Dentist Dr Kevin Mirasol (Philippines) is a dental marketing coach. He is the founder of Dr. Kevin Mirasol Pro Digital Marketing, a social media marketing agency for healthcare and business owners, and the founder of DDM Masterclass, which is dental digital marketing coaching for dentists. He has also developed various dental digital marketing products. He is one of the coveted speakers of the upcoming DRDCA 2020 International.
One of the greatest opportunities that social media offers, is the potential to build your dental brand recognition and customer-brand relationship.
But if you’re juggling between multiple social media channels, it can be a challenge to manage your dental brand’s image across social platforms. Varying requirements on logo/tagline, image contents, postings, visuals and more can stretch your time and lead to inconsistencies if not properly maintained.
So in this article, we cover the essentials of an effective dental social media brand identity.
First things first.
What is Brand Identity?
Brand identity is the collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its customer. Brand identity is different from “brand image” and “branding” even though this terms are sometimes treated as interchangeable.
Your DENTAL SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND IDENTITY is shaping a distinctive brand of your dental practice using social media.
Simply put, it’s how you manage your dental business image, brand identity, and market position across social networks.
So how do you develop your brand identity through all these social media channels?
What does it have to do with design?
And how do you shape a strong dental brand identity to take your practice to the next level?
Brand Identity Development
Know your brand purpose.
Before you know what tangible elements you want to make up for your dental brand identity, you need to know who you are as a dental practice brand.
Who you are as a brand is made up of a 3 important key elements:
- Your dental practice mission (what’s your “why?”)
- Your values (what beliefs drive your practice?)
- Your unique positioning (how do you differentiate yourself from the competition?)
These 3 elements define your brand, and before you start building your dental brand identity, it’s important you have a clear understanding of each.
If you’re having trouble figuring out who exactly you are, don’t sweat it. Sometimes, all you need is a simple brainstorm to help you get clarity on who you are as a brand.
Ask yourself:
- Why did I become a dentist?
- Which beliefs and values are important to us/me as a dental practice owner?
- What do we do better than anyone else?
- What makes us special?
- If we could describe our dental brand in three words, what would they be?
Once you’ve locked in your dental brand identity, it’s time to build the identity that will bring your brand to life and show who you are to the people who matter most: your patients.
Design
Design is the foundation of your dental brand identity.
Just like your Niké shoes built the brand identity of your sporty-athletic persona, your design is what will build the brand identity of your practice.
Your brand designs are the elements that will determine how your brand is perceived. Things like your logo, your tagline, social media pages, your social media graphics, your business cards and the uniforms your dental team wears.
In other words, nailing your design = nailing your brand identity = building a successful practice that’s an accurate representation of your dental brand in social media.
So, how exactly do you nail your design and build a dental brand identity that will take your practice to the next level?
Developing Your Dental Brand Design
Before you start creating your design assets, you need to start from the ground up and lock in the basics of your design structure: the foundation of your dental brand identity.
The foundation you’ll want to determine before you create your design assets include:
Typography
Typography refers to—you guessed it—the font (or type) you choose for your branding materials. It’s particularly important to choose logo fonts and brand fonts wisely.
Color Pallete
Next up is color. People—your potential patients included—have psychological ties to different colors, and using branding colors and logo colors strategically can have a serious impact on how your brand is perceived by your audience.
Form/Shape
When it comes to your designs, you also want to think about form and shape. This subtle but effective element that can be used to reinforce the desired reaction from your customers and social media audience: so, for example, a logo that is all circles and soft edges will inspire a very different reaction from a logo that’s sharp and square.
Once you’ve figured out the foundation of your design, it’s time to work with a designer to bring your dental brand identity to life and translate who you are as a brand into design assets you can use in your marketing. Your brand identity can be expressed in any number of elements. For example, your dental practice should put a lot of thought in their social media postings and layout.
Essentials Of Dental Brand Identity In Social Media
Logo
Your logo design is the cornerstone in your brand identity. When working with your graphic designer, you want to aim for your logo to tick off the following boxes:
- Clearly communicates who you are and what you value as a brand;
- Is visually appealing: simple, clean and uncluttered goes a long way;
- Is classic, not trendy: the last thing you want is for your logo to go out of style in 6 months;
- Plays along with dental industry’s standards—and if you veer off, do so deliberately;
- Makes a lasting impression on your audience.
Tagline
What Is A Tagline?
A tagline is defined as “a catchphrase or slogan, especially as used in advertising, or the punchline of a joke.”
When it comes to dental marketing, a tagline is your dental business' mantra; it tells people who you are and what you stand for in a few succinct words.
The purpose of a tagline is to create a positive, memorable phrase that sticks in your social media audience and patient’s head, that helps them identify your brand and your marketing message.
3 Tips For Crafting A Successful Tagline
1. Keep it simple
Most successful slogans are only 3-6 words long and get the point across without much thought. Ideally, your dental tagline should be six words or fewer .
2. Make it clear
There should be no guessing as to what your tagline means. In addition to being simple, it should clearly state the mission or purpose of your practice without any guesswork. If you ask some friends what they think, and they ask questions back, you did it wrong.
3. Give it meaning
A tagline shouldn’t be made just because you saw some famous dental practice or companies have one. If you’re going to invest the mental energy and marketing budget to craft a catchphrase, it should truly bring meaning to your dental brand. Otherwise, just skip creating one altogether.
Social Media Pages/Profiles
Your social media profile is one of the most representative aspects of your brand identity. Especially if your goal is to attract your audience, showcase your services or convert more potential patients, your customers will definitely check your page informations, reviews, content, cover and about section before deciding to do your business.
Your dental social media page is where your brand identity should come through in full force.
CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY TO SUCCEED
Maintain A Consistent Dental Brand Identity
Consistency leads to habits. Habits form the actions we take every day. Action leads to success. As Anthony Robbins said :
“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.”
More and more social media channels are making a shift to visual content. Think about it- Facebook and Twitter, born with a focus on text-based statuses, are now packed with visual content. Captions take a backseat on image-centric Instagram and Pinterest. LinkedIn allows sharing of images, videos, and infographics.
That’s why your dental brand’s visual identity is so important for your social media branding strategy. It helps create unity and recognition.
Thinking what to post or what type of content you want to publish on your dental social media pages? Get a copy of our cheatsheet the 105 DENTAL CONTENT IDEAS IN SOCIAL MEDIA- DOWNLOAD HERE!
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