How to Properly Leverage a Rebrand To Expand Your Ecosystem
Your brand tells a story about your company and can be used to bring in more partners. Make sure it’s being represented correctly by your partners. We’ve got the rundown on how Salesloft went through a rebrand and brought their partners with them - and expanded their ecosystem in the process.
By Zoe Kelly
January 25, 2022
In September 2021, Salesloft re-branded. In addition to the website and product changes such as an updated user interface, the rebrand featured new assets like logos, messaging guidelines, and a color palette.
“Partners are a part of your brand equity,” Morgan Rochofski, head of Partner Marketing, Enablement, and Programs at Salesloft told us. For example, a partner sharing a blurb about Salesloft reaches an audience of potential customers and partners that might otherwise go untapped. The frequent (and accurate) usage of your brand by your partners can directly equate to new partnerships and an expanded ecosystem.
Before the rebrand, less than half of Salesloft’s partners were featuring Salesloft branding including logos, company messaging, product screenshots, and demo videos on their website — and Rochofski knew this was an opportunity.
She got to work bringing the new brand assets to partners. The result: a 35 percentage point increase in partners correctly using the Salesloft brand and 11 new integrations getting kicked off the month immediately following the rebrand. Also in October, traffic to the Salesloft App Directory set an all-time record.
Rochofski also noted that rebranding has opened up to take on new brand-specific projects such as creating unique logos and branding for different tiers of partners.
We asked Rochofski her step-by-step process for making sure the partnerships team can make the most of a rebrand:
Step 0: Update your contact information
Without updated contact information for each of your partners, you’ll struggle when trying to send out new materials. So before doing anything else, run through your list of partner contacts and make sure they are accurate. Even if you don’t have immediate plans for a rebrand, you will make any future rebrands easier down the line.
Pro-tip: On the Salesloft team, Rochofski says, the partner account owner is responsible for frequently updating the information. This eliminates the possibility for the task to fall through the cracks due to ownership confusion.
Step 1: Audit your partners
Before distributing brand assets to partners, you need to conduct an audit to get a pulse on how your brand is being represented. The audit itself is fairly straightforward — visit the digital platforms of each of your partners to make a list of what brand assets of yours are being used, and where and how they are being used. Rochofski and her team took a month to conduct an audit, allocating about eight to ten hours a week to work on it.
This will:
- Help you compile a list of all assets and brand guidelines needed
- Give you an accurate “before” picture to later compare your progress to (and help you prove that investing in partner branding is valuable)
Rochofski and her team audited 261 partners and discovered only 45% featured the Salesloft brand:
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
The majority of uses were of the company logo:
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Step 2: Create partner-specific branded materials (and a guide on how to use them)
Your audit results should give you a clear picture of the kinds of ways your partners might be showcasing your brand, giving you a checklist of assets to either compile or create.
Once you have the new, rebranded assets it’s time for the next step: guidelines instructing partners on how to use the provided assets. Guidelines can cut out the guesswork that might result in your brand being misrepresented while also making your brand assets easier for your partners to feature.
The Salesloft Partner Brand Guidelines walk partners through the usage of:
Logos
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Written messaging
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Product screenshots
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Directory listings
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Promotion of Partnership & Announcements
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Courtesy of Salesloft
Check out the full version of the Salesloft Partner Brand guidelines here.
Step 3: Distribute branded materials to partners
If you’ve updated your contact information, sending your assets and brand guidelines to partners should be a breeze. In addition to pinging your contact directly, you can use:
- Any automated partner workflows
- Your partner portal
- Your directory
To get strong user adoption, try incentivizing your partners to use the new materials through:
- Social media shoutouts
- Swag boxes featuring the new brand or logos created just for partners
- Gift card raffles
