Have you ever thought about your clinic, your laboratory, your studio, your company or your business as a person? As something profoundly sensory?
Have you ever wondered what feelings and emotions are you able to arouse in your customers?
Have you ever wondered if the public perceives your “brand” as a really existing person?
The personification of concepts is one of the fundamental steps in the development of human culture, just think of the pantheon of divinities of ancient Greece.
Our choices as human beings are only partially oriented by reason.
For the most part, they come from emotion, from the belly: we believe we are rational instead it has been shown that we are beings with limited rationality and only a small percentage of our daily choices are taken on a rational basis.
In the health field, this is true more than ever: both in joy (a birth, for example) and in pain (like the onset of disease) events cause a very strong emotion in those who live them.
This is why it is essential that your reputation, that of your studio, that of your brand is based on a solid identity that is able to create an emotional bond with the target audience.
You are probably thinking, “I am a doctor: talking about brands and communication is not about my profession, they are indeed expedients for those who are not good at their job”.
From your point of view, you may be right but we ask you the little effort to read this article to the end because as your job you never base yourself on the first impression but deepen to give your opinion, in the same way, this reading could reserve you some surprises.
If, on the other hand, you can’t really digest the fact that health professions may need a solid communication facility, you will find this article interesting to talk about ethics in healthcare marketing.
THE VISUAL IDENTITY OF YOUR BRAND
Scientific studies show that most information comes to us through a form of visualization. The visual channel is on average the most used to orient, understand, make choices. It has always been the one preferred by man to relate to the outside world.
Complex tales can be perceived as sequences of colors, shapes, images. Generally, this cognitive system is associated with the primitive phase of human development, when verbal language was not yet mature.
A healthcare brand does not simply sell a product. In reality, it does not even offer a service. Given the particular condition of the patient, the real offer is that of experience.
An experience generates emotional connections. How can we establish an empathic relationship with the people who come to us?
We need to find out who we are, what our social function is and to ask ourselves how people talk about us.
We can consider our activity as the equivalent of a natural person: for what characteristics is the public willing to fall in love with us? The sight? The voice? The concepts we express?
Understanding it is the first fundamental step for the evolution of our professionalism.
A brand is declined through a series of visual elements: the logo, the typography, the images, the website. Each of them plays an important role in attracting the public. Ask yourself if they are functional to make people understand who you are, what problems you solve and what you are different from.
Obviously, we must keep in mind that every means of communication has precise rules that differentiate it from others. Our coordinated image must be absolutely declinable for each output: web, paper, social media, radio, and television.
Fundamentally communication sciences, neurosciences, human brain studies today do nothing but reiterate the concept expressed in an ancient adage:
an image is worth a thousand words!
What’s better than a powerful, organic, persuasive image to express the emotional strength of your brand and invite the public to action?
WHAT IS THE VOICE OF YOUR BRAND?
In the panorama of modern communication, it is not uncommon for our corporate identity to be expressed through various means, including the audiovisual sector.
We are daily inundated with promotional videos in which coaches and consultants present their strategies to us. How many of these inputs have we ignored because of an unpleasant voice for us? Or simply not convincing enough?
The union of different languages is certainly a winning card, as long as each of them is treated in detail.
A brand that wants to impact deeply on the public must be represented by a voice that perfectly embodies the image it wants to project of itself. Often fundamental elements such as the soundtrack of a video are left out. The choice of an opening jingle, the choice of the song that accompanies our images and our words must be made with care and paying the utmost attention to the consistency and general credibility of the message.
As we have seen for the images, sound events are of fundamental importance in stimulating the subconscious mind of those who pay attention to our audiovisual media. Are we sure to pay enough attention to the voice of our brand?
WE HAVE PRODUCED PERFECT IMAGES AND MEMORABLE SOUNDS. BUT IS IT ENOUGH?
It is easy to see how the answer to this question is “Absolutely not”.
Even when the image and the sound are perfect, their value is purely decorative if not accompanied by concepts that are profound, understandable and useful to the user.
A self-respecting brand that wants to represent the equivalent of a natural person will have to take care of its appearance, its voice but above all what it says.
The choice of the right words, the perfect mix of scientific information and evocative strength are the key elements for effective communication.
What are the words on which it is right to dwell?
What are the words to use most often?
What are the words to avoid?
We are what we say but not only. We are the union between what we say and how. Our articles, our posts on Facebook, the texts of our videos, the way we address patients vis a vis must be absolutely consistent and determine who we face no longer the need but the desire to be in our presence.
As seen in this article, which investigates why patients today are often inclined to change doctors or therapists, we must be able to take care of them, inside and outside the studio.
THE PARADOX
If we wanted to translate the concepts expressed in this article with a single maxim, effective and easy to keep in mind, we could say that:
Quote: To get more patients into our facility, we have to do the impossible to keep them out.
This means that the greater our efforts to generate a state of well-being even outside the studio (online, for example), the greater will be the trust we will be able to instill in the public and push it to go to us when a situation occurs discomfort or illness.
