A common issue for startups after working with a studio or agency is two stages: “implementation” and “launch.”

The Implementation stage is about adding your new brand to your current brand assets and touchpoints.

A great example of this is your website. This includes updating typography, colors, images, graphics, and text. It also covers interactions, adding new pages, and more content.

The Launch stage is when you launch all your updated brand assets everywhere all at once.

You push them live across all your internal and external brand channels. This includes internal departments like marketing, lead generation, and sales. And external channels such as your website or social media accounts.

The result is that you announce to the world, "This is the new me!"

Many large organizations have big internal teams to manage brand launches. But most early-stage startups or SMBs don’t.

Many large agencies often overlook this in their branding process. They may also charge high fees for both stages. Sometimes, these fees exceed the initial brand cost.

This is why partnering with smaller studios or freelancers can be more beneficial for most early-stage startups and SMBs.

(For the sake of this article, I will refer to both stages as the brand launch or the process of rolling out your new brand.)

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They Wanted to Launch a Half-Baked Brand

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In 2021, I joined an early-stage SaaS startup in the AI space as their lead designer (and only designer, I should add). 

The startup was a child brand of a bigger company. So, they dove into marketing and sales efforts very early on since they knew their market well. They produced a new marketing campaign each month. Soon, the goal was to increase this to 2-3 campaigns monthly, which is an ambitious target.

As I was onboarding to the team, they were finishing up a massive branding project with a large agency out of the UK. When the CMO showed me the final product of the brand, I instantly knew we were in trouble. 

We received an MVB (Minimal Viable Brand). It included a simple brand system, a brand guidelines PDF, and some raw assets. But there was little guidance on how to use these assets or scale the brand.

The UK agency also didn’t offer any support for implementing and rolling out the new brand. It was up to me and a design team I would build in the coming months. We had to implement the brand, roll it out, and make it scalable for the startup to use.

You see, the agency made one massive mistake. They built a brand for a startup looking for funding. Not a startup running big marketing campaigns.

The brand lacked design samples for things like:

• landing pages
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• social media cards
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• emails
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• guides
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• ads
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• YouTube thumbnails

Instead, they focused on swag, generic social content, and website hero sections.

What we had was almost unusable for the marketing machine the startups had going.

We spent six months expanding the brand to enable its growth in line with the organization's rapid expansion. We began implementing the new brand. First, we built a huge template library. Our design team could use it to create assets for each marketing campaign. We revamped all our campaigns, lead magnets, and the website with the new branding. 

By the time we launched the new brand, we were all excited and yet very exhausted. 

We launched the new brand and created an internal brand toolkit. This sped up the design process by three times. As a result, the startup secured over $30 million in private funding.

The goal of the marketing and lead-generation teams was to produce 2-3 new campaigns per month. When I left the company a year later, we produced 4-5 new campaigns each month. One month, we even hit a record of six new campaigns.

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How Do We Help Clients Roll Out Their New Brand?

When we team up with a new client for branding, we ask if they need our help with brand implementation and launch. Most of the time, (about eighty percent) they say they can manage it. But halfway through our branding sprint, they often change their minds.

→ We first work with our client to create clear parameters for the launch. This covers our implementation timeline, launch date, and touchpoints to update before launch.

→ Every client we help with launch must complete a brand audit. It's best to do this at the start of the project. This way, we know what assets need to be created or considered during the branding project. If our client asks for help while we work on their brand, we give that support right after finalizing the brand.

→ We create a launch checklist (unique to each client) in the form of a Google spreadsheet. Here, we track important information and touchpoint progress. This keeps everything transparent, so our clients know where we are in the implementation process.

→ We then dive into implementation. We create new assets, templates, and brand samples here. We need fast replies from our clients to stay on schedule. This phase has a lot of design production work.

→ When we have all the brand touchpoints finished, it’s time to prepare for our launch date. We ensure that we’re available for our clients and the QA process. That way, if needed, we are there to create any assets that may have gone overlooked. 

To support our clients' launch needs, we offer special retainer packages. Launch needs a lot of support. So, it requires significant time and resources.

