Branding essentials for therapists

You might think that your business is too small to benefit from branding but, if used consistently, it can help everyone to establish themselves with clients and help with your marketing. 

What is branding?

It’s something that represents the personality and goals of your business.

You might think that all therapy businesses have similar goals and personalities, but they don’t. Look at this:

• Mabel is in her 50s and trained as a hypnotherapist late in life. She wants to specialise in working with ladies going through menopause.
  
  
• Fred is in his late 20s and although he originally hoped to be a professional rugby player, this has been made impossible by a knee injury. He would like to use hypnotherapy to coach amateur and professional sports teams.

Given even this brief bit of information, do you think they should choose similar colour schemes or images for their websites? Will they use the same type and tone of language in leaflets or on social media? I’d say not, and the difference is the beginning of their branding.

Branding is not just the visual presentation of your business, for bigger brands especially it can also include the charities or political viewpoints they ally themselves with, and the strengths or benefits of using the products that they present to customers. If you run a small, part-time business from home, your branding might not go as far as charitable or political affiliations, but having consistency in the way you present yourself across all public channels helps potential customers to recognise whether you’re the right person for them.

Branding doesn’t have to cost a fortune, if you invest some time and thought into it. Here are my top tips.

Top tips for creating your brand

Do some market analysis

This is a rather grand way of saying work out who your ideal customer is and find out how to reach them. Where do they go? What are they interested in? What problems do they see themselves as having that you can help them solve? What motivates them to address those problems? 

Know your competitive advantage

Again, a rather formal way of saying that you need to stand out from the crowd. Therapists are like take-aways. We tend to cluster where there are customers, so you are always likely to have competition. Look at what others are offering and work out what should make people choose you over them?

Keep your branding congruent with your business personality

If you are all about relaxation and calm, there is no point in decorating your website with vibrant sporty images and Day-Glo colours. On the other hand, if you want to energise your clients, that might work. 

Get the right name

Your business name is part of your branding. Choose one that reflects what you do and who you are, and that your customers will find appealing. This might take you back to step one – do a bit of market research by trying out several names on people in your target customer group.

To keep your business name unique and avoid copyright issues, try Googling it to check that no one else is using it. It’s probably best to avoid names that are hard to give out over the phone, or those which can be spelled in several different ways, as customers may struggle to find you when searching online. And remember, there are some words which have restricted use by law. 

To find out more, check out MY TIPS ON NAMING YOUR BUSINESS.

Stay consistent

Use the same style, font, and colours across all your marketing, including websites, social media, leaflets etc. I use the same photo of myself on all my online listings so, if people find me in more than one place, they know it’s me that keeps popping up on their screen. (Update your photo every few years as well, especially if you often change your personal ‘look’.)

Logos can be handy to help with consistency and can be had for a relatively low cost from websites like fiverr.com if you aren’t very artistic yourself. 

Build a brand kit

To help with consistency, put together a brand kit. This is a set of ideas, a bit like a storyboard, in which you collect all your brand ideas together. It should include

• A logo 
• A tag line – a slogan or phrase that encapsulates your brand in a few words
• A colour palette – do a quick bit of research on colour psychology to help you choose
• One or two fonts – one for headings and one for the body of pages, posts and emails; there are articles online about which fonts go well together 
• Style templates for things you will use often – for example, templates for social media headers and posts, leaflets, letters, emails, business cards, PowerPoint slides etc. that have a similar look and feel, so you can just drop different content into the basic format. You’ll be able to create a lot of these templates yourself using a site like Canva.  

Creating this will take some time, but once you have it you won't need to keep making style decisions. 

Communication

When you post on social media, write an email or leaflet, or chat to people on the phone establish your voice. Are you chatty and friendly? A bit zany? Formal? Authoritative or collaborative in your approach? All this is part of your brand, so think about it before you pick up that phone or write that Facebook post.

By giving some thought to branding you can increase engagement with potential clients, start to build rapport before you even speak to them, and show that you take your business seriously no matter how small it is. 

Let me know your top tips for cost-effective branding in the comments below.

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Author: Debbie Waller is an experienced hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy trainer. She is the author of The Hypnotherapist's Companion and Their Worlds, Your Words and a co-writer of the Hypnotherapy Handbook, all of which are available from Amazon.
Find out more about Debbie's services on
Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training - multi accredited hypnotherapy practitioner training, taster days and foundation levels.
CPD Expert - accredited CPD and other therapy training (online and workshops options), expert and qualified hypnotherapy supervision