When we think of brands, flashy ones like soft drinks and apparel tend to be top of mind, but the power of branding reaches every branch of our economy, including the healthcare sector. An effective logo and name for your medical practice are among the foundational basics of healthcare marketing, but these are only the beginning. Branding is a continuous effort: it’s been said that “a brand is delivering on a promise … consistently.”
With ongoing promotion, medical branding showcases what your practice is about, and speaks to its strengths. Your practice may indeed be the best choice of care provider, but your target audience will not know this without effective branding. People have many practices to choose from, and how you differentiate from the rest helps you attract the right patients.
Evaluating how patients perceive your medical practice is essential to achieving practice growth goals. If you haven’t done much more than choosing a name and logo, it may be time to implement strategy that makes your medical practice branding more effective.
“A brand is delivering on a promise… consistently.” – Unknown
Benefits of Healthcare Marketing
The medical practice operations to-do list is already endless – so, what justifies devoting time and resources to marketing and brand strategy? The answer: if you don’t, all the hard work your medical practice already does to provide quality care remains unknown to the public. Everyone on your team is working hard to build a great practice, and with healthcare marketing, this will no longer be a secret.
Infusing your practice mission and what makes yours exceptional into your marketing sets you apart from other providers. By communicating what makes your practice different from the rest, you help patients make the best choice for their individual healthcare needs.
People have many practices to choose from, and how you differentiate from the rest helps you attract the right patients.
What is a Medical Practice Brand?
While a name and logo are essential components of a brand, branding actually refers to everything that shapes public perception about your medical practice. It is the entire experience a person has with your practice, whether they become a patient or not.
Branding is about communication. Your website, ads, social media activity, and any other media that features your practice constructs the public image that makes up your brand.
Medical website design is also a highly effective branding tool. The colors, images, and text used on your website tell patients who you are and what you are about. When it comes to helping patients discover who you are, clarity is critical.
Elements of a Medical Practice Brand
As one of the core basics of healthcare marketing, branding makes a lasting impression through continuous communication. When we notice examples of effective branding, it tends to convey the following attributes of a medical practice:
- Mission and purpose: Why the practice was founded, and what it strives to do for the community it serves.
- The people who make up the practice: Who you recruit fosters the personality and character patients will resonate with.
- Medical practice values: Your guiding principles are the compass. Being true to your values reflects in your branding.
- Promises made: Related to practice values are the patient expectations you can set and fulfill.
- Medical services: What is your practice here to do?
Depending on how crowded your particular segment of the market is, patients can be easily overwhelmed with how many providers there are to choose from. A strong brand identity generates those distinctions which can help patients choose a provider.
Medical practice differentiation is especially crucial when specialties provide non-urgent services. For example, a patient who will need a procedure sometime within the year has plenty of time to deliberate. When a patient revisits this decision, impactful branding helps patients remember you.
Medical Practice Differentiation Exercise
Differentiation is essential for establishing a strong medical practice brand. The questions below will help extract what sets you apart:
- What is the mission? Why was this medical practice created and what all does it aspire to achieve?
- Observe the branding of your competitors. How do they compare to other medical practice and to yours? What comprises their digital presentation and how similar does yours look to theirs?
- What kind of staff have you built, and how do they deliver day-in and day-out?
- What do you uniquely provide that patients want (unique selling proposition, or USP)?
- What would current patients say is your best feature or why they chose you?
Effective Medical Practice Branding is Authentic
For example, Texas Hearing Institute (an iHealthSpot client) uses original photography on its website as opposed to stock images. A site visitor will see real people involved with this practice. This practice’s involvement with the local community also comes through loud and clear between its website and social media posts.
The modern patient is looking for a practice they can trust, and they can often detect overblown promises and inauthenticity. Attract the right patients for your medical practice by having truthful and genuine brand messaging.
Medical Practice Branding is an Ongoing Commitment
This quote says it best: “Over time, your brand is the sum of your kept promises.” Your brand helps guide your medical practice, and in turn, your medical practice operations strengthen your brand. Consistent messaging is one of the essential basics of healthcare marketing as it reinforces your brand.Keeping your medical practice aligned with the original mission fortifies the brand. While a medical practice marketing agency is equipped to help with outreach, branding is most powerful when there is buy-in from everyone on your team. You achieve this by recruiting talent who can carry out this mission and coaching all stakeholders to meet the expectations set by your marketing.
Thousands of Medical Practice Brands are Powered By iHealthSpot
If crafting a brand and planning a marketing strategy seems complicated and overwhelming, you’re not alone. Thousands of medical practices across the nation have turned to iHealthSpot to help maximize brand impact with logo design, award-winning medical website design, social media management, and medical practice advertising services.
Build a brand strategy that is best positioned among the competition and attracts the right patients. Call (877) 709-0999 to get started on building a winning medical practice brand.
