Important Aspects of Building Your Brand For Your Medical Practice
What Every Physician Needs to Know
A lot of people don’t realize it but the choices you make in everyday life are based on effective branding strategies. Whether it’s the Dunkin Donuts you grab for all your staff because “America Runs on Dunkin” or the Panera Bread sandwich you have for lunch because you only want to eat “food as it should be,” the only reason you know of those establishments is due to their effective marketing efforts by way of subliminal suggestions or word of mouth. You may not realize it but those types of marketing campaigns, although they’re simple enough, can spread as fast was wildfires.
So, just like Dunkin Donuts and Panera Bread are businesses, your medical practice is a business too. In order for your medical practice to thrive and be successful, you’ll need to understand the importance of building your brand and establish brand recognition. Thebalancesmb.com talks about how branding your business will is an important aspect of distinguishing your company from the rest.
This is an important aspect of your practice because if you don’t take the time out to create a brand for your business, your patients definitely will and if you’re not careful, they’ll create one for you that’s not very favorable.
What Every Physician Needs to Know About Their Medical Practice
So the time has come to get the ball rolling. It’s finally time to put things in motion to get your practice up and running. Here are a few things you need to do to and what to expect when people start a professional relationship with you.
Hire the Right People
When it comes to your practice, you want to make sure you hire only people who demonstrate the utmost care and compassion as well as a level of expertise to provide your patients with the proper care they need and deserve.
In order to hire the right people, you want to look to search engine platforms that allow you to hire the right people according to the specialty of your medical practice. This aspect is important when hiring doctors, nurses, and medical assistants. You may not realize it but your staff is part of your brand too. Pretty much, any staff member who comes into direct contact with your patients, you want to make sure they are taking good care of them and representing the company in a positive manner.
Keep Your Branding Message Consistent
You want to keep your brand’s message consistent with the business’ philosophies and principles. For instance, if your practice’s principles are based on improving the quality of life of your patients, then you need to make sure your practice embodies that message from the pictures you put on the walls to the attitude your employees have. You can even have a team meeting with everyone to come up with ideas for your brand’s message if you don’t have one in mind already.
Once you have this, you’ll want to narrow it down to a few words that resonate with your practice. Choose words that describe the personality, purpose, and professional standards you want to implement in your practice. For example, it could look a little something like this:
Julia K. Foster OB/GYN
Trusted. Friendly. Women’s Health.
Establish Credibility for Your Business
The next part of your branding process is to make your business credible. The words you’ve chosen will essentially be the foundation of your brand’s message. Now, in order to become credible, your practice must live up to the expectations that your brand is saying.
If your brand says that your practice is trusted and friendly, then you need to ensure that your staff embodies those characteristics in every way possible. This is really your reputation on the line and if your practice displays anything inconsistent with those characteristics of your brand, it will come off as superficial.
Put Your Brand on Display
This is when it’s time for your practice to smile for the camera and make its debut. You want to look at all avenues to get your name out there. Do you have business cards? Does your practice have a business page on social media? Utilizing social media as a marketing outlet is actually a great way to promote brand recognition but a lot of businesses make huge digital marketing mistakes on social media like inconsistency with posts or overloading newsfeeds with posts.
The overall message with putting your brand on display, whether you have elaborate signage outside the building or great social media accounts, you need to have a strong branding message. Remember, your brand shouldn’t be a pitch to get people in… it should be a proclamation to serve patients with quality care. If you do that, the service you provide will speak for itself.
