Can Your Branding Make Or Break Your Business?

Is your brand feeling a little lacklustre right now? Or are you considering up-levelling your branding because you’ve heard it can make the world of difference?

A brand that doesn’t fit you or your business has the potential to push away the clients you want to work with. But a brand that fits you like a glove can attract the right clients and convey who you are as a practitioner.

Let’s take a closer look at why branding matters and what you can do about your branding to make it top-notch.

A quick refresher on branding

We’ve chatted about this previously, but just in case you haven’t been around long, let’s talk about what branding is.

Branding is not just your logo. It is everything that is associated with your business – including visual, audio, written and more.

The colours and words you use on your social media and website are branding. The stock images you put up on a blog post and your business cards are branding. Even the clothes you wear to the clinic are a form of branding.

Branding is a tool that you use to help followers to feel engaged and connected with you. The stronger the connection, the more likely it is that they will work with you or recommend you.

How the wrong branding can hold you back in business

If the goal of branding is to help people to put trust in you, it makes sense that quality matters. If your brand is inconsistent, scattered all over the place or changing every few weeks, it’s going to sabotage that goal.

Don’t think the wrong branding makes that much of a difference? Ask yourself if you want prospective clients to feel these as a first impression of your business:

• Unprofessional

• Unpredictable

• Vague

• Disconnected

• Generic

• Forgettable

• Just like everyone else

If you don’t want to convey these to potential clients, you want to sort your branding out ASAP.

How the right branding can build the business of your dreams

Now we know that the wrong branding can be detrimental to your business. But what if you have an amazing brand that is a perfect fit? Can the right brand lead to a wildly successful business?

In my experience, yes it can, simply because branding makes it easy to market yourself.

Marketing can be a struggle for many practitioners. But it is one area of business that we really can’t avoid – after all, you need to have clients for your business to succeed!

One way to make marketing a breeze is to have consistent branding.

Why does the right branding make marketing simple?

• It makes you stand out from every other practitioner or clinic out there – even if your services are identical

• You can create branded templates or get photos taken that you can re-use again and again

• A well-designed brand will tell your prospective clients who you are as a practitioner

• Consistency encourages people to recognise you, which builds trust

Keep in mind that there is no ‘perfect’ branding colour, visual style or tone of voice. What is wrong for one practitioner may be ideal for another.

You might prefer to be quite relaxed and chatty on your social media posts, but another practitioner might prefer using it to educate in a professional manner. If it’s a fit for your personality and for your ideal client, you’re on the right track.

Crafting the right branding for your business

Now you know that a consistent brand that reflects you as a prac is a no-brainer. But if you’re not happy with your current brand or are crafting one from scratch, what do you need to do?

Putting together a brand can be a challenge, particularly if you’re not a natural at design. But there are a few points you want to tick off when creating a brand that suits your needs:

Get clear on what your brand is at right now - Do you need a full overhaul, or do you just need to decide on one element? Does it come down to picking a consistent palette of colours or does your website need a tweak?

Figure out your core messaging – what is it that you are trying to convey to potential clients and the general public? How can you communicate that with your branding?

Decide on visual elements – this includes colours, graphics, photography style and any props you have in photos or around the clinic

Keep it consistent across every platform – use Canva templates with your colours for social media posts, make sure your website elements reflect your brand, and use the same tone of voice across the board

Is your branding all over the place? Ready for a brand that you love?

Make sure you check out my branding package here.