Common Branding Mistakes That Health Practitioners Make

Branding can feel like a completely foreign language to many practitioners. But it’s also an important aspect of building a successful business.

There are several key mistakes that I see pracs making when it comes to their branding. Let’s take a closer look at what they are, and how you can get around them.

Common Branding Mistakes That Health Practitioners Make

Choosing green as a brand colour

If I had a dollar for every naturopath or nutritionist that came to me with green branding, I could retire!

Green is a common colour to associate with holistic health practitioners. But unfortunately, this means that every other practitioner uses green for their branding. The result = it’s impossible for you to stand out from the crowd if you do the same!

So unless green is the colour that you have to have for your branding, give it a skip. There are plenty of other amazing colours on the spectrum! Find one that resonates with you, your ideal clients and your work as a practitioner.

If you truly love and resonate with green as your colour, mix it up. Go for a deeper forest green, or add in a second complementary colour.

Hiding your face

One of the most common branding mistakes a practitioner can make?

Hiding your beautiful face away!

All of the pretty websites, fonts, logos and colours don't mean anything if people can't associate it with what you have to offer.

If you are a solo practitioner, you are the face of your brand - whether you like it or not. By using images of yourself, you allow people to feel more familiar with you and build trust in you.

When was the last time you popped up a selfie on social media or refreshed your photos for your website? If it’s been a while, start there.

Not investing in good photography

Photos are one of the biggest sticking points for many practitioners. It’s scary to get your photo taken, and many of us feel uncomfortable with getting visible and spending money before we’re making it.

But your brand, your website and your online presence needs you to invest in some good photos if you want to build professional success.

A batch of selfies will not serve you as effectively as high-quality photos that are created with your branding and ideal client in mind!

The good news? Getting professional photography doesn’t have to mean spending thousands of dollars - especially if you’re a new practitioner!

Consider working with a new photographer who is happy to offer a lower price package or who wants to build up their portfolio. Depending on where you live, you could get a good batch of photos taken for just $200-300 instead of $1000+.

It’s common for business owners to refresh their photos every few years anyway, so you can always get more photos taken in the future.

Using inconsistent fonts

Another common mistake I see is practitioners using inconsistent fonts across their marketing and online presence.

Using inconsistent fonts could mean that your fonts are inconsistent with:

• The branding you have for your business

• The message you want to convey to your followers

• What appeals to your ideal clients

• Each other - e.g. the font you chose for your heading doesn’t mesh well with the font chosen for the body text

So what fonts should you be using for your business? It depends on your branding and who you are as a practitioner. For example:

• Script style fonts show that you are creative and go with the flow

• Serif fonts are more traditional and give off a more clinical vibe

• Although popular, Comic Sans and Arial are not suitable font choices for most practitioners - they don’t add anything to support your branding. If you’re using these are your fonts, it’s time to look at refreshing your branding.

Changing up Canva templates constantly

Don’t get me wrong - Canva is a fantastic tool to use for your branding. I often recommend that health practitioners use the free version as a tool for creating images for social media, ebooks and more.

But using different templates and styles of images using Canva can mean your brand is confusing and unappealing to your potential clients.

If you don’t have the paid version of Canva that allows you to save your branding palette, it can take a good chunk of time entering the HEX codes. There’s also no guarantee that the elements are consistent with your branding.

When you use Canva to create images, you want them to be:

• Consistent with your colours, fonts and other visual elements that make up your brand

• Branded with your logo whenever relevant

• The right dimensions for their specific purpose - so you don’t want to spend time creating an amazing image for Instagram, only to discover it has the right dimensions for Facebook instead!

• Easy to adapt and reuse - so you don’t have to spend hours creating them every single week!

Looking to make your Canva tiles consistent with your branding? Check out this option.

Getting a logo that isn’t website-friendly

It’s tempting to get a website that is on the cheaper side from sites like Fivver. But you want to ensure your logo is optimised for use on your website – and ideally your social media channels as well.

The 3 things to look out for in a logo is:

• Standard size – 150 x 250

• PNG format

• No background – so it can be used on different coloured backgrounds

For social media channels and other uses, you may also want a submark – a version of your logo that is simplified but still visually similar to your primary logo.

Is it time to get your branding sorted?

I’m here to help you create beautiful branding that attracts your dream clients. Check out my branding and logo services right here.