Branding yourself and your practice in times of COVID

If not already, you can focus on rebranding or branding yourself as a health care professional that can help patients find healthy ways to deal with the symptoms and sources of stressors

It might seem out of place to think of the current coronavirus pandemic as the perfect time to think about branding yourself and how to rebrand your practice.

You may think that you won’t be able to provide proper care for your patients if you are unable to see them in your office, but that has also changed. A carefully-crafted rebranding message could not only help you increase your bottom line, but also become a vital part of the healing process for your community.

Branding yourself and your practice: tech and compliance

Before you start out rebranding or further branding yourself during the COVID-19 pandemic, you will need to set up the ability to conduct telemedicine sessions.

Under normal circumstances, telemedicine practices must be HIPAA-compliant. However, this has been somewhat relaxed under the current pandemic conditions.² Nevertheless, you will be well served to set yourself up to be as HIPAA-compliant as possible.

What do your patients need right now?

The current pandemic conditions are unlike anything we have likely experienced in our lifetimes – whether we’re being asked to seclude at home or cautiously go out to shop in masks. Therefore, focusing on your patients’ immediate needs is the best place to start in building your brand as a health care provider specifically focused on helping people through this current crisis.

Patients are likely undergoing tremendous stress about their health and that of their family, finances, and childcare, among other issues. These stressors can adversely affect their health, even in ways of which they may not be aware. You should focus on rebranding or branding yourself as a health care professional that can help patients find healthy ways to deal with these stressors.

Providing wellness options

Obviously, once you have determined what your patients need to ease their difficulties during this time, the next step is to look at services that you can provide to help reduce their stress, and therefore improve their health.

Some wellness examples might include nutritional counseling, stretching exercises, or guided meditation. You may also want to consider offering group activities, such as healthy cooking classes, yoga sessions, or stress reduction tips. If you are feeling particularly adventurous, you could even branch out to offer classes for children or seniors, who often struggle the most under stay-at-home conditions.

Set your goals

If you decide to do a rebranding to align your practice with patient needs during a pandemic or crisis, you may want to think about your goals for doing so, beyond just improving your bottom line. What do you want to offer to your patients that will help them the most?

If you look at it from your patients’ perspective, they want to feel that you care about their health and wellbeing. This is the mindset to work from for rebranding yourself to connect with your patients during this crisis. Your patients have built a relationship with you over time. Now is when you can show them that you are willing to go that much further to get them through these difficult times.

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