Why Doctors Should Focus on Building a Personal Brand

When physicians manage a healthcare practice and are the provider, there is a lot of emphasis on building the clinic’s brand and reputation. Spreading the word about their practice with perfectly designed advertisements and marketing strategies so the right patients will make appointments takes a lot of time, money, and effort. And while it is essential to have a highly visible brand for the practice, a personal brand is just as important. 

Personal branding for a physician is useful and effective. It differentiates physicians from their competitors and directly emphasizes their unique, relevant, and superior skills that affects their professional reputation.

A personal brand connects physicians with patients, shares captivating patient success stories, inspires referrals, and builds a positive image. It will pique the interest of potential patients, leading them to find out more about a physician and their practice. Ideally, this leads them to the practice where they can easily book an appointment, converting a lead, into a patient. 

There are a lot of positives that a personal brand can do for physicians. 

Critical Need for a Personal Brand

In the fiercely competitive world of healthcare, it is not enough to just have a website or optimized local listings where people can read about your accomplishments and credentials. Establishing a personal brand allows a physician to build trust before a patient even books an appointment. Not only does this lead to more quality patients, but also it builds a relationship with those patients. This tends to open up dialogue between patients and providers. 

A personal brand also allows physicians to control their online reputation. By putting information about themselves online for everyone to see and read, there is no room for misconstrued information. Transparency is exceptionally important to patients, so the more open and visible their provider is, the more likely they will trust their doctor.

Being transparent about credentials, training, success stories, and having 5-star patient testimonials available to potential patients is important. Having the “right” information about who a physician is reduces the number of questions they receive at an initial consultation, which allows doctors to spend more time treating patients as opposed to explaining who they are. 

Crafting an “Elevator Pitch”

Because physicians find themselves introducing who they are to patients every time a new appointment is booked, it is important for physicians to perfect their “elevator pitch.” 

A lot of times, physicians think that this kind of pitch is only used for business connections or networking events. However, every time a doctor needs to differentiate themselves from other providers, having a 10-second “pitch” is an ideal way to distinguish themselves and their practice.

It is, in fact, networking. Physicians are the business, in the eyes of their patients, and each patient is a new lead, or “client.” They are networking to build their practice, their reputation, and business. Having a quick, easily digestible, and compelling message is a crucial part of personal branding. Memorable key phrases are often repeated by patients and colleagues.  

Again, there is fine-line between crafting a clear, memorable “elevator pitch” and sounding too self-promoting.

How to Properly Promote Yourself:

  • Start with the fundamentals: Give value and understand your patients’ needs. Giving your audience the reasons you care about them is meaningful. Also include why you are different from your competitors. What is unique about your services or care you provide?
  • Understand your audience: Know what language will resonate with your patients and use words that are clear, memorable, strong, and engaging. Phrases that evoke strong, positive, emotional responses will provoke interest and a desire to learn more. 
  • Stay focused: Target your audience’s interests, goals, and circumstances while sticking to one singular, focused idea. This idea should be something that sets you apart from your competitors. 
  • Keep it simple: Use specifics as opposed to general ideas, but keep stories and metaphors simple and brief. The whole “speech” should be about 30 seconds long. 
  • Be thoughtful: Write your speech thoughtfully and intentionally to get your point across in a genuine way. Be sure to get their attention and keep it by showing some enthusiasm.

The most important thing to remember is that the more the “elevator pitch” is used, the better it will be and more natural it will roll off the tongue. 

Build Your Personal Brand

In addition to working on a professional brand, the Valet Health team can also help develop a strong personal brand for physicians. Online reputation management, social media optimization, and content creation are part of the LaunchPad and LiftOff service solutions. 

To learn more about how you can leverage a personal brand, schedule a consultation today!