Depending on your brand's size, we usually ask for a 1-3 month retainer. We also offer an extra month for any support you need after the launch.

Every brand and client is unique, so we customize our retainer packages just for you.

If you want help with your brand, apply for our creative partnership today! We’re always looking for new clients to serve and help reach their brand goals.

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Do-it-yourself Brand Launch

If you want to try this yourself (though I don’t suggest it), here are some common client questions about brand launches.

DIY: Who do we need to roll out our new brand?

I always tell our clients that if they lack an internal design team with a skilled brand designer, they should think about hiring an outside branding designer or studio to help with their brand launch.

Why a branding designer? You need someone experienced in building and launching brands. This way, you can do it efficiently and avoid any friction.

The worst thing you can do is launch a new brand that is fragmented. A fragmented brand ≠ trust.

I also suggest finding a brand designer or studio. They should have helped at least 2-3 companies launch their new brands. The more you roll out brands, the easier it gets. You can spot friction points and stop common errors before they happen and cause damage.

Here’s a list of reasons to hire external designers for your new brand launch:

→ If you don’t have enough internal capacity (designers on staff).

→ If you’re trying to speed up production time.

→ If you don’t have experienced brand designers on your staff.

→ If you don’t have experienced creative leadership on your staff.

→ If you’re feeling overwhelmed and stakeholders are breathing down your neck.

DIY: How long should you plan for rolling out your new brand?

In my experience, a brand launch can take longer than the actual branding process. The factors that influence this come down to how many brand assets and touchpoints you have. The more touchpoints there are, the longer it will take. 

The rule I like to use is if a brand took one month to build, it’s best to plan another one to two months for the brand launch.

Many stakeholders overlook important tasks that they need to tackle once they create a new brand. This includes updating the website, slide decks, lead magnets, blog content, and other marketing items. You need to update everything. If you use design systems or toolkits to create your assets, update those too.

“We can roll out the new branding over the next quarter or two.”

This is a massive mistake. Mixing your brand assets (the old with the new) can cause your brand to fragment. This leads to a quick loss of trust with your audience.

When visitors see your homepage with new branding but find old branding on resource pages, they might doubt your site's trustworthiness. This confusion can lead to higher bounce rates.

One client partner sought our help to defragment their brand. They had a bounce rate of over 80% on their mix-and-match pages.

You don’t want this to happen, especially after you’ve just made a large investment in your new brand.

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DIY: How can we plan for the launch of our new brand?

The best way to launch your new brand is to audit your current brand first. Try to do this before you begin the branding process.

Do this first because it helps you see what brand assets and touchpoints you have. It also shows what you or your studio partner need to create and plan for.

You may include some of the touchpoints in your brand audit:

• Website
• Landing Pages
• Lead Magnets
• Ad Sets
• Marketing Campaigns
• Social Content
• Blog Articles
• Color Palettes (+ usage)
• Typography
• Graphics/ Illustrations
• Iconography
• Imagery
• Video

Once your new brand is ready, go back to each touchpoint from your brand audit. Update them as needed. This is where keeping a record of each touchpoint will come in handy. 

For landing pages, know how many you have. This includes links, variants, and more. The same applies to each page on your website and all your social channels.

While your creative partner (the studio, freelancer, or internal design team) refines the new brand, you can work behind the scenes. Focus on crafting an action plan for the brand launch.

Some things to consider here with your action plan:

→ Set a launch date for your new brand.

→ Select a “Brand Champion” who will be in charge of preparing for your launch.

→ Figure out who will be making the implementations to existing brand touchpoints (internal or external).

→ Create a spreadsheet or checklist for all brand touchpoints. This way, you can track their progress easily.

Aim to have everything ready at least 24 to 48 hours, or even a week, before your launch.

Then, the day before launch, you start pushing everything live at once. 

Ensure you have a team to Q/A every touchpoint before it goes live. If something goes wrong, have the right people ready to fix it. 

Murphy’s law always rings true for rolling out a new brand (or website, for that matter). Always expect something to go wrong, so be prepared.

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