Savvy Practitioner 7 | Position Yourself As An Expert

The Savvy Practitioner is focused on giving you the tools you need to fulfill your potential as a clinician entrepreneur. Join host E Brian Johnson and Dr Meghan Walker, founder of Clinician Business Labs, and learn how to maximize your impact and your income. In this program, we're going to show you how to get control of your personal brand, position yourself as a go-to expert and use it to grow your practice.

EXTRA! For more details about how to develop your brand and get step-by-step instructions and exercises, make sure you watch the live recording of the Savvy Practitioner Brand DNA Event with Dr Meghan Walker, Dr Kristy Lewis, and E Brian Johnson on Nutramedica.

Key Takeaways

Branding Is More Than A Logo 
Your brand is a multi-dimensional representation of who you are as a practitioner and the patients you serve. Your brand is represented by design elements like fonts and colors, but really it is more about your positioning in the market and your core messaging. It is your identity as a professional and the niche that you work within.
 

Shift in Care
Patients used to pick a practitioner because they were on the way to work and they had a gorgeous-looking clinic. Now patients Google search for “Who's the best person for my hot flashes?” or “Who's the best natural health doctor for my acne?”. Patients want to access the best practitioner for their condition. Once Google serves up the local practitioners that meet the search criteria, patients will make their decision based on the quality of the website, patients’ testimonials and reviews and often, social media content. This is all about your brand.
 

Know Your Audience 
It's important that as you are defining your brand that you have a really clear understanding of who your audience is.  You must create messaging that not only accurately represents who you are, but also resonates with your audience.

There are different components of your audience. Here are three key elements you must understand clearly:
 

• Your target market: Your target market is the group of people you serve.
  Example: Women who visit natural health practitioners.
   
• Your niche: Niches are smaller, more specific groups within your target audience. It’s often defined by the problem you solve for your patients.
  Example: Women who struggle with fertility.
   
• Your ideal client avatar: Define the individual who has that problem, their demographics, their psychographics, as well as any and all other information you can gather. Start with where they hang out online, what they like to do in their spare time, and who they are as people.
  
  Start by asking your current patients. Get a detailed sense of who they are and what they care about. Ask them why they choose you. Do this with an anonymous questionnaire so you can be sure you are getting unbiased and objective information about your strengths and weaknesses.
   

Benefits of Branding 
When you create a strong and intentional brand in the marketplace, you create different opportunities for yourself in the future. These opportunities can help grow your business and increase your impact. When you establish leadership and expertise in a certain area, other practitioners will want to refer their patients to you, businesses will want to partner with you, and media will come to you for quotes. A strong brand will open up a whole new world of opportunity.
 

Own Your Own Name 
If you don't own it already, buy the domain that is your name.
Why? Because here's what's going to happen. You're going to be on a podcast, or you're going to be on Instagram Live or you're going to be at a dinner party and someone's not going to remember exactly the name of your business. But they're going to remember you and they're going to go to Google and they're going to look you up. That's their first opportunity to really interact with your brand. You need a place where people can land that reinforces who you are and what you can do for them.
 

Social Media 
Some practitioners are leery of social media, however, the fact is your patients use social media A LOT! Find one social media channel where you're able to share consistently and tell your story to amplify what you can do for people.

You don't have to show up on those other channels, but own your name on them because when you are a big deal, someone else is going to own your name out there and you're going to wish that you captured it. Trust me.

 

Key Quotes
 

“If you don't lean into developing a strong brand, your brand is going to get developed for you and you're going to have no control. Branding is not your logo and your colors or any of those elements. Your branding is the three-dimensional essence of who you are as a business.” Dr Meghan Walker

“It's really important and a compelling component of the brands we are creating, that we showcase ourselves as people, not just businesses.”  Dr Meghan Walker

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The opinions expressed in this Nutramedica program are those of the guests and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Nutritional Fundamentals For Health Inc.

This video is intended for licensed or registered health professionals and students of health professions only. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Information contained in these programs is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.