you have attached to your lead magnet. Your discovery or fit calls. Your onboarding process. Your client gifts. Your response times in your DMs.

All of it matters because it’s what makes your brand feel personal to your ideal customer or client. When you’re thinking of a brand refresh, focus on the interpersonal element if:

• You get a lot of feedback that your website or contact process is confusing
• Clients feel neglected at any point during your onboarding or delivery process
• Your clients say there’s a disconnect between what you said you’d do and what you actually did
• You’re constantly reinventing the wheel in terms of onboarding, delivery, offboarding — and you’re missing things as a result
• Clients have different experiences; you can’t give them the same or similar experience during their time with you

We’ll admit that the interpersonal element of your brand can feel overwhelming when you “just want to refresh things.” But when you dedicate time, energy, and resources to streamlining operations, elevating your client/customer experience, and delivering your best work, it’ll pay off. 

Intellectual signs you need a brand refresh

The intellectual element of your brand is how you connect with your audience and potential customers or clients. It’s the marketing element, the messaging, and the way you share your values and work with the world that makes people shout, “I wanna work with you!’

But when you’re feeling your brand stagnate, you might be worried about the marketing content you’re putting out there. Your Instagram graphics. Your email newsletters. The podcast or YouTube you started but can’t keep up with, and so on. 

Can your audience feel that things are getting a little… stale? (yes, yes they can.) 

Here are a few signs that you want to focus your brand refresh energy on your intellectual elements:

• You’re creating a ton of content and it’s starting approximately ZERO conversations
• You’ve launched new or old offers a couple of times to near-crickets
• You want to show up more but you don’t know what to say or what your audience really wants from you
• You have been doing one thing (i.e. podcasting, newsletters, social, etc.) for so long but you feel the tides changing and you need to show up in other places

These are all really important signs that things need to change in your marketing and messaging department. Rather than focus on graphic templates or a new site, focus on getting to know your audience as they are now. Odds are, you’ve evolved a lot. Make sure you know what to say, who you’re saying it to, and where you’re saying it.

An important note on offers

A critical element of the intellectual part of your brand? Your offers. New or changing offers are often one of the biggest reasons we see people searching for a brand refresh, new brand, or sister/sub-brand.

If you’re feeling like there’s a disconnect between your offers, your brand, and your audience, focus there. (Visuals won’t fix poor-fit offers.) Ask yourself:

• Do my current offers align with how I want to serve my audience?
• Is my audience excited about and buying/booking my offers?
• What feedback have I received and what improvements can I make to offers I want to keep?
• Are there offers that need to be retired or archived?

Most online business owners have created a whole library of offers and, as they’ve grown, realized they never longer fit what they want to do. Part of “elevating your brand” is acknowledging when an offer is taking away from where you want to focus. Make sure to cull the offer list and streamline your website so that your audience can work with you in a way that serves everyone involved. 

Last but not least: Visual signs you need a brand refresh

Hopefully by now, you’ve seen that there are other reasons to complete a brand refresh — and it may be time to liven things up a bit in other areas of your brand. But if you feel like you’re on solid footing in those three other areas, we can talk about the visual element of your business.

Your brand may need a visual refresh if you:

• Feel that your website, social media, ads, client assets, packaging, etc. all look “juvenile” or don’t fit the elevated clientele you serve now
• Have used Canva or mass-produced templates and you’re realizing that you really don’t stand out in the places you want to be seen
• Have added new elements to your business but don’t have the brand assets to market them properly (i.e. monthly membership guides you don’t know how to design, YouTube thumbnails you are unsure how to style, etc.)
• Built your website yourself and you’re realizing the “add as you go” method is only making things messier

We left the visual element for last because most people think that a quick “brand refresh” is just a new template pack and maybe a new font. But the visual element goes so much deeper than that. When we work with our branding clients, we get to know the client’s brand, their audience, their values, and more before we develop and define the brand standards.

Why? Because a brand isn’t just colors, logos, and fonts. It’s a story and a way to connect to your audience. You want to make sure the visuals relay all of that! 

Realizing your “refresh” is a bit more extensive than you thought?

Usually, when people review all the elements of a brand refresh and areas to improve, they get a little deer-in-headlights. 

It’s a bit more extensive than a quick Canva trip, huh, doll? But don’t fear. That’s why Rendezvous is here! 

Rather than ONLY designing the visual elements of a brand or website, defining your brand voice, revamping your offer suite, OR creating a stellar customer experience… We help you do it all. 

Most importantly, we do it in a way that’s aligned with your vision for your business. Rather than offering one piece of the brand pie, we offer you the entire pie — and we serve it up in delicious ways. We also operate as a united team, integrating each other’s skills and strengths to bring the best to your project. 

No more juggling multiple contractors or working with agencies that just outsource work to the cheapest option… only to watch your vision fall apart. Get expert attention on all the elements that make your brand GRAND.

Want help refreshing your brand and turning it into the masterpiece you know it can be?