Is Your Brand Consistent or Chaotic?
When a prospective patient discovers your medical practice online, is your brand consistent? If they see a social post, visit your website, download a free resource, and read an article you wrote for an online journal, do they see a consistent look, feel, and message in all of these places? Or do they get confused? What happens when they visit your office? When they walk into your waiting room, do they know they are in the same place they discovered online?
Brand consistency is what makes your medical practice stand out in the crowd and what makes your practice memorable.
…and being memorable is what makes prospective patients (and even current patients) think of calling YOU when they need help.
This article gives you some tips on how to create brand consistency—for yourself and your medical practice.
Your Colors
Do you have a color palette for your brand? Your color palette should include 3-5 colors that show up consistently on your website, your downloads, your social profiles, your printed materials, and in your office.
If you do not have a color palette, start with your logo. Look at the 2 colors in your logo. Identify their hex codes. The hex codes are the 6-digit alpha-numeric codes that define each color. You can do this with the Image Color Picker tool.
Then consider what additional colors might complement your logo. Look at other materials you already use. Is there an image on your website that captures the feel of your practice and includes colors that complement your logo?
If you have an image with colors that capture the look and feel of your practice, upload that photo to Canva’s Color Palette Generator. This tool will pull colors from the image and suggest colors that complement each other.
Once you have chosen a color palette of 3-5 colors, save their hex codes. When you go to create marketing materials, you can easily cut and paste your hex codes to keep all of your materials on brand.
Your Photos
Do you have a professional headshot? Get one. Or even better, have a professional photo shoot to capture a series of images that represent the look of you and your practice. Have a photographer come to your office and photograph you in your space. Include the colors from your color palette in your branded photos.
Once you have a photo of yourself that is consistent with your brand, make sure to use that image across all of your online platforms. Use that photo as your profile picture on your social media platforms, on the about page of your website, and on your bio when you do interviews, podcasts, or guest blogs on other sites.
You can also create an avatar that will follow you around the web to a variety of different websites. Go to gravatar.com, and load your photo. This “globally recognized avatar” will show up on WordPress and other sites when you comment or interact.
Your Website and Profiles
Once you have your colors and some branded photos of your practice, use them on your website. Stock images are perfectly fine to use as well, but sprinkle in some images that are truly your own.
Also, double check each of your social profiles. Use an image from your branded photo shoot as the cover photos for your business page profiles. Use the same headshot for all profile pictures.
Your Marketing Materials
The last step is to keep your brand consistent not only online but also offline. If you offer free downloads on your website (I call these lead magnets or freebies), make those PDFs look consistent with your brand. Look around your office. Where can you include the colors of your brand? Look at the forms and handouts you give to patients. Adding a splash of your branded color is probably enough to keep a consistent look and feel to all of your materials.
The very best tool to design branded materials (for non-designers) is Canva. When you purchase the professional version, you can save an unlimited number of hex code colors for your brand and easily use them in any of the materials you create.
