Branding for your dental practice can include your logo, color selection, themes, tag-lines and anything that visually represents your practice. A well-branded dental practice can cultivate new patients, and achieve a recognizable place in your community, while a poorly branded practice can make it difficult to market your practice.
When building your dental practice brand, here are a few simple mistakes to avoid:
Mistake: Unbranded Social Media Accounts
A clear visual identity is hugely important when creating a memorable brand, and it’s important that your dental practice spreads brand awareness by branding your social media accounts. It’s a huge mistake to leave your social media channels unbranded, or worse – inconsistently branded.
Solution: Update Your Social Media Channels
Take time to update all of your social media channels with your dental practice logo, or any other visual markers that help identify your dental practice. Be sure that your visuals are consistent across social media platforms, and that they are in line with the tone of your dental practice. Don’t forget to keep cover photos and other graphics consistent.
Additionally, make sure that your name, address, phone number and website address are also listed correctly and consistently across platforms. This will make it easier for patients to connect with your office, and schedule an appointment.
Mistake: Unclear Brand Values
According to a recent poll, 64% of people cite shared values as the main reason they have a relationship with a brand. What are the guiding principles of your dental practice? Think about what makes you unique among other practitioners and specialists in your area. If you can’t come up with a clear answer beyond simply improving oral health, then your brand values may be difficult for your local audience to identify – and that’s a huge problem.
Solution: Brainstorm and Share Your Values
Dedicate some real time to reflect about what your dental practice stands for, and how your brand wishes to impact the community. Ask yourself “What does my dental practice value? What do we believe in?” If you can find some basic principles or purposes to align with, then you can begin to communicate with like-minded patients and connect with them in meaningful way.
Mistake: Lack of Community
It’s important that dentists build a relationship with their local community, and those that ignore their local community are at a severe disadvantage in today’s market. Did you know that 80% of consumers are more likely to evaluate solutions from the brands they follow on social media? This underscores the practical importance of building an engaging social media community.
Solution: Post More on Social Media and Reach Out Beyond Your Practice
If you haven’t already, begin posting more frequently on Facebook and Instagram, and begin to share your dental practice’s personality. Make personal connections with some of your social media followers by responding to comments, and taking time to answer the occasional question.
But, community doesn’t end with social media. You can also cultivate an online community by adding an educational blog to your dental practice website. You can use your blog as a way to inform patients about popular topics in pediatric dentistry, and as a means to boost your local SEO impact.
Mistake: Inconsistent Brand Experience
Have you considered how patients interact with your brand? We call that a brand experience, and a consistent brand experience is vital to your dental practice. An inconsistent brand experience can rub patients the wrong way, and confuse them – and that’s a huge mistake.
Solution: Hire a Pro to Manage Your Brand
If you use one logo in your dental practice office, and a different one on your social media channels, then you have an inconsistent brand experience. While that is one of the most obvious cases of brand inconsistency, there are countless ways in which brands create inconsistent brand experiences.
An inconsistent brand experience can be difficult to diagnose, but Smile Savvy is here to help. Smile Savvy provides comprehensive branding solutions as well as hands-on social media management to help our clients create rewarding brand experiences for their customers.
