May Meeting of Health & Wellness Business Owners

Our May meeting focused on branding a health & wellness business. We began with  the discussion questions posted on our Facebook page, which included:

• What are some words or phrases you’d want people to associate with your brand?
• What tools do you think you can use to define your brand?
• Does your current brand target your ideal clients? If you’re still in the planning stages for your brand, do you think what you have in mind will reach your ideal clients?
• What is the basis/foundation/spirit of what you want to teach or provide?

We also reviewed our definition of brand. All too often, “brand” is confused with “logo.” Your company’s logo is only a small part of your entire brand. Instead, think of brand as a uniform message about your company.

Entrepreneur.com breaks the act of branding down into four focus points:

1. Consistency in advertising
2. Customer service
3. Public relations
4. Your willingness to use the internet

Personal vs. Professional Branding

Next, we took a look at the difference between personal and business branding. As small business owners, this line is often blurred. For most of us, we are our companies. How does this affect branding and marketing? Things can get dicey, especially when dealing with social media (more on that later). The important thing to remember is everything connected with your company should reflect your brand. Should you choose to personalize your message (you should!), it is important to keep things professional.

How do you draw the line between personal and professional branding? Do you even try?

Remember, you have a built-in advantage larger companies lack. Personal branding humanizes your organization. Those larger companies are always looking for ways to use personal branding, but you are already in a position to do this without looking awkward. Make the most of your opportunity!

Branding Tools

We discussed a few tools that are helpful for building your brand. These included:

• websites
• blogs
• social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, HootSuite and Sprout Social (for social media management)
• marketing materials
• event attendance
• online profiles (enthuse.me and about.me are examples geared to creative professionals, but there are others. Are there any that focus on your industry?)

Branding Strategy

Finally, we discussed where to begin. Branding needs to be part of your marketing plan, but it cannot take up all of your time. After all, your goal is to work with clients and help them live their healthiest lives. How do you get organized and figure out what steps to take to build a strong brand?

Begin with this branding strategy:

1. Create a one line mission statement or tagline to include on all of your marketing materials

2. Start a blog (assuming you have a website, your blog can be part of your main site)

3. Launch a social media campaign on ONE platform

The best way to keep #2 and #3 organized is to create a schedule. Your blog should be updated at least twice a month and your social media account(s) one time per day. If you can update more often, go for it!

Once you decide how often to post, choose themes. This helps you stay on track with posting and keeps things cohesive. For instance, a chiropractor could choose a blog and social media theme such as chiropractic care for athletes. The bi-weekly blog entry would discuss the benefits of chiropractic for athletes and the corresponding social media posts could focus on famous athletes and chiropractic, sports injuries and chiropractic, and so on.

It might take a little while to hit your stride with blogging and social media, but your efforts will be well worth it. As you begin to feel comfortable, add new social media platforms to your strategy.

Simple and Focused Branding

Finally, keep this in mind: you do not need to appeal to everyone with your brand. Trying to make everyone happy just waters down your mission. Focus on your target clients and create a message that appeals to their interests, while still maintaining your business goals.

If you have any questions or you need assistance putting together a branding strategy that includes social media, blogging, or anything else, please let me know.

See you at the next meeting!