Branding is still somewhat of a non-starter for many businesses, both small and large. In this blog, we will discuss the topic of how to brand your nursing home and why branding is so important for your business.
Branding, in general, often means a color palette, a specific and recognizable visual identity, and a logo – that’s true, but your brand it’s much more than that.
Branding is the heart, soul, and spirit of business in visual form. It invites visitors into the story and allows them to feel something they can relate to. Although branding can be complicated, especially in the care-providing industry, there are basics you can start branding your business with, because it’s very important!
Nursing home branding is one of the most relevant items in your marketing strategy and the tool that generates people’s confidence and loyalty and at the same time builds your good name and reputation.
So, let’s find out what you should you to brand your nursing home and how to do that!
1. Identify the values
When we are talking about branding, values are at the very top of the priority list. That is even more emphasized when you want to brand your nursing home – a place where the values you nourish mean more than in other industries.
With every branding project, you need to fill out a questionnaire. The first thing you must do is identify the deepest values and goals of your business. Identifying core values is very important because it will guide all other decisions. The sooner you clarify what is most important to you and what kind of message you want to send to your audience, the sooner you will make progress with everything else. In simple words – by branding your nursing home, you are sending your business portrait out there – a picture that will attract and be liked by people.
If you are just starting out and want to start a business with a solid brand, ask yourself these important questions:
• Who do I serve best? Who do I want to serve?
• What do I do best? How can I use the information in the market for myself differently, in order to stand out?
• What values are most important to me?
Answers to these questions will give you a clear picture of what values your nursing home owns and represent, and want to share with the world (potential clients).
Advice: Be simple, be clear, be understandable, be approachable, and stand firmly behind your determined values. That is a path, the only right one, for establishing brand identity and its reputation.
2. Choose Simple and Meaningful Visual Content
One of the best aspects of branding is that your business will appear cohesive. Across all platforms and social networks, your online presence will look uniform and professional, thus building trust.
The most important visual elements of branding are:
• Logo – identifies your business quickly and professionally. A logo is like a movie trailer, and a brand is a movie. Take action – don’t dwell too much on the logo. If you create just go for simplicity. When in doubt, simple is always the best solution.
• Color palette – Maybe you’ve heard of the term “psychology of the colors“? Yes, that exists and has a great impact on spectators, by sending them a “subliminal” message and inviting them to take action, relate to something, express emotions, and so on.
Finding colors is one of the most fun and difficult things to do, especially when you want your colors to appeal to many people and not be overpowering. Consider focusing on 2 to 3 colors and using others that match them. Because we are talking about nursing home branding – you should consider white (white color symbolizes calmness, purity, and peace…), blue (the blue color symbolizes purity and stability, it reminds us of the sky, the river, nature…), light green (the green color is associated with health, prosperity, growth…)
Hope now you can understand why these colors are suitable for nursing home facilities.
If you find that you can’t decide between colors, choose something neutral and go from there. Use one or two colors to emphasize certain things and make them stand out, but stick to a simple and clean style. You can always change the colors later.
• Photos – The photos you use represent your business and are just as important as your logo and color palette. The photos you share can be one of the fastest ways to make you stand out as a professional or look inexperienced. They play a very important role in branding.
In the digital age, photos and videos are “telling a story”, in this case – your story, and you should make an extra effort into creating them, as well as your overall visual strategy, as a highly important part of branding.
Take action:
1. Hire a photographer
2. Subscribe to professional photos
3. Hire an expert in digital branding
3. Share content on social networks
A big part of developing a brand is through social networks. Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, you want the look, feel, and vibe of your presence to be cohesive. All of this comes through how you present yourself, how you talk to your audience, what language you use, and how you interact.
Be yourself, but be different. Even if you are new to the business, share everything you know honestly, generously, and always with the goal and intention of helping others. That is especially important in your line of work, where people put their lives and well-being in your hands.
Social media channels are god given tools to present yourself by using all advice given above.
4. Website promotion
Your website is one of the most important aspects of your business because it is the online platform where people will find you, learn about you, your business, and your services, and hire you.
When you are just starting out, having a website is very important in order to show your products and to have a place where you can collect information from potential clients.
Nursing home branding, as well as branding and marketing overall for any other business, needs to have a base. And that base is your website.
Website is your main marketing tool and its ground base. That means that it needs to be well-designed and properly optimized. Every other marketing channel is an upgrade – the website is a foundation.
Use your website to present meaningful blog content and publish it regularly. Make sure that your content is informative and valuable and that provides relevant and helpful information to potential clients. Blogs are also excellent content to place on social media channels – they induce high engagement and increase the community’s overall insight about your facility as well as their trust.
Post regularly new video and photo content – that will mean a lot to people who are searching for funeral home services online. That way they will have written and visual information, all in one place, and it will make their decision much easier.
5. A brand cannot be created overnight, it takes time
No brand can be created overnight, and that goes for nursing homes also. If you are determined to brand your nursing home properly, that will require time, consistency, commitment, and patience.
Knowing how to build a brand takes time and is vital to your success. When you start, even if it is already perfect and finished, it will take time for the audience to get to know you and gain trust in you, and become your loyal fan. Be patient and don’t worry if you think you’re lagging behind or that everyone else is moving faster than you. Step by step forward every day and you will get where you want to be.
Allow yourself to build your brand over time. Be consistent in providing an excellent level of care, get good reviews on Internet, be close to your community, let the word-to-mouth good reviews speak for themselves, and be always present and available for your current, previous, and future residents and their families, be open to questions and praise as much as for criticism. In other words – “collect” all those little positive feedbacks because, in summary, they are all important pieces of a puzzle that will ultimately create your brand image.
