7 Tips for Developing a Brand for Your Medical Practice

Medical Practice Branding Facilitates New Patient Acquisition

When you hear the word “brand,” your first association may be a cool logo or a clever tagline. Although a logo is a fundamental part of a brand’s identity, branding is much more than that. A brand defines the business as a whole. Branding is the association that is attached to a business and its customers. Or, in the case of your medical practice, the association between the practice and your patients. It is how people engage with your practice and describe their experience to others.

The ultimate goal behind every branding exercise is to get people to know, like, and trust your medical practice so that when the need for a healthcare provider arises, they think of your physicians and health providers first.

Ensure Your Medical Practice Keeps Pace with the Rapidly Changing Post-Pandemic World

The pace of change in technology, the economy, and society is reshaping the future of healthcare. When this crisis eventually passes, the healthcare sector will never be the same. So, now is the time for your medical practice to provide valued healthcare leadership by communicating clearly to help people understand what is happening.

You define your brand every day by what actions you take and the value you bring to the community. Use this opportunity to reinforce your mission – most of which probably revolves around caring for your community. Demonstrate how your brand’s medical mission corresponds with your efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease and treat patients stricken with COVID-19. Do the right things now, and you will strengthen your medical practice’s brand for the long-term while simultaneously increasing new patient acquisition.

Every practice is unique, but with over 230,00 physician practices in the United States, it is more important than ever before for medical practices to differentiate from the many other practices competing to acquire new patients. Practices that best weather the current storm will emerge in a strong position—and we want to help you do that with the recommendations that follow.

7 Tips to Help Grow Your Medical Practice and Attract New Patients

1. Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
   Merely providing excellent patient care or friendly service will not guarantee success in today’s competitive environment. To be successful, you must differentiate your practice by giving patients a unique reason to choose you over your competitors. Distinguishing your USP is one of the most vital factors in branding your medical practice. If it is compelling, your USP can set you apart from other medical practitioners and motivate prospective patients to select your medical practice over another.
   
   Look at your practice and determine what things make you truly different from your competitors. For example, if you have a state-of-the-art technology, not offered by your competitors, or are the only practice in your area offering a specific type of treatment or service, consider building your unique selling proposition around one of those features. Your USP should express the number one reason that a patient should choose you over any other healthcare provider.
2. Maintain Brand Consistency Across Platforms
   Make sure your medical practice brand is consistent across all platforms. Use the same logo, profile pictures, and color palette on your professional Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages as you use on your practice website and printed materials. In other words, maintain the same look and feel.
3. Be Recognizable and Memorable
   Your medical practice branding needs to be immediately recognizable and memorable for patients in addition to maintaining consistency across platforms. Your website needs to reflect the verbal tone and colors of your practice, and your social media channels need to be meticulously branded and share helpful information for patients.
4. Maintain a Clean and Visually Appealing Presence
   When it comes to your website, the goal is to motivate potential patients seeking your services to take the next step—contacting your practice. Therefore your site needs to be fresh, visually appealing, and highly readable. Also, social media marketing for physicians is vital to ensure your practice is connected to your patients’ social sharing networks.
5. Market the Medical Practice’s Reputation
   If your practice is just getting started, marketing could involve listing your office in local print and online directories and building relationships with nearby healthcare providers to encourage patient referrals. If you’re trying to grow your existing practice, you may want to focus on nurturing your social media presence and leveraging patient testimonials and online reviews.
6. Communicate a Compelling Brand Message
   How you communicate your brand message to engage your target market is at the heart of marketing. The primary focus should be on communicating your USP (how “special” you are, how you make a difference), and making a case for your desired brand identity. You want to communicate your brand message at every opportunity, effectively (e.g., advertising efforts, website design and copy, blog posts, marketing brochures, etc.).
   
   As previously discussed, branding is far more than your logo and the imagery associated with your medical practice. You want your practice to leave patients feeling positive and happy with their experience.
   
   A positive brand experience is exceedingly vital to any business’s long-term success, and that’s particularly true for medical practices. Remember, patients will not refer your practice to others if they aren’t delighted with your services and approach. And, just a few negative experiences can upset your brand credibility and betray the trust you’ve worked so hard to build. So, ensure you deliver a consistent patient experience.
7. Stay Relevant and Evolve
   As markets continue to evolve, and patients’ needs change, you should regularly review your medical practice’s branding and marketing strategy. You should evaluate how valuable your existing patients are, and it’s also wise to keep an eye on patients’ future potential. It may be worth nurturing a relationship with a potential high-growth patient. Working closely with your patients can help you identify ways to develop new and improve your existing services, enabling you to attract new patients.
   The times they are a-changing, and your patients are more educated and demanding than ever before.
   
   Innovation must be at the forefront of your healthcare branding efforts.