How Your Website Can Help Build a Strong Brand for Your Private Practice
What springs to mind when considering what to include on your professional practice website? Maybe it lists your education and what you do. It outlines your opening hours, location, and how people can book. Or it might explain why you are the right therapist to help your visitors.
There are two crucial fundamentals that make a site stand out and become “sticky,” so people return repeatedly. Planning and design. Your website can assist in establishing a strong, compelling brand identity for your private practice.
The Role of Website Design and Branding in Building Your Practice
Your website is your practice’s online home. It is often the first point of contact for potential clients.
Like physical property, an appealing, effective design helps people feel comfortable, safe, and welcome. It encourages visitors to click around, consume your content, and begin to build rapport.
Yet, also like physical property, visitors will quickly leave if your site’s layout is complex, ugly, or perceived as unsafe.
Your website design, then, is crucial to its effectiveness. Attracting eyeballs, wooing potential clients, and growing your impact and profitability.
And web design and branding go hand-in-hand.
Branding
Creating a unique identity for your practice that sets you apart from your competitors — comprises various elements, including your logo, colors, fonts, and messaging. But branding is more than this alone.
For example, the navigability of your site and user experience — maximized by expert website design — is crucial to branding. Think about the last time you had an awkward or positive digital experience. How did the encounter make you feel about the brand?
Your website design and branding should also reflect your values, mission, and, yes, your personality. This carefully cultivated identity should be consistent throughout your marketing materials, including your website.
This means that your website should be designed with your brand in mind, and your brand should inform your site design. Together, they need to create a cohesive, clear look and feel. See, people hate confusion. They can sense when something is “off,” even when they don’t consciously know why. As the marketing maxim goes, “A confused person doesn’t buy.”
By embracing professional website design and practice branding, your site will play a crucial role in the success of your private practice.
But how else can you build a strong brand?
Incorporate Your Unique Value Proposition into Your Website Design
You’ve likely heard of unique value propositions. Apple’s “Think Different,” Nike’s “Just Do It,” and Patagonia’s “Build the best product, provide the best service, and constantly improve everything we do.” Your practice needs one too.
Incorporating your unique value proposition (UVP) into your website design is vital. Your UVP conveys the unique value you offer your clients. In one sentence, it articulates your strength and helps to set you apart from your competitors. Because of this, your unique value proposition is the key to standing out in a crowded marketplace.
Your website design is an opportunity to communicate your UVP in a way that creates a lasting impression. Display your UVP prominently on your website’s homepage. Use it as the Northern Star to create content that expresses your value.
Weave it through your website design in a way that feels authentic and aligned with your practice’s brand. Communicate your UVP through images, videos, or written content. Always present it in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
Why?
A powerful, clear UVP instantly communicates what makes your practice unique. For your ideal clients, this will inspire strong feelings that you are the right (even the only) choice of therapist. This will encourage action-taking, including booking consultations.
To learn how to craft your UVP, listen to episode 18 of The Therapist Experience Podcast, From Generalist to Specialist: The Journey to a Unique Selling Proposition, with Stephanie Adams.
Use Consistent Branding Elements Across Your Site and Marketing Materials
We, humans, are excellent difference detectors. We can spot an inconsistency a mile away. This is important because inconsistency creates confusion and undermines brand credibility. Yes, this will hurt your sales.
Think about companies like Amazon, Google, Mercedes-Benz, Nike, and Disney. Their choice of fonts, colors, logos, voice, and messaging remains constant across their websites, platforms, and marketing materials. They leave no room for a questioning mind. They each present their brands uniformly, harmoniously, and in a predictable and trustworthy manner. It would be best if you did the same.
To establish consistent branding:
- Implement stringent brand guidelines
- Use a consistent logo
- Choose predetermined colors
- Select the same font and font sizing
- Opt for a constant tone of voice
- Be on-brand with your messaging
Following these rules for your digital presence — including on your website — will build a solid private practice brand.
Establish Your Practice as an Authority in Your Niche
Millions (likely billions) hunt online for health information. Many read blog posts and watch educational videos created by health experts. Before booking consultations, scores head online to consume content, read reviews, and choose their therapist.
This means a professional, expertly designed website is a requisite for success. In part because a credibility-boosting site establishes your authority as an expert in your field.
Let’s look at five ways to use your website to brand yourself and your practice as an authority.
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Build a robust online presence
Ensure your website is up-to-date, visually appealing, and easy to navigate. Use social media platforms to share relevant content, engage with potential clients, and drive people to your website.
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Provide valuable content
Provide valuable content that establishes your credibility as an authority in your niche. Create blog posts, videos, and other content that shares practical, insightful information targeted at your ideal clients. This will enhance the appeal of your site and entice visitors to continue to return.
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Speak at events and conferences
Speaking at events and conferences is a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your niche. This allows you to share your expertise with a larger audience and network with other professionals in your field.
Have videos and photos taken while you present to an audience. Share this on your website, social media, and other relevant digital platforms. Again, use this footage to draw viewers back to your website and establish your creditability.
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Build relationships with other professionals
Building relationships with complimentary but not competitive health professionals can help establish your practice as a niche authority. Attend networking events, collaborate on projects, and share ideas. Build up a network of professional referrers who, you guessed it, refer (including “link” back) to your site.
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Leverage client testimonials
Client testimonials can be a powerful tool for establishing your practice as an authority.
One study reported that “over 70 percent [of people] read patient reviews when searching for a healthcare location or provider [and that] 80 percent of respondents expect five or more reviews before they deem a provider to be trustworthy, and 72 percent will only choose a doctor if they have 4-star reviews or higher.”
Share testimonials on your website, barring any reason not to. They demonstrate your positive impact on clients and help to establish trustworthiness.
Develop a Brand Voice and Personality to Connect with Your Ideal Clients
Your messaging, personality, and visual branding matter. So, too, does an authentic brand voice. One that speaks to your ideal clients in a way that cultivates and deepens your relationships.
Your network will have certain expectations, nuanced language, abbreviations, and experiences. You enhance trust by speaking to these directly. This is what a professional brand voice does. As a result, your ideal clients will resonate with you in a way that alternative therapists can’t.
Once established, use your voice consistently on your private practice website. This will contribute to a solid and trustworthy brand.
To find and hone your voice, be open, honest, and helpful. Read our article, Your Words Matter: The Power of Authentic Marketing, to find your words and way.
The Takeaway
It’s not an overstatement to say that you must develop your unique brand identity and deeply understand and share what sets you apart from the competition. Your website is essential to this puzzle as it establishes and reinforces your branding.
A professional, expertly-designed website helps you build an authority-driven brand for your private practice. One that attracts, woos, and converts potential clients. This can multiply your impact and supercharge your bottom line.
Discover how to maximize the benefits of a strong brand and professional website. At Brighter Vision, we specialize solely in website design specifically for therapists. We look forward to helping you make your difference.
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