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 a solo brand studio or a small senior-led team is often more beneficial than a large agency for early-stage startups, especially in B2B SaaS, Bitcoin, and AI where speed and brand cohesion both matter.

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

They Wanted to Launch a Half-Baked Brand

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.

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
• Social media cards
• Emails
• Guides
• Ads
• 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 startup had going.

We spent six months expanding the brand to enable its growth in line with the organization's rapid expansion. We built a huge template library that the design team could use 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, the team was excited and exhausted. The internal brand toolkit sped up the design process by three times. The startup secured over $30 million in private funding the following year.

The marketing and lead-generation teams had been aiming for 2-3 new campaigns per month. By the time I left the company a year later, we were producing 4-5 new campaigns each month. One month, we hit a record of six.

The lesson I took from that engagement is the lesson I still build around today: brand craftsmanship doesn't end at the brand guidelines PDF. It ends when the team using the brand can ship without asking questions. Everything between handoff and that moment is the work most agencies skip.

How I Help Clients Roll Out Their New Brand

When I start a 4-week brand sprint with a new client, I ask if they need help with brand implementation and launch. About 80% say they can manage it. By the middle of the sprint, most change their minds. The Transfer the Keys phase of the CRAFT™ Process is built around this reality.

→ I work with the client to create clear parameters for the launch. This covers the implementation timeline, launch date, and the full list of touchpoints to update before launch.

→ Every client I help with launch completes a brand audit. Ideally at the start of the project, so I know what assets need to be created or considered during the sprint. If a client asks for help mid-engagement, I provide that support right after finalizing the brand.

→ I create a launch checklist unique to each client, tracked in a shared Google spreadsheet. Every touchpoint, every status, fully transparent. The client always knows where I am in the implementation process.

→ Then I move into implementation. This is where new assets, templates, and brand samples get built. Fast feedback loops are critical here. This phase is heavy on design production work.

→ When all the brand touchpoints are finished, I prepare for the launch date. I stay available throughout the QA process so any overlooked assets can be built without delaying the launch.

Launch needs a lot of support, which is why I offer post-sprint retainer packages specifically structured around it. Senior-led, senior-delivered, with no project-management layer between the work and the person doing it.

Depending on the size of the brand, the retainer typically runs 1 to 3 months, with the option to extend for post-launch support.

Every brand is unique, so the retainer is customized to fit what the launch actually requires.

If you want help with your brand launch, let's talk →

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 you need to roll out your new brand?

If you don't have an internal design team with a skilled brand designer, hire an outside brand designer or studio to help with the launch.

Why a brand designer specifically? You need someone experienced in building AND launching brands. That way you can do it efficiently and avoid friction.

The worst thing you can do is launch a new brand that is fragmented. A fragmented brand does not equal trust.

I also suggest finding a brand designer or studio who has helped at least 2-3 companies launch their new brands. The more rollouts they've done, the easier it gets. They can spot friction points and stop common errors before they happen.

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

→ You don't have enough internal capacity (designers on staff).

→ You're trying to speed up production time.

→ You don't have experienced brand designers on staff.

→ You don't have experienced creative leadership on staff.

→ You're feeling overwhelmed and stakeholders are breathing down your neck.
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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, the longer the rollout.

The rule I use: if a brand took one month to build, plan another one to two months for the brand launch.

Many stakeholders overlook important tasks 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, 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) causes your brand to fragment. That 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 doubt your site's trustworthiness. This confusion leads to higher bounce rates.

One client partner sought 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.

DIY: How can you plan for the launch of your 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. (Worth pairing this with the 4-pillar brand system framework when you audit.)

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 (and usage)
• Typography
• Graphics and 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 with your action plan:

→ Set a launch date for your new brand.

→ Select a "Brand Champion" who will own the launch. This is the role I'm increasingly seeing become essential as AI accelerates how fast brands can fragment. More on that thinking soon.

→ 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.

Make sure you have a team to QA 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. Be prepared.
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The Real Lesson

A brand launch is the moment a brand either becomes real or stays a PDF. The agencies that hand off the guidelines and disappear are missing the part of the work that actually matters. The Transfer the Keys phase of every CRAFT™ Brand Sprint is built around making sure the brand can stand on its own without me in the room.

If you're a founder whose product has outgrown the brand around it, the 4-week brand sprint includes the implementation thinking and the launch playbook. Senior-led, senior-delivered.

Learn more about the CRAFT™ Brand Sprint →

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