Part Three - the importance of branding

Before we get into this week’s “module” a few news items:

Please see above a copy of the NIMH logo which Jane Gray has kindly authorized for use on your websites. The logo must be used as it is, without any modification. You might want to have a separate page devoted to NIMH – it will be fairly easy to do as you can cut and paste text from the NIMH site!

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  Do please put on your News Page (or indeed create a News Page if you do not already have one) a notice about Herbal Medicine Week and a link to the NIMH page http://www.nimh.org.uk/news-and-events/news-and-press/herbal-medicine-week-2009 - I am doing a press release on HMW and it will help to have lots of webtraffic on the topic. You might also want to have a weekly post on HMW between now and 21st May (the start of HMW) to keep up the momentum.



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  Has anyone had trouble editing their pages? There seems to be a problem with GoogleSites where the editing facility fails to appear. If this happens to you please let me know.



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  Glen Elliott has linked everyone’s site on his website http://www.lindenherbalhealthcare.co.uk/ - why not check it out and put a reciprocal link to Glen on your site.



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  On your links page why not put in a link to your local newspaper (they are bound to have a website – just type the title into Google to find it). They will know immediately that you have linked to them, and they may be flattered enough to give you some publicity (especially if you put in a paragraph about them, emphasizing their good points). Also if you feel you have got your website to a stage where you want to start publicizing it, send a short press release to your local papers announcing a new local website for local people (they will either print it or they won’t). If for any reason you get a call back asking if you want to buy some advertising just politely tell them you would like to but at the moment you have no budget and you simply can’t afford it (be firm).
  
  Now to this week’s topic: Websites and Branding
  
  This session will look at branding and visual impact.
  
  Because branding is such a wide issue this session relates to much more than just your website, so apologies if I am telling you things you already know.
  
  Why is branding important?
  
  Success as a medical practitioner (and indeed in all sorts of human enterprises) depends upon trust. If people trust you they will come to you for advice and treatment. If they do not trust you then it doesn’t matter how good a herbalist you are, no-one will come near you.
  
  Building trust obviously depends upon many different aspects, but there is a common theme of consistency (also known as “integrity” – literally integrating everything together).
  People trust things that are familiar. Making something familiar depends upon being consistent. Not only consistent in the way you treat your patients, but also consistent in how your practice looks (both on-line, and in printed material and in signage etc), how you answer the phone, the ethics and morals your practice adheres to etc.
  
  Making your professional image consistent is called Branding. Every time you present yourself (in your surgery, at exhibitions, in the labels on your bespoke medicines etc) you should use the same branding you have decided for your practice. Therefore it is important that your new website fits into your brand image.
  
  The best brand images are usually very simple. You should aim to have a limited number of brand elements in place and to always use them whenever you interact with the public. Only in exceptional circumstances should you ever change your brand image (as you will be negating all the time, trouble and expense you have gone to in building up the brand in the first place).
  
  Also remember that a good brand image can be worth a lot of money – not only can it bring you more patients and help you to keep existing patients, you might want to sell it at some point in the future (if you retire for instance).
  
  Some elements of a brand image:
  
  Brand name – this is the name of your practice. It can either be your own name (Jennifer Smith Medical Herbalist MNIMH) or it can be more of a trade name (Herbal Solutions or Herbal Habitat etc). Many people agonise over their brand name and try to incorporate a play on words (eg Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder) but usually once you have chosen a brand name you are comfortable with there is very seldom any serious marketing need to change it.
  
  Logo – this is a symbol that always appears with your brand name. It is not essential for you to have a specific symbol as simply using your brand name in a particular typeface can be used as a logo (this is called a “logotype”). As this course is using free resources wherever possible, we will use “clip art” for our logos, but bear in mind that millions of people around the world will be able to use the same clip art symbol. In the longer term it might be better for you to pay a graphic designer to create master artwork so you can be sure no-one else will use the same symbol. But for now we will use clip art. Go to Google Images and type in the name of whatever symbol you want to use (a lion, or a sunburst or a herb etc) followed by the words “clip art”. Give some thought as to what sort of symbol would best represent your practice and then see of there is a free clip art version available. Do make sure the image is completely free for you to use, with no strings attached. I have found http://classroomclipart.com/cgi-bin/kids/imageFolio.cgi?direct=Clipart/Herbs&img=12 but there are many different options available just by typing “clip art” into Google Images and having a look. If you are punctilious you can also do a search on the UK patent office website to check whether any other medical practices are using the same logo, but at this stage it is probably not necessary (certainly if you were to commission your own artwork I would advise doing a trademark search and will be happy to advise you when you reach that stage). Note: I have Photoshop and if you want your clipart logo modified in any way (change colours, add words, delete bits etc) send it to me and I will see if I can do it.
  
