Branding is key to setting your therapy business apart from others on offer. It can give you the chance to communicate the qualities you stand for to potential clients and build both trust and loyalty. As the visual representation of your business online and the first point of contact for new clients, it’s vital that your website is branded.
The aim of any website is to create an online image of an enterprise, promote and sell products and services, attract, and engage with new clients, generate future business leads, and ultimately, increase further return on investment. For these goals to be successfully achieved, every business must have a brand message that is clear and consistent and builds both trust and loyalty with its growing client base.
Brand specialists working alongside you can help develop a consistent look and tone of voice that is unique to the therapy services you offer. Once you have created a brand, it can be rolled out across all areas of your enterprise that connect with potential clients, not just across your website, but on social media platforms, online advertisements, and printed marketing materials like informative brochures or business cards.
What exactly is the brand of a business?
A brand can be the character, an approach or even the tone of voice used on your therapy website. Put in simple terms, a brand communicates a value that is always consistent and specific to a single idea regarding you as a therapist and the way you work. Your brand can be made up of many parts including a logo design that must always be used in the same way over all marketing materials, an established typeface with associated typographical guidelines about how it should be employed, a consistent set of colours that are used alongside a chosen design style, and for written communications about your therapy services, a consistent tone that can be identified as yours.
Engaging with clients through your brand
Every component of your therapy website should allow your clients to engage with your brand and convey the same look and feel. This may include the tone of voice and kind of content you publish on your website’s blog. Consider how you wish visitors to your site to feel when they read your content and ask yourself, is it in line with your brand? Does it help build the image of the therapy business you wish to create?
Meticulous attention to detail is essential when it comes to branding your therapy website. Consider the colours used in your brand and how they will make your clients feel. Your site is focused on mental health and wellbeing so be mindful that selected colours will have a different impact on visitors, with pale tones creating a sense of peace while bright hues on white space can feel bold and positive. Even the shape of icons used on your site are part of your brand, if your website uses a typeface with rounded characters, then all icons should follow suit to create a cohesive look.
Social media links will no doubt be represented on the header or footer of your website so make sure that all attached accounts also feature your personal branding. If clients click on a link and find it uses different colours or an older logo you previously used, they will feel the lack of consistency even if they don’t understand it. Remember that consistency is crucial for building trust with your clients.
Why is branding your therapy website essential?
Strong branding has one major benefit and that is recognition. The more potential clients recognise your branding, the more familiar it becomes. With familiarity, both confidence and trust are formed, key elements of any therapist’s work. Branding that is conducted correctly with clarity and consistency can enhance the relationship between you and your clients and create loyalty to your brand, building your therapy business. As this type of trust can take time to develop, it’s essential to establish a strong and consistent branded message that distinguishes you from other therapists in your field immediately. Therapists with websites that are not branded, can potentially lose clients to competing therapists who understand the importance of branding.
