How has your interior design brand been working out for you lately? If you feel something isn’t quite right or you’re not attracting the right kind of client, it could be time for a rebrand. The right branding is the key to turn your marketing around, elevating your business and finally attracting your ideal clients.
In this episode, Maria Platusic, the owner, and creative director behind Platusic Design Creative Studio shares the top three signs it’s time to give your interior design brand a refresh with tips to get it right!
You’ve lost that loving feeling
If you feel there’s something more out there for you and your business, this is a sign you’ve lost that loving feeling with your brand. Just like being stuck in a bad relationship keeps you from finding your true ideal partner, having a lost sense of loyalty to your brand will hold you back from connecting with your ideal customer.
When you feel you want something better for yourself, it’s the optimal time to stop forcing your old brand to work. A new brand identity is the only way to find the happy ending you deserve. But how do you know it really is time for a rebrand? Let’s take a closer look.
Reason #1: You’re embarrassed to showcase your brand
If you hesitate to share your website, social media pages or marketing collateral with potential clients this is a big indicator you’re not proud of your brand. Whether your branding feels dated, lacks a professional polish, or just doesn’t resonate with you anymore, once you’re embarrassed to showcase your brand, you know it no longer reflects your level of expertise.
The risk
An embarrassing brand will hold you back from reaching your ideal clients. Although it’s hard to admit, prospects can sense when you’re experiencing branding doubts, which keeps them from working with you.
The solution
Get to the heart of the type of brand you want to be. Competitive analysis is the quickest, most effective way to get intel on the audience you dream of reaching and the collateral that will help you reach them. Ask yourself what interior designer brands you aspire to be two to five years from now. Then research what they’re doing, what you love about them and what you think you can do better. When you assess the competition, you can understand that niche, make their audience the base of everything you do and improve your branding collateral to reignite brand pride.
Reason #2: You can’t seem to attract the right clients
If everything you do fails to attract your ideal target audience, this is a clear sign there’s a misalignment with your brand visuals and messaging. You need to ensure you strategically combine the right visuals and words to connect with your ideal audience.
The risk
If you started out working for budget-friendly homeowners but you’re trying to attract a higher end client today, everything currently on your website and throughout your social media is showcasing work and a brand that appeals to that old audience. So even if you’re revamping aspects of your messaging and visuals, they’re conflicting with your original target, creating a confused message that can’t hit home with either audience.
The solution
The only way to isolate and rectify this ongoing problem is to push pause and take the time to get to know your new target audience. By pinpointing their struggles, what they’re trying to achieve, and what they want, you can craft and create messaging that hits that target.
Pushing pause allows you to step back to build the proper foundation to effectively showcase your new offerings. Only then can you clearly share your industry expertise with strategic targeting designed to reach a whole new audience in a whole new way.
Reason #3: You find yourself “silently rebranding”
Maria uses the term “silent rebranding” to describe making brand changes quietly in the background. Your gut tells you it’s time for a change, but you kid yourself into thinking what you’re doing isn’t rebranding at all. You think you’re maybe “pivoting” a little bit or just changing up you’re messaging to see how things go. While testing the waters is critical to growth, when you don’t fully commit, you hold yourself back.
The risk
Silent rebranding is more of a band-aid solution to try to fix something you sense is broken. Because you haven’t yet taken the time to put your finger on the issue, you can’t make actionable changes to elevate your brand.
The solution
This is the optimal time to rebrand because you’ve already “teased” the idea in your marketing and can take the leap to reposition your interior design company in an exciting new light. However, you need to break everything down to create a solid foundation through a formal rebranding process.
Real rebranding requires strategic market research. For example, if you offered one-on-one in-person design consulting but now only want to offer virtual tours and consulting, you need to know if there’s a niche for this, where that niche is and what that niche wants so you can ensure your new messaging and image meets their expectations.
Why rebranding is scary – and that’s okay
Rebranding is scary, but it isn’t negative. What rebranding does is grant you permission to move on and pursue your true calling. It’s part of your growth journey, helping you meet your full potential.
Your followers follow you because of your current offering. This is hard to pivot away from if you get stuck believing a break from your brand means you’ll lose your momentum.
But here’s why losing your momentum is okay. When you rebrand, you’ll get followers who say, “Oh cool, I love what you’re doing now.” They have the potential to become your ideal clients. However, there’s also followers who will think, “Hmmmm that’s not quite what I was looking for.” Those guys will unfollow you. But the truth is they were a) never going to be your clients or b) would be the wrong clients to help you achieve your goals. And that’s why you rebranded in the first place.
Just know this: When you become aligned in your messaging, new offering and what you want to truly be known for, the right people will start to pay attention. Rebranding filters out the wrong fits and attracts the new right fits. And there’s nothing scary about that!
Episode highlights
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- 10:41: You’ve lost that loving feeling
- 12:41: Reason #1: You’re embarrassed to showcase your brand and the solution
- 15:07: Reason #2: You can’t seem to attract the right clients and the solution
- 39:52: Reason #3: You find yourself “silently rebranding” and the solution
- 48:54: What you promote is what you attract
Need help with a new branding message or copywriting for your rebranded interior design website? Set up a conversation with me today.
Leave a Reply