  Tagline – this appears whenever your logo appears, and is a short one-liner that conveys your core marketing message. For instance L’Oreal’s tagline is “Because you’re worth it” and this appears whenever the L’Oreal name appears. Taglines go in and out of fashion, and it is your choice entirely whether you feel a tagline is necessary to your brand image. Taglines could say something about herbalism (“a kinder alternative to orthodox medicine”) or geographic (“serving the people of Bradford for fifty years”) or say something about you as a practitioner (“qualified medical practitioner”). Unlike brand names and logos, taglines come and go, so you can be fairly relaxed about their use.
  
  Corporate typeface. There are literally thousands of typefaces available for you to choose. You should probably avoid using the Microsoft typefaces of Arial and Times New Roman simply because they are so ubiquitous and may make your site look bland. However you should also avoid using very esoteric or rare typefaces as this might cause problems if you need to get some printing done and the printer doesn’t have your typeface, or you want to place an advertisement and the magazine doesn’t have your typeface etc. Generally if a typeface is on Microsoft Word it is probably well-known enough to use. Many organizations choose two typefaces – one they only use for headlines and one they use for bodycopy. To refine this further, a headline is often “sans serif” and body copy usually has serifs (see http://www.webdesignref.com/examples/textex.htm for an example of the two). There are many strong opinions about when you should use serif and sans-serif typefaces but in my opinion this is mostly a lot of hot air. You are in charge and you should use the typeface(s) you are happy with. Just use one or two typefaces you think reflect your personality and stick with them. However I would advise against using more than two otherwise your site may look a little messy.
  
  Corporate colours. Colour is extremely important in conveying brand image. Red for instance is the corporate colour of Coca Cola, whereas blue is the corporate colour of Pepsi Cola. As with typefaces, there are many strong opinions about how colour should be used. In my view colour should be used sparingly but consistently. A coloured double line appearing on every page is often more effective than having everything reversed out of an intrusive background colour. But that is just my opinion and I have often been told I am wrong! To choose your corporate colour go onto http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/html_colornames.asp and choose one (or possibly two) that you like. More than two might make your site look messy (unless you are a very skilled designer). Remember that colours seen on screen will look different when printed on paper, so for instance “Blue Violet” will have an RGB code of 138,43,226 but if you wanted to print this colour in a brochure you would ask the printer to show you a sample of how he/she has matched it, and make a note of the “CYMK code” he/she uses to recreate the colour so that ever afterwards your printed colours will match.
  
  Page layout
  Few of us have had any training in design, and yet there is free access to good designs all around us. Start looking at magazine pages and observe the way the pages are laid out - where the headlines are located, how big the the photographs are, how the blocks of text are arranged. Everytime you see a page you like tear it out and reproduce it as a webpage on your site with your text and your photographs - this way you can have an expert design reproduced on your site without paying a designer.
  
  A few more suggestions
  


• The eye gets tired when reading on-line so try to make lines between eight and twelve words across - any more and the eye struggles to find its way back to the start of the next line.
  


• There is much debate about whether to use “long copy” or “short copy” on web pages. Generally I think you should use short paragraphs for introductions, but don’t be afraid to have pages of text. You are serious medical practitioners and so people will expect to see learned articles on your site (not on the Welcome page perhaps, but in sub-pages). If someone is really interested in a long article on eczema for instance they are likely to print it out and read a hard copy.
  


• You might want to add to your notebook (the one you started to record all the passwords and usernames you are going to collect) a style guide for your site just to remind yourself of all the colour codes, point sizes and logo rules you want to keep to.
  


• Don't be disheartened when you see websites better than yours, After a lot of hard work and struggling you might be feeling very proud at having FINALLY got a something onto a webpage where you wanted it etc and then you click on a website (possibly by another herbalist) that seems so effortlessly beautiful it makes you want to give up. This is the moment to remember that every website design started out in the fumbling beginners stage, and even the most professional websites you see today were originally clunky and had bits that didn't quite work. If you ever reach the dark slough of website despair call upon me for specific support, call upon the other members on the course for emotional support, and together we will get through it.

That's all for now, and next time I want to talk about photographs and how we can use Flickr.