Watch a quick demo or schedule time with us.
Schedule a demo, or contact support.
Rebranding is no easy task. It’s like a home renovation project: It’s expensive, time consuming, requiring some destruction and revamp, and it can even be a little messy.
As a result, it’s common for businesses to consider working with a rebranding agency to help with the task at hand. A rebranding agency is unbiased, they’re experienced, and they know exactly how to get the job done.
Even once a business has made the decision to hire a rebranding agency, however, they then have to make a bigger decision: Which agency should they hire? With a ton of less-than-stellar agencies out there, it’s essential to know how to find one that works for you.
That’s what we’re going to discuss today: How to pick an agency for rebranding to get your business the new look and the results you’re looking for.
Some marketing agencies will offer rebranding services alongside other marketing services. Others work exclusively as agencies that handle rebrands. And when it comes to choosing a rebranding agency, it’s best to find one that meets your current needs, whatever that is.
Most agencies that handle rebrands offer the following services:
In many cases, rebranding agencies will learn about your current brand and what you want to do next. They may offer several different ideas or concepts, and then execute the one your team selects, helping you with new marketing materials and/or an online presence.
If you’re not sure whether or not your internal team should handle rebranding or if you should hand it off to a rebranding service, there are four reasons firmly in the “pro” column of working with an agency. (Keep in mind that we’re unbiased: We’re not a rebranding agency, so we have no horse in this race.)
If you’re having trouble in your marriage, do you want to get advice from your co-workers who all happen to be various-degrees of successfully married, or would you rather speak to a marriage counselor? If you’re like most people who value their marriage, the answer is probably “marriage counselor,” because while your co-workers may have good advice, they aren’t specialists.
While you likely have marketing team members on hand who are familiar with branding, they’re unlikely to be rebranding experts. It’s a whole different ball game, and it’s a whole new set of skills, to revamp a brand instead of simply creating a new one.
Specialists will have a ton more experience in doing a partial or full rebrand and helping you through next steps from conception to execution, and they’ll help you avoid a series of pitfalls along the way.
Rebranding agencies live and breath branding and rebranding… so they’re going to be up to date on everything happening in their specialty. They’ll know all the latest trends, mistakes to avoid, and how to create a trendy-but-evergreen rebrand that will stand the test of (a reasonable amount of) time.
They’ll also know what’s dated and what will soon be out of trend, which can be invaluable when you want your brand to look modern.
Getting an objective look about your brand from someone outside of your organization is a good call. They may not only have new ideas, but they can likely see potential roadblocks of existing branding or planned aspects of a rebrand that you have in mind.
And, while they’re working for you, they also don’t want to be associated with projects that don’t represent their company well. They’ll be objective and honest, as they’re not attached to their brand and they don’t need to agree to a difficult boss just because.
The reality is that even if you have a great team on staff, they may not have the bandwidth to take on a massive project like a rebranding— even if the helped develop the original branding that you’re currently using. You don’t want to pull your team away from their existing day-to-day responsibilities and cause overall productivity on essential tasks to falter as a result.
Before you hire an agency, it’s crucial to conduct an internal content audit. This will help you assess what branding materials you currently have and ensure that they’re all easily accessible to share with the agency.
Keep in mind that you’ll want to share some of your branded and marketing content with the agency so they can get an idea of the brand you have and the rebranding you need.
Content Camel can help with this, as you can store your content all in one place and share it with team members (internal or external) of your choice.
We can help you categorize and then easily review all branding content, including files of digital logos, visuals, brand guidelines, brand voice style guides, and more. And as your rebranding is put into place, all of the materials you receive from the agency should be uploaded into this content management system, too, so that it’s ready for your team to access and review at any time.
See how Content Camel works.
You’re onboard (at least in theory) with hiring a rebranding agency, so let’s take a look at how to choose one!
Before you start looking for an agency, it’s always a good idea to think about exactly what services you need. This will impact the agencies available for you to choose from.
Ask yourself if you want:
Many agencies will list the specific services they offer on their site. You can see an example here from Murmur Creative:
There is a wide range of costs when it comes to hiring a rebranding agency, and you’ll want to think about how much budget you can spend. Some agencies are tailored towards smaller businesses with tighter budgets, while others have high costs but a ton of experience working with large or enterprise-grade companies.
Agencies on the low end may cite $30,000-50,000, while others may be in the $100,000-300,000 range. It all depends on the specific agency you work with and the type of
While you may end up finding room in the budget for rebranding if you find an agency that’s a higher cost than you originally wanted, take some time to review your budget upfront so you can try to narrow down agencies based on cost.
Once you know your budget and the work you want done, it’s time to start looking at agencies.
You may choose to work with a niche agency, like one that’s established in an SaaS or the eCommerce industry (like Big Human). Other brands prefer to work with a more generalized agency.
Some want to work with an agency that specializes only in rebranding, while others want to find an agency that also offers other or ongoing marketing services.
Put together a list of qualities that you like, and agencies that meet those qualities.
During the research stage, as you’re choosing agencies that you like, take time to look into work they’ve done in the past.
Many established rebranding agencies will have samples of their work (and an explanation of the work involved) present on their site. Some may feature them under a dedicated page with page titles like “case studies,” “work,” or “portfolio.” Take time to look at a few examples, and ideally look for work that’s similar to what you’re hoping to accomplish with your rebrand.
You can check out this example from Flying Hippo:
You should also look for client testimonials. Customer reviews account for a lot, because while an agency may have impressive-looking work, they could be difficult to work with, take longer than expected to complete a project, or have charged hidden fees later on. Seeing portfolios and rave client reviews is important, especially since rebranding can be such a big investment.
Every agency may work a little differently, so find out what you can from their websites, and when you reach out to talk to the agency, ask the following questions:
These are all essential questions to ask, and you can talk to your own team to find out if they have detailed questions. Your design team, for example, may have specific requirements for the logos that they expect to receive, including pixel count or size.
Once you’ve narrowed down your selection, it’s time to start getting quotes from rebranding agencies. We recommend talking to at least the top three agencies on your list, and if they can’t meet your needs, keep going down the list until you find someone who fits the bill.
Get quotes based on the specific project that you’re considering, and ask for clarification about timelines, milestones, and when you’re expected to pay. Once you have your quotes, you can make your choice and sign a contract.
Ready to start looking for a rebranding agency? These are some of the best places to find the right fit for you:
Rebranding can vary wildly from case to case, so make sure you research agencies fully and understand the scope, timeline, and budget of your rebranding efforts. Trust your gut instinct when you’re choosing an agency; if it sounds too good to be true (especially for the price and/or timeline), then it probably is.
No matter what, make sure you have a content management system in place and conduct a full content audit before you start rebranding. This will make the entire process much easier, and help the agency get a much better feel for what your current brand is faster.
Ready to get started with a content management system in preparation of your rebrand? Start your free Content Camel trial here!
Maximize your rebranded content and deliver trackable results
Content Camel is a sales enablement tool used for sales content management. High-growth sales teams use our system to quickly find and share the right content for each specific sales situation and measure content use and effectiveness.