What is your practice’s branding ‘logline’?

How, more than ever in this digital age, it can make or break your practice

IN 2023, BRANDING IS NOT A LUXURY for a chiropractic practice; it is an absolute necessity. Today the internet offers the consumer too many choices. Without a strong brand that separates you from the pack, you’re liable to be passed over every time.

Back in the day, a chiropractor could hang a shingle outside his office and, if he was a good physician, he could build a practice from word-of-mouth alone. Competition, although it existed, was far less prevalent than it is today.

The internet has changed the business landscape. Today, if someone needs a chiropractor, they don’t drive around town looking for one — rather, they scroll down a Google page, where offices are lined up one after another. Before you can say subluxation, the consumer can “visit” about 10 practices. Which one is she going to choose?

The answer to that question depends on how well a practice is branded.

Brand is everything in the marketplace

Your brand gives a prospect an instant opinion about you. It tells the world who you are. Do it right and people feel good about you before they ever step foot in your practice.

If you desire long-term success, don’t want to burn out and want quality time left over for your family, then you may want to brand your practice starting with the four-step method described below.

Branding is a marketing term that describes your business identity. It tells people who you are, what you stand for and why people should do business with you. Your brand generates an instant perception of your practice and services in the consumer’s mind.

Your brand needs to be:

• Impactful;
• Memorable;
• It needs to inspire trust and confidence, and;
• Your brand must separate you out from your competition.

A strong brand gives you a presence in the marketplace so new patient momentum is produced and sustained without you having to constantly reinvent the wheel. If you don’t adequately brand your practice, your practice will be branded for you.

For example, through the years the entire chiropractic profession has been branded in not such a good light by … I don’t need to tell you who. If the chiropractic profession would have used the four-step branding formula below at its onset, it might today be the primary provider of health care to the general public rather than slotted as “alternative care.”

Creating a powerful brand: the logline

A brand is not just a catchy practice name and a pretty logo. It goes much deeper. Too deep to completely cover in an article of this nature, so let’s jump to the one powerful element all branding revolves around. It’s called the logline.

What is a logline? The term “logline” came from the movie industry. The movie logline is a distillation of what a movie is about, communicated in a captivating way with minimal words that creates desire to see the movie. For example, here is the logline for “The Silence of the Lambs”:

“In order to catch a psychopath killer who skins his victims alive, a green FBI cadet challenges her own sanity by seeking the help of an incarcerated psychopath killer who skinned his victims alive.”

The movie logline is the primary device used in Hollywood to convince producers to invest in a movie and then convince the public to line up and watch the movie. The entire multibillion-dollar movie industry revolves around the logline.

The logline must whet people’s appetite to see the movie or else millions of dollars can be lost.

The branding logline for your business

A branding logline will perform the same function for your practice as a movie logline does for a movie. The goal for a movie logline is fans in the seats. The goal for your branding logline is new patients in your practice.

The purpose of a branding logline is to evoke understanding of and a desire for your service in a potential new patient’s mind using the fewest words possible. In essence, your branding logline is a short, powerful sales pitch. It has flair. It is alive. It triggers emotions and creates a thirst in a person to want your services. The branding logline communicates the core identity and value of your business.

The four-step formula to create your branding logline

A branding logline artfully combines four specific statements that tell the story of who you are, what you stand for, why people should do business with you, and finally how you are different.

Your branding logline should:

1. State a major benefit your service offers the consumer.
2. State the unique position in the marketplace you occupy (how you are different).
3. State the wonderful outcome the customer might enjoy as a result of using your service.
4. State an exceptional feature your service provides.

When these four components are expertly combined to create your branding logline you end up with one statement that gives people a compelling reason to do business with you. This statement (logline) is the central theme for your practice, the bedrock foundation from which to create a powerful brand. It is the first and most essential step to branding.

Using your new logline

After your logline is created, you can use it in the following ways:

• The main message on your website’s home page
• On your business cards
• On your phone message
• Your main verbal message to people (as a “sales pitch”)
• The primary message in your advertising
• The theme of all your social media and your emails

Now use your new logline and brand yourself and your practice to separate yourself from the pack.

JAMES VALKO is the founder and CEO of Story World Marketing, a digital marketing agency that helps chiropractors and other businesses build strong brands that attract customers like hit movies attract fans. He has a long history of helping chiropractors achieve success as a consultant, a nutritional educator and a marketer. To download his free book on loglines and branding, go to StoryWorldMarketing.com. Copyright 2023, James Valko, all rights reserved.