Connie Hopper explores how you can make sure your practice’s branding is in the right place to make the best start to the new year…
Once upon a time it was predicted that by 2020 we would have ape chauffeurs, teleportation would be possible and that C, X and Q would not be part of the alphabet.
Clearly, trying to predict the future is a tricky business.
And when it comes to the end of the year and you’re looking ahead to 2020, it can be difficult to know what the future has in store – particularly amid the uncertainty there is both in and out of dentistry: NHS contract reform, Brexit, the upcoming general election, etc.
But, thankfully, you don’t need to be able to predict the future to look at ways in which you can make next year even better than this one.
Your practice’s branding is one of the things you can control and change to make sure it is doing the best job possible for you.
In the practice you are surrounded by your branding all day long – it’s the uniforms you wear, the colour scheme of the practice, the posters and leaflets in the surgeries and waiting room, the signage outside, the way you answer the phone…
The danger with that is, it becomes so familiar that you fail to really notice it any more.
Often, the best starting point when it comes to looking at what you could do differently is to take a step back and ask yourself, ‘is my branding fit for 2020?’
What impression is it making on those who it isn’t familiar to – will potential/new patients who are seeing it for the first time instantly understand the kind of practice you are? And will they want to join your practice on this basis?
These kinds of questions are always useful but particularly so if your branding hasn’t been updated for a while. Of course, you don’t want to be changing it constantly and consistency is an important part of running a stable business, but reviewing where you’re at and making simple updates can help to make sure you don’t look old fashioned, or as if you no longer care.
For example, it can be as simple as looking at the leaflets and marketing literature in your practice and making sure they are accurate in terms of treatments you offer. You can also make sure that their design and layout is clear and modern, and that they look clean and not tatty.
These are simple measures, but think about how a practice with old-looking, faded posters advertising treatments or prices that you no longer offer would come across to patients. It probably wouldn’t be the impression you wanted to make.
The other part of your branding that it is important to pay attention to is your website. We live in the digital age and there is no sign that the public’s use of social media, mobile phones and the internet is abating – if anything, it is increasing.
So, it is absolutely vital that your website not only reflects the core values of your practice in terms of it’s messages but that it is easy to use and allows patients to easily contact you.
For this it needs to look good – with a clean and simple layout, and it needs to have a clear navigation for visitors to find what they’re looking for. It also needs to have a way for patients to contact you, ideally a web-form, if not then a phone number or email obviously displayed.
And it needs to be responsive, so that it can be easily viewed on any device. More and more people are using their phones to search for things like their nearest dentist, if your site doesn’t work on a mobile, the chances are they will click off it and move to the next one that does.
So, while 2020 might not be the year we all start teleporting, it could be the year that your practice takes a leap in terms of its digital presence. When it comes to branding, that will continue to be key to being a practice that attracts patients and stays ahead of the competition.
