By Mehdi HassanHow should a company announce its rebrand?
A company should announce its rebrand in rings, starting with the people most affected and ending with the public, all within a short, planned window. The message is the same in every ring: what's changing, why, what stays the same, and what the reader should do. Only the tone and detail change.
Most rebrand announcements fail in one of two ways. They talk about the brand team's feelings ('a bold new chapter') instead of the customer's situation, or they surprise people who should have heard first. Both are easy to avoid with an order and a set of drafts written before launch day. If you're still deciding whether to rebrand, start with our guide to rebranding a startup.
Who should hear about a rebrand first?
Your team should hear about a rebrand first, ideally before any customer sees it, because they'll be the ones answering questions. After that, order the audiences by how much the change affects their day.
Audience | When | Channel | What they need |
|---|---|---|---|
Team | Before launch | All-hands and written FAQ | The reason, the timeline and answers to likely questions |
Key customers | Just before or on launch day | Personal email or call from their contact | Reassurance that nothing about their account changes |
All customers | Launch day | Email and in-app banner | What changes, what stays, any action needed |
Investors and partners | Launch day | Investor update, partner email | The strategic reason and the new assets |
Public and press | Launch day | Website post, LinkedIn, press kit | The story and downloadable brand assets |
For the press and partners, publish a brand page with logos, a boilerplate and screenshots. Our guide to the startup press kit lists what to include.
What should a rebrand announcement say?
A rebrand announcement should say four things, in this order: what's changing, why, what stays the same, and what to do next. Everything else is optional. Keep it short enough to read on a phone.
What's changing
Name it plainly: a new name, a new logo and look, a new domain, or all three.
Why
One sentence with a real reason: you now serve a different customer, the old name described one product, or the name caused confusion.
What stays the same
Their account, login, pricing, contract, team and support. This is the part customers read most closely.
What to do
Usually nothing. If something is needed, such as whitelisting a new email domain or updating an integration, say exactly what and by when.
What does a rebrand announcement email to customers look like?
A rebrand announcement email to customers is short, comes from a real person, and answers 'does this affect me?' in the first two lines. Here's a template you can adapt. Replace the bracketed parts and cut anything that doesn't apply.
Template: customer rebrand email
Subject: [Old name] is now [New name]. Nothing changes for your account.
Hi [First name],
Starting today, [Old name] is called [New name]. Your account, login, data, pricing and support team stay exactly the same, and there's nothing you need to do.
Why the change: [one sentence, for example 'we started as a tool for invoices, and today most of you use us to run your whole approval process. The old name no longer described that.']
What you'll notice: a new logo and look in the app, a new website at [new domain], and emails from [new sending address]. [Old domain] links will keep working.
If you have questions, reply to this email and it comes straight to me.
[Name], [Title], [New name]
Send it from a founder or the customer's account owner, not a no-reply address. A reply-to that reaches a person is the strongest trust signal in the email. For how this email fits with your other lifecycle messages, see our guide to onboarding email sequences.
How do you announce a rebrand to investors?
Announce a rebrand to investors in your regular update, or in a short note if the timing doesn't fit, and frame it as a business decision with a business reason. Investors want to know why now, what it costs and how it supports the plan they funded.
Template: investor update section
Rebrand: today we launched as [New name] (formerly [Old name]).
Why: [the strategic reason, for example 'our fastest-growing segment is mid-market operations teams, and the old brand read as a small-business tool.']
What it involved: a new identity, website and sales deck. [Total cost or 'within the existing marketing budget'.]
What stays the same: the legal entity, cap table and all agreements. [If the legal name changes, say when and what documents are affected.]
How you can help: share the announcement post [link] and update our name on your portfolio page.
Asking investors to update your name on their portfolio page is a small request with real value. Those pages are among the mentions that tell search engines and AI assistants who you are, which our guide to rebrand SEO explains.
How do you write a rebrand LinkedIn post and in-app banner?
Write the LinkedIn post as a short story about why you changed, and the in-app banner as a single reassuring sentence with a link. The post is for the public and future customers. The banner is for people already using the product, who mostly want to know nothing broke.
Template: founder LinkedIn post
Today [Old name] becomes [New name].
When we started, we built [first product] for [first customer]. Over the last [period], our customers kept using it for something bigger: [what they actually do now]. The old name described where we started. The new one describes where we're going.
What's new: [name, look, website]. What isn't: the product, the team and how we work with customers.
Thanks to [designer or team] for the work, and to our customers for telling us, in many small ways, that it was time.
[Link to the announcement page on your own site]
Template: in-app banner
Short version (one line): [Old name] is now [New name]. Same product, same account. [Read why]
Longer version (for a modal on first login): Welcome to [New name]. We've changed our name and look, but your workspace, data and settings are exactly where you left them. [Read the announcement] [Dismiss]
Link the post to an announcement page on your own site rather than only posting on LinkedIn. That page can rank for your old name and explain the change to anyone who searches for it later.
What should be live on the day you announce a rebrand?
On announcement day, every surface people will check should already show the new brand: the website, the app, email templates, social profiles and the sales deck. An announcement that links to a half-updated site undoes the message.
Use our rebrand launch checklist for the full list of surfaces, and our guide to what to ship on rebrand day for the website specifically. Keep the old domain redirecting, and keep a 'formerly [Old name]' line on the about page so late arrivals understand what happened.
