Shorts: Is it worth investing in professional branding?
Your professional image may be helping or hurting your practice growth
Hello! I’m Nicky, the founder of Circe Health and Circe Studio. We bring modern business tools to holistic healthcare practitioners who are looking for sustainable success.
Are you taking time this summer to review your website? I have one last spot available for a website (re)design project in August, which will help you attract more online visitors and welcome in new bookings. You can schedule a quick call to chat about options. This is what others said about my work: “an utterly brilliant service”, “really tapped in to what potential clients are looking for”, and “an absolute dream to work with”.
Welcome to our third Shorts edition of The Well! In these newsletter editions I answer one question from you, our readers, in a bite-sized format so you get practical information in a short amount of time.
The Question
“I’m thinking about changing up my branding and wondered if it’s worth investing in professional photography, a new logo or my branding?”
The Answer
You know I’m all for making smart investments in the growth of your career! When you’re starting out or working with a small budget, it’s natural to focus your investments on essentials like training, insurance, or setting up your space. But your professional image is equally important to long-term career success, as it shapes how future clients see you before they meet you. Which makes it one of the most impactful way to reach new people and grow your client numbers.
It’s your job to build trust with potential clients before they walk into you treatment room. How to do that? Communicating through professional branding is one of the key ingredients. It’s also the way to differentiate yourself and build credibility. High quality, professional branding signals to people that you provide a high quality, professional service which may result in high quality, professional treatments. The reverse is also true..
And professional branding doesn’t need to cost the earth, especially in today’s world where there’s lots of online design tools that can help you with this. But it does require care, consistency, and a touch of external feedback is always helpful. Here’s my take on what branding elements to invest in, some tools to help you DIY and what to save for later.
Photography
Professional photography helps clients trust that you’re serious about what you do.
Studies show that brands using professional images are 35% more likely to be seen as credible, and those with consistent visual communication can see a 23% increase in revenue. High-quality images also lead to 50% higher engagement on social media.
The impact of professional photography is clear, but that doesn’t mean you need to hire an expensive photographer at the start. Ask a friend or family member with a good eye (and a decent phone camera!) to help you. Choose natural light, neutral backgrounds, and relaxed, approachable poses. Once you have photos, check with friends or colleagues and ask: do these images look professional? Do they match the warmth and expertise you want to convey? And if you invest in one thing when it comes to your professional brand, I’d say photography is the first to spend your money on.
Brand colours, fonts and styles
At the early stages, there’s no need to invest in custom branding and logo’s. But it is important to stand out in the noisy holistic healthcare space with branding that feels like a true reflection of who you are, the people you can help, and the quality of your work.
Many website building platforms can help you with branding that works really well, my favourite is Squarespace which is what I use to design website for my clients. Canva is also a great tool for brand inspiration, or websites like Coloors can help you find the right colour combination. My advice is to pick 2–3 colours you love, with one accent colour that stands out from the crowd, and stick to them. Do the same for fonts.
The key is consistency, so make sure to use the same colours, fonts, and style on your website, printed marketing materials, social media, and business cards. This builds recognition over time and shows your professionalism.
Graphic design
When it comes to logo’s and illustrations to use, I would hold off on investing in that if your budget is tight. Again, tools like Canva can help you find the right icons or illustrations and create a professional logo too.
Once you’re ready to grow your brand and have the means to invest, working with a graphic designer is a great way to upgrade your branding from DIY to something more established. And by then you’ll have a sense of what works from having done this yourself and the feedback from clients.
If you’re looking for recommendations of photographers or designers who can help you build a professional brands, let me know and I can share my short list!
Do you have a question you’d like to get answered in a future Shorts newsletter edition? Reply to this email or send it over to info@circehealth.co. And don’t worry if you have a bit of stage fright, I’ll keep it anonymous!