Tips and Tricks for Branding a Medical Practice
What message is your branding giving about your medical practice? Private practice physicians can have a difficult time standing out against the stiff local competition.
Healthcare marketing is a competitive field, therefore, it’s important to make sure your medical practice is getting noticed. Solid branding is vital for private practice physicians to ensure they are delivering a clear consistent message about their practice. Let’s address why it is important to have the proper branding for your medical practice:
- Consistency Across Branding
- Reputation
- Clear Brand Message
- Visually Clean
- Recognizable & Memorable
1. Medical Practice Branding Consistency
The branding of your medical practice is the visual representation of your practice to patients and the outside world. The initially imperative is to make sure your branding is consistent on all of your marketing and professional digital & physical outlets. Often times branding consistency can fall to the wayside when the physician or owner decides to update aspects of the practice but decides against fully updating all the practice outlets.
This may mean that new providers were added, additional locations opened, name changes, color schemes altered or all of the above. It can be a great idea to give your logo a much-needed facelift if it’s dated but make sure that when you launch the new logo and colors schemes it makes its way to all aspects of the medical practice. Inconsistent logos, business cards, and colors will cause confusion and can look sloppy or cheap. An example of inconsistent branding for a medical practice could be if a doctor was recently employed at a local hospital or physicians group but has branched out and become an independent private practice physician. The physician may have outdated business cards with the old hospital logo or colors or the website is different from the previous employers. This will cause confusion for potential patients who might want to schedule an appointment. If they are under the impression the physician is employed by the hospital they may be under the assumption that the practice accepts a certain insurance or that the medical records are already in the system. Patients become frustrated and confused when they discover there may be changes to their appointment. Inconsistency in your medical practice branding can reflect a lack to an attention to detail or professionalism.
We are talking consistency for all outlets of your medical practice, what are some of the common healthcare marketing outlets used by doctors that could have inconsistent marketing?
- Logo
- Marketing collateral
- Social media
- Google and search platforms
- Business Listings
- Signage
- Digital Advertising
- Print & Outdoor Advertising
2. Reputation for Medical Practice Branding
Branding is an opportunity for private practice physicians to market their medical practice. Healthcare marketing involves networking with other healthcare professionals and potential patients. Your brand helps other physicians and healthcare professionals associate visually with your practice. You want your medical branding to be memorable, clean, consistent, and deliver a clear message. As a physician your brand is the visual way to represent your practice in business and marketing, your reputation depends on it.
3. Clear Message for Medical Practice Branding
The brand for your private medical practice should clearly define your medical specialty. Don’t over complicate your logo with long taglines or too many colors. Make sure that in a matter of seconds your website, social media, logo, etc. that a patient may be engaging with clearly communicates the vision and mission of the practice. Make sure everything that is on your physical and digital assists it consistently in line with the branding procedures you put into place.
4. Clean and Appealing Branding for Medical Practices
Make a good impression! Branding is the frontline of your healthcare marketing as a physician. Invest the money and design your logo in a legible, medical friendly font with 2-3 colors maximum. Blues and reds are among the most patient-friendly colors in the medical industries so choosing a variation of these can be a smart decision. Once you have a logo you can be proud of investing the energy in a website that will serve as the digital billboard and foundation of your digital brand. Carry these tips across social media banners, social media graphics & posts, advertising, etc. to keep everything consistent and clean.
5. Make Your Medical Practice Branding Memorable
The best way to get a memorable and creative brand is to work in conjunction with a healthcare marketing focused designer or team. Communicate how you want your brand to look and trust in their healthcare marketing expertise. You’re an incredible doctor and your referring doctors know that but if given a piece of marketing collateral do they associate your brand with your high-quality healthcare services. Use branding as an opportunity to differentiate your medical practice from other doctors in your profession.
Conclusion
In conclusion, invest in your medical practice brand message and graphic design. Branding says a lot about your practice and the physicians that are part of it. Be meticulous, especially early on in creating your brand, that it communicates your core values, medical approach and overall vision. Then once you have a brand in place you are proud of setting up processes and procedures to ensure they are adhered to in all aspects of marketing and advertising. Every 2-3 years sit back down and do an introspective evaluation of the brand positioning, competitors and the current local medical market and see if it may be time for a brand update or overhaul.
If you have a medical practice that is in need of a brand facelift or have been struggling to identify and strategize on what your brand should be and communicate Intrepy Healthcare Marketing is here to help. We have a team of branding and graphic design experts dedicated to growing health and medical related businesses and practices. We are here to help! Give us a call 678-250-4757 or fill out our contact form.
