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A Quick Guide to Brand Building for Your Healthcare Business​​​​​​​​



Branding is a marketing practice that creates a unique, cohesive, and easily identifiable business image. It can help a company gain a competitive edge by allowing customers to distinguish it from its competitors easily. Brand building for healthcare professionals can help your business stand out from the crowd, expand your customer base, and foster trust and loyalty among existing customers.
 

The Value of Brand Building for Healthcare Businesses


Whether you run a physical therapy business or provide mental health counseling services, you can leverage branding to your advantage. A brand is built on many elements, from logos and slogans to customer service and reputation management.

Ideally, every element of your healthcare business – from the presentation of your website to your interactions with patients – will contribute to and support a particular brand image. These diverse elements should complement one another to establish a strong profile that tells patients what they can expect from your business.

Branding can help further foster trust among consumers. When a person can quickly recognize a brand and produce positive associations with it, they may be more likely to support that brand. Trust is the second most crucial factor for consumers in supporting brands, second only to price.

Trust may be even more critical in the healthcare space, where consumers are putting their mental and/or physical well-being into your hands. Building a trustworthy healthcare brand takes time and consistency. It starts with your branding materials (like your website), which build a brand promise. Your healthcare services delivery must then live up to that promise (for example, how you treat patients).
 

Healthcare Branding 101


So, how can you leverage brand building for healthcare to your advantage? Here are three actionable tips.
 

Clearly Define Your Brand


Write down what makes your brand unique. Part of this is related to the products and services you provide. For example, you don’t just have a physical therapy business; you focus specifically on helping patients recovering from auto accidents.

However, your brand may be also defined by other aspects. What makes your healthcare business different? Why should patients come to you? If you asked a current patient why they chose your brand, what would their answer be?

Define your healthcare brand according to its value proposition. Your unique selling points could include aspects like:
  •  A welcoming atmosphere (as demonstrated by your friendly team).
  •  Affordable costs (as seen in your acceptance of various insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid).
  •  Family-friendly service (as seen in the dedicated play area for kids in your waiting room).
Note how each point includes a concrete example. Your brand should live up to its promise, so make sure to define that brand accordingly.
 

Implement Your Brand Consistently Across All Channels


Once you’ve identified your brand’s unique selling points, think about how to convey those. Your business website may be a starting point. You want to uphold a consistent brand message in terms of content, imagery, slogans, and logos.

Decide the following when brand building for healthcare:
  • Content: What pages does your website need (e.g., the welcome, services, about, appointment scheduling)?
  • Tone: How do you want to address website visitors (e.g., a more informal and friendly “you” versus a more formal third person)?
  • Visuals: What images will support your brand image? For example, if your business caters to kids, you might include cartoon images and animations in bold colors. If you deal with patients with potentially life-altering conditions (e.g., you offer in-home nursing care to terminally ill individuals), a more sedate appearance may be more fitting.
This could be the time to choose a logo, color palette, and slogan for your business if you haven't already.

In addition to implementing your brand on your website, it should also be implemented across all advertising and marketing channels you use, including social media, thought-leader articles, blog posts, and more.
 

Ensure Your Brand is Upheld in Practice


When brand building for healthcare, the various advertising and marketing materials you put out create a promise. Your healthcare business should live up to that promise in practice. This can be reflected in your business’ actual physical presence and policies and procedures.

Let’s say you own a physical therapy business. You’ve defined your brand as being friendly and approachable. You strive to minimize hassle for patients. You also pride yourself on your focus on preventive care. You want to demystify healthcare for your patients, help them stay healthy, and avoid more serious issues and costly treatments.

How can you uphold this brand image when patients arrive at your office? Your office design might use the same color palette as your website. It could also feature the same logo and slogan on signage and documentation, like patient intake forms. You also might have a policy that staff greets patients by name when they arrive, creating a welcoming atmosphere.

Further, you might offer branded brochures in the waiting room covering helpful educational topics. You can rephrase online content towards this end – for example, taking a blog post about ergonomic workspaces and transforming it into a printed brochure. Finally, you might make it a policy that your team handles the insurance paperwork for patients, delivering on your promise to minimize hassle.
 

Healthcare Business Coverage from HPSO


As you can see, brand building for healthcare isn’t just about creating a clever logo and slogan. It’s about creating and delivering a cohesive experience for patients to make a memorable and favorable impression of your business. Whether it’s a matter of website content, marketing materials, or in-person advice, you want to be able to give your patients fact-based medical information with confidence.

Small business insurance for healthcare businesses can help, covering everything from professional liability to general liability issues, according to the policy. Depending on the insurer, you may also gain access to online resources to help mitigate risk in your healthcare business.

Get a coverage quote.​
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