The Importance of Branding Your Eye Care Practice Website
Standing out in a competitive market is difficult, but without memorable branding to set you apart from other eye care practices in your local market, it can be next to impossible. Beyond having a professional logo, consistent branding will increase the value of your practice, generate new business, and give you a strong online presence.
As a small to medium business, you may be competing against big eye care brands, which is why it is essential to find ways to differentiate your eye care practice from the competition. And your practice’s website is a great place to start! A personalized website with a cohesive design and strong content solidifies your expertise and presents the opportunity to demonstrate what sets your practice apart from the rest.
Weak Branding Equals Missed Opportunities
There are consequences of having a weak or negative online brand. In fact, 75 percent of web users admit to making judgments about a company’s credibility based on their website’s design1. If you have an outdated or unappealing website, chances are, your visitors will be left with a bad first impression about your eye care practice. On the other hand, a professional online appearance builds credibility and trust among prospective and current patients.
Neglecting your brand robs your practice of the opportunity to tell your story and sell your services to website visitors who are trying to determine whether or not your eye care practice is a good fit. Brand neglect even gives your competitors the chance to get an upper hand and possibly poach your prospective patients with their stronger brand presence.
In the long run, if you do not properly develop your brand online, your organic search ranking could fall, making it more difficult for new patients to find your site online. Search engines assure web users that the websites returned in the results will be the best options for the inquiry. In order to build that confidence in the algorithm, an eye care practice must ensure search engines understand exactly who you are, what you offer, and where your eye care practice is located. These are all valuable elements of your brand. However, when used inconsistently they can cut down your practice’s credibility.
The Importance of Branding Your Eye Care Practice Website
Proper brand usage starts with developing a branding standard that outlines your overall branding package and how these pieces should be used on your website. This package could include your practice’s logo, colors, name, and slogan. Besides your practice’s identifying marks, also think about the use of color and appropriate stock images on your website and how those play into your overall brand. As graphic elements, logos should be used as an accent to your overall website design, rather than as the main focus.
Brand Messaging
Though an eye-pleasing palette and professional logo are important to establishing the visual side of your brand, it’s just as important to consider what your marketing messaging communicates and how that contributes to creating a strong, well-rounded brand. Often, businesses will use their website to explain why they are the best, focusing on awards, education and, technology while glossing over the needs and concerns of their clients or patients. While it is important to create authority and demonstrate industry expertise with your website messaging, one must also find balance between communicating what your practice has and addressing the information and resource needs of your patients. Determine what your target audience is looking for – and use the messaging of your website to describe how your practice can meet their eye care needs.
Information Consistency
Part of developing your online brand includes maintaining consistency among your eye practice’s name, address and phone number, commonly abbreviated as NAP. The NAP of your eye care practice should be listed the same across the internet. This is one of the most influential factors in ranking highly on the maps section of Google and helps develop confidence from search engines.
Brand in Action
The look and feel of your brand constitute the bulk of what many consider to be the branding package. The marketing and branding elite challenge this idea and insist that your full brand makeup extends to what you do with your brand. Regular updates to your branded website demonstrate that you are up-to-date and care about your audience’s experience. Prospective patients might also make the connection that a well-cared-for website is a sign you offer a similar high-level of care within your practice walls.
Beyond Your Website
Social media platforms and third-party review websites should also be seen as part of your online brand. Manage these properties in the same manner as your website – the logo, colors, and stock images should all be the same as they are on your website in order to communicate brand consistency. While regularly updating your website is important, the same care should also be given to your social pages. A lack of updates is very obvious, which gives visitors less of a reason to follow your social platforms or check for new content.
Want to get started on some of the benefits of branding today?
Now that we have explained to you how important branding is for your business, don’t be intimidated by the work you need to put into it even if you haven’t put much work into it yet. For one, branding is something that you really only need to worry about once, and thereafter you only need to worry about maintaining your brand by consistently using it in your marketing efforts.
iMatrix can help you with this. Our websites are incredibly easy to update and very user-friendly. We make it easy to keep track of how well your website is doing and your brand by extension.
Plus, if you don’t want to spend the time updating your website by yourself, we can help you with our full suite of online marketing solutions. Give us a call at 800.943.6423for more information or simply to learn more about what a strong website should do for you.
For more help on branding and building a better website, check out our free resources.
Looking for more tips on branding your eye care practice?
These articles can help!
5 Ways to Boost Your Brand on Social Media
The Importance of Color Continuity in Online Brand Building
Showcasing Your Brand When Responding to Online Reviews
Source: kinesisinc
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