How to start a rebranding project

Networking is all about making great business connections. 

Earlier this year, we shared the story of three Brighton Chamber members who met networking through the Chamber, and ended up working together on a website and brand project. 

You can catch up on the story of how they met and why business networking is an important aspect of their business here. 

Following on from that blog, I had a chat with Richard Excell, about his approach to starting a rebranding project. 

How did you meet Jo? 

I met Jo through one of the Chamber’s Member Meet-ups during the early stages of the Coronavirus pandemic. With events having to go online it became the best way to network and meet new and existing members. The format gives everyone a chance to not only tell us what they do, but importantly to tell us what they are struggling or succeeding with as a business. So many great conversations have come out of these meet-ups and have invariably lead to referrals for services and products.

What was your favourite thing about working on the brand and website design of Jo's website? 

The best thing about working on the branding and website was the initial conversations we had, discovering and exploring the strengths and offerings Jo has as a coach, what makes her unique and understanding why clients would use her services. 

Inevitably, Jo’s values and ethos helped to form her brand along with her experience and proven success in the field of coaching. This process of questioning and understanding gives me a privileged window, if you like, into other people’s lives as business people, entrepreneurs, leaders etc., which is fascinating. 

I’m always intrigued to find out what makes other people tick, what’s their take on everything and of course what’s their passion and how these combine to motivate them to be in business or head up an organization.

How do you even start going about a website design and creating a brand - what do you do first? 

The branding comes first starting with those initial conversations to form the values, ethos and proposition of what you are offering and how you want the world to see your business. i.e. Brand Strategy. I start out with my own brand strategy brief sheet to use as a guide for those questions that I want to ask about the business, it’s aims and goals.

Brand strategy is a critical and fundamental piece for building a successful brand. It’s one of the areas that most businesses overlook, because they jump right into the design and marketing.

Next comes the brand identity, the way that you convey this strategy to the public with visuals, messaging, and experience. Your brand identity needs to be applied across all channels consistently. It's the way that your business becomes recognisable. This includes your logo, colours and fonts, website design, advertising, print or packaging and more - as well as your content, messaging and the tone of voice you use.

Once we have the branding in place it’s time to start on the website. I’ll start by looking at identifying the goal of the website, what it’s purpose is, what it needs to fulfil. Next, I’ll look at the scope of the project - what web pages and features the site requires to fulfil the goal, and the timeline for building those out.

Creating a sitemap and wireframe creation helps define how the content and features we outlined in scope definition will relate or connect to one another. Then when we have a bigger picture of the site in mind, we can start creating content for the individual pages, always keeping search engine optimization (SEO) in mind.

With the site architecture and some content in place, we can start working on the visual elements. Once the visual elements are in place it's time to make sure it all works. Test, test and test your website before pressing the button and launching it into the outside world!

Note: Don’t underestimate the scale of a website project, it will inevitably grow as you delve into it and become a huge drain on your time, drawing you away from your core business activities. It pays to hire a good web designer/developer.

You met Jo at a networking event, how important is networking and building relationships to you? 

Networking is a vital part of my own business marketing. It’s how I meet not just potential clients but also suppliers, referrers and find help and advice for my business. Networking gives you the opportunity to find the people you may need and the time to get to know and trust them. I’ve even made friends that I can meet up with on a social level, have a drink with and set the world to rights!

I always wonder what I’d do without networking for me and my business and how did I ever get along without it?

Richard Excell runs Excell Design & Marketing - specialising in branding and marketing - from marketing strategies, brand identities, to website design, social and content strategies to advertising campaigns. Head over to their website to find out more. 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk