A dentist might not be the first profession or business that you think about when the subject of business branding is discussed, however, a dental practice or dentist can benefit every bit as much from good branding as any other type of business.
That might not seem to be the case at first, and many people question why a dental practice needs branding. After all, ‘Surely it is large multi-national companies that branding applies to?’, they may ask.
Sadly, that is exactly the mistake that many small and local businesses make, because whilst they may not operate on the same scale as a large, national, or international business, they can benefit from many of their practices.
One of those practices is branding, and if a dental practice can ensure their branding is done correctly, it can bring many benefits to it, and that includes increased numbers of new, and loyal patients.
Branding need not cost a fortune, and more importantly, the return on investment can be impressive. There are many ways in which effective branding can help any business, including a dental practice, and here are three of the most important.
Easily Identifiable: Due to them often having small marketing budgets local businesses, including dental practices, rely a lot on their existing customers and clients recommending them to others. That would be helped enormously if the brand that your dental practice has is a memorable one, that is also easy to pass on to others.
Imagine the difference between someone recommending ‘Dr. Anybody, the Dentist’, compared to a dental practice called ‘ Smile-A-While’, which also has an extremely memorable and identifiable logo, with a tagline such as ‘Saving Smiles One Tooth At A Time’. Ok, it may not win any marketing awards, but it is more memorable than your competitors who merely use the dentist’s name as their brand.
Loyal Customers: Just as fans of sports teams associate themselves with those teams’ colours, mottos, emblems, and badges, the same principle applies when it comes to customers and clients. It is much easier for them to identify themselves as a client of a dental practice if that practice has some kind of identity too.
Whilst they may feel some loyalty towards an individual dentist, if that practice has a colour scheme, a logo, and any of the other components that make a brand, then the relationship and the loyalty they feel towards it are enhanced.
Enhanced Trust: Think about any product or service you might purchase and imagine what your thoughts might be comparing two different providers of them.
One has a memorable name and you immediately recognize its brand as soon as you see any marketing, advertising, or social media that it might have published. The other you have never heard of, but you see an ad in the local paper so you thought you would check them out. Of the two, which do you think gives you greater confidence that they are a company that can be trusted, and will do a good job?
Now they might be on equal terms when it comes to customer satisfaction, but as one has a superior brand, and may even be a household name, it is thought the more trustworthy of the two. This applies as much to dental practices, as it would to any other sector, and given that it relates to personal health, trust is an even greater commodity than it might be otherwise.