Whatever your practice, a strong and healthy brand is always good for business. It gives you competitive advantage over your competitors by distinguishing you from others in a way that matters to customers and influences the buying choices they make.
Your health and wellness practitioner brand is a vital business tool that influences choice by reflecting the relationship between you and your clients and the value you exchange as a result, while branding is the building of those relationships in the market.
1. Define the value you wish to exchange with your client.
The true value to be exchanged through the brand relationship is not set by one side or the other but must be agreed between you. The asking price, which you require for the exchange to be profitable, is a useful starting point for defining value. Then you must consider how your client is likely to rate the benefits you offer, if this accumulated value matches or tops your asking price, and whether your client is likely to pay it.
2. Identify and target your best customer.
For your brand relationship to work, it is vital that you carefully choose to target only your ‘best customers’, those invaluable clients who deliver the greatest benefits to you and your practice. A business that deals with too broad a mix of customers will struggle to profitably realise the value in many of its transactions. A best customer, on the other hand, will add predictable and significant value to the exchange and deliver the premium you require.
3. Identify and fix your best customer’s key problem.
People buy from other people to fix the key problem they face at that time and to enjoy the benefits that result. Potential customers are more likely to become best customers when they consider that choosing your brand helps them to fix their key problem and delivers them significant value.
4. Identify and fix both the practical and social dimension of your customer’s key problem.
Customers make their choice of brand based on both the functional and direct (the practical) benefits it provides as well as how it makes them feel about themselves and others (the social) benefits. In a competitive market, it’s how you fix the social dimension of your customer’s key problem that adds real value and greater profitability to the transaction.
5. Provide the information your customer requires to make their choice.
When customers are considering what to buy, they will search for information to qualify their choice of brand. Make sure that brand assets, such as your premises, website, social media profiles, and brochure-ware, provide your customers with all the information they require to make an informed decision around how you help them to fix both the practical and the social dimensions of their problem.
All great relationships are built step by step, so take these five simple actions and you’ll make huge strides in building strong, healthy, and resilient brand relationships with your clients that deliver you both the benefits and the enduring value you require.
Gerard Tannam is Founder of Islandbridge, a brand planning and strategic development company
Need a helping hand in building a great brand?
Gerard has packed his Branding Guide with all the practical insights, tools and techniques you’ll need to stand out from the crowd and stand up to the competition.
Download your complimentary copy here
Main – Photo by Alesia Kaz on Unsplash
