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Brand matters. It’s the reason you buy what you do when you go to the supermarket, why you choose certain products over others. It’s why when you think of chocolate you think Cadbury’s, when you need to wrap a gift you get the Sellotape or when you want a tissue you grab a Kleenex.
The best brands are the most memorable ones. Those that have instant associations in your mind and those which conjure up powerful memories.
Brand matters. It matters for consumer products and it matters for your aesthetic business. The stronger your brand identity, the more clients you’ll attract.
So just how do you create a strong brand identity?
What is a brand identity?
First, we need to understand exactly what a brand identity is. Is it a shiny logo and a memorable name? Is it an attractive colour palette and a catchy strapline?
Or is it all that and more?
A brand identity is the WHO, the WHAT and the HOW. Think of your business as a person – who it is, what it looks like and how it acts.
A strong brand identity is made up of several different components, both visual and verbal. The include:
Verbal:
- Your unique tone of voice
- Your personality
- Your story
- Your values
- Your mission and vision
- Your value proposition
- Your key messaging
All these essential components of your brand identity are then combined and deployed across your aesthetic business – through website design and content, business cards, signage and much more.
Visual
- Your logo
- Your iconography
- Your colour palette
- Your style
Why is a strong brand identity important?
A strong brand identity is the difference between your clinic standing out or being lost in the crowd. It’s the difference between a prospective client remembering your name and getting in touch, or Googling a competitor and booking a treatment with them.
A strong brand identity:
- Instantly captures your audience’s attention
- Immediately resonates with prospective clients
- Sums up exactly what your business is all about
- Connects yourself, your team and your clients
- Increases your conversion rates and number of bookings
- Is unforgettable
A strong brand identity helps you build a successful, profitable aesthetic clinic business. And it all starts with understanding exactly who you are.
Step 1: Understanding your who
To attract more medi-aesthetic clients with a stronger brand identity you first need to figure out exactly who your brand is. What are your personality traits, how did you get here, what are your values, what’s important to you, what are you trying to achieve?
There are lots of questions to answer.
Take the time to think about who you are, and whether you want your brand to reflect you as an individual. Many aesthetic clinic brands are built on the personality of their owner-operators.
But you don’t need to. You could build your brand identity around a completely different personality type.
Focus on:
- Key personality traits: Are you chatty or focused? Are you happy or serious? Are you down to earth or do you want to remain detached? Do you want a professional, medical feel to your brand or a friendly, helpful feel? There’s no right or wrong answer.
- Your story: What brought you to set up your own business? What’s your history, your experience, and how have they made you the person (or the brand) that you are today?
- Your values: What’s important to you? What matters more than anything? How do you want to treat your clients and your staff, and be treated by others?
- Your tone of voice: How do you want to sound when you communicate? What kind of impression do you want to make? Are you warm and friendly? Are you chatty and descriptive? Are you blunt and to the point? Again, remember there’s no right or wrong answer.
Jot down words, phrases, similar brands you like, people you admire – anything and everything that springs to mine. Sift through it and you’ll start to spot trends and similarities that will help you see exactly how you’d like your aesthetic brand to act and how you’d like it to be recognised by your clients.
Sometimes it can be difficult to be so self-reflective. You could ask friends and family for input, or bring in external branding experts to help identify the key traits you want to capture and portray.
Step 2: Identifying your why
Next, you need to give your brand identity some real substance. Some backbone to your personality.
A big part of who you are is the reason you’re doing this. The passion and the drive that you have. You need to capture this and make it part of your identity.
Focus on:
- Your mission: The main goal you’re trying to achieve with your aesthetic clinic business.
- Your mantra: The reason you get up every day, your driving force.
- Your vision: Why are you an aesthetician and a business owner? What do you want to change in the world?
- Your promise: What are you going to do for your customers? Why should they choose you?
Answer all these questions and you’ll see the groundwork for the most powerful part of your brand identity – your messaging.
You’ll see the key points that your brand needs to get across to your clients through a value proposition, a strapline line and key marketing content.
Then you can start to create that, focusing on what will help you stand out, what will keep your prospective client’s attention and get them to click, and what will stick in their minds.
At this point, you should be able to answer the question:
If I am your ideal customer, why should I buy from you and not another aesthetic clinic?
Step 3: Defining what you look like
Now you know exactly who you are and why your brand should exist, you can take that and apply it to your visual identity – to what you want to look like.
Once you know your personality, your logo can capture it on paper.
When you know how you want to sound, your brand style and colour palette can reflect that.
By focusing on your verbal brand identity first – on your who and why – it will be quick and simple for your designers to bring your brand to life.
They’ll know exactly what approach to take, what colours will work, and what they should steer clear of. They’ll know if your brand should be bright and airy, or more muted and understated.
If you have a focused, no-messing around brand, your logo and styling will be sharp and to the point. If you want a friendly, more casual brand, your logo and styling might be more open and inviting.
Step 4: Deploying your new brand identity
Finally, with your verbal and visual brand identity in place, you can deploy it across all your marketing channels.
You can see what works, test different messaging, and update logos based on feedback from your target audience.
You can put your brand out there through:
- A powerful, eye-catching sign above your clinic
- A striking website with attention-grabbing headlines
- Intriguing and engaging social media posts
And together, they’ll all showcase your strong brand identity – everything your clinic is, everything it stands for – and help you attract more clients to your aesthetic business.
Looking for more help and advice on building a brand and marketing your aesthetic clinic? Check out our aesthetic marketing hub for dozens of free resources and download our free guide to marketing your aesthetic clinic.
