How to Build a Long-Lasting Brand for Your Private Practice
The creation of a good brand is an essential element to effective marketing of private practices, but often times goes overlooked. The concept of a brand can seem obscure, especially when you’re a solo clinician. On top of this, it can be tough to even know where to start when it comes to creating a brand.
To help explain how why you need a brand, and how to determine what that brand will be, we’ve brought in an expert, Avivit Fisher of RedD Strategy.
Do you know why your work matters to your clients?
I don’t mean why therapy matters in general. I mean, what is it about your specific business and the work that you do as a clinician, that matters to your clients.
There are many reasons for starting a private practice and one of them is the desire to make a difference in people’s lives. I can assume that it is true for you as well. You know that your work is valuable and the service that you provide is needed and can even be life altering, but can you put this value into specific words?
If you haven’t yet, and if you have been relying on the public’s understanding of the value of therapy in general, you have not created a strong brand for your private practice. Understanding why your business matters to your clients and the people that you want to attract are the key to building your brand.
Why should a private practitioner have a brand?
Your brand is the total perception of you and your private practice. It’s not only your logo and your website. It’s the way people feel about your business when they interact with it. It’s the way you present yourself and your work, the way you talk to your clients and the way you send the message about your work and its benefits to the world.
Understanding your brand and its value is your first step to creating a meaningful marketing plan that will help your business grow and attract the clients you want. Your brand is the core of all your marketing communication.
As a business owner, your goal is to attract ideals clients, convert them and maintain an ongoing relationship with them. Defining your brand will reveal your business’s authentic voice and true value that will help you stand out from your competition and attract the audience that you want and are meant to serve.
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Understanding your brand means knowing your audience and knowing how to deliver your main message to them. When you understand your brand you can control the way your prospective clients perceive your private practice.
How do you go about building a long-lasting brand?
A brand is a living and evolving thing, somewhat like a person. And just like a person, it has a basic set of values and characteristics that gives it a personality. Even if your brand is a personal brand that is based on you, it still needs to be defined in order to create a consistent marketing message.
The process of defining a brand includes a series of in-depth questions about your business’s reason for being. Being specific about the answers is what will set you apart from your competition and help you create a solid brand. Establishing the right emotions that you want to evoke in your audience will help you build your brand’s message for all your future marketing.
You can start doing that by answering these questions:
- What problem does your private practice solve for your clients?
- Who is your ideal client?
- Why does your service matter to your ideal customer? This is a very important question. My advice would be to imagine certain scenarios in which your ideal client would contact you.
- What are the core values of your business? What do you want to project to your audience?
If you are ready to answer these questions and want to work on defining your brand, download my Brand Audit Worksheet. It’s totally free and designed to help you go through the in-depth exercise of understanding and defining your brand and its value proposition.
Using Your Brand to Market Your Private Practice
Once your brand is defined, it will help guide all of the other marketing pieces within your practice.
When thinking about your brand, you’ll need to go about making sure the following pieces are reflective of it:
- Logo – create a logo that shares your brand through imagery.
- Website – having an effective website reflective of your brand is essential, as this is will be many of your client’s first impression of you. To check if your website passes the test, click here.
- Content – all written explanations of your practice should speak to your brand and the ideal client you are looking to reach.
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Establishing a strong brand will not only help you stand out from your competition but it will offer a promise to your clients that will manage their expectations. The promise of your work ethics, the promise that they will have the outcome that they are looking for and the promise that they will be taken care of in a consistent way. Knowing what your brand stands for will help you navigate the uncertain future in business and connect with the people who will resonate with and appreciate your work.
Looking to market your practice with a better therapist website? That’s what we do better than anyone.
Brighter Vision is the ultimate marketing package for therapists, centered around the best therapist website you’ve ever had. Fill out the form below to learn more about our team of professionals who can’t wait to help your practice grow like never before. 🙂