How Liberty Type builds brand strategy for health and wellness practices

You know your practice does excellent work. Explaining why the right patients should choose you, in a sentence a stranger remembers, is harder. Maybe your website lists services but sounds like three other practices in town wrote it. Maybe every new marketing idea starts with the same questions about who you’re talking to and what you should say. Our brand strategy process exists to answer those questions once, so every piece that follows has something solid to stand on.

At Liberty Type, strategy is the first step of every project, and it shapes the visual identity, the copy, and the website. Here’s what happens, in the order it happens, and why each step matters to a health and wellness practice.

Where our brand strategy process starts

Every project begins with a 90-minute strategy interview that I lead. Before I started Liberty Type in 2016, I spent six years as an investigative journalist, and the interview borrows a lot from that work. So I ask a lot of questions, follow the tangents, and listen for the details you mention as an aside. Those asides are often the best material we find.

First, we talk about the practice you run today. What do patients come to you for now? Which services do you want to grow? Who are your best-fit patients, and who would you rather refer out? Where do people get confused or drop off between the first call and the first visit?

Then we talk about what’s changed. A practice that outgrew its original brand needs a different strategy than one opening a second location or moving from insurance to cash pay. Because a pretty document that sits in a folder doesn’t help anyone, we focus on the decisions the brand has to support.

How our brand strategy process studies patient decisions

Demographics like age and zip code help a little, but they won’t tell you what to write on a homepage. So the brand strategy process focuses on what happens before someone contacts you.

• What problem is she trying to solve, and what has she already tried?
• Which questions does she need answered before she books?
• What might make her hesitate, like cost, insurance, or fear of the first visit?
• Who else is involved in the decision, such as a spouse, a parent, or a referring doctor?

Even referred patients rarely book on the referral alone. In a Doctor.com survey of 1,700 adults, 81% said they read reviews about a provider even after getting a referral. So strategy has to account for the moment a referred patient looks you up and decides whether the practice online matches what she heard.

Positioning in the brand strategy process

You don’t need to invent a new category to stand out. People do need a reason to remember your approach.

Next, we look at how other practices in your area and specialty describe themselves, and where your care is different. Sometimes the difference is the patients you serve. Sometimes it’s your process, the length of your visits, the training your team shares, or the way you make a hard first step feel easier.

From there, we answer a question that sounds simple and usually isn’t: why would the right patient choose you? The answer has to be specific enough to shape the homepage, the services page, and what your front desk says on the phone. For a deeper look at this step, read what your practice should be known for.

Turning strategy into messaging

Once we know who you serve and what sets you apart, we write the language to say it. That work also includes your core message, how you describe each service, the voice your team uses, and the details that answer consult-call questions before they come up.

This part of the brand strategy process has practical tests. Can someone tell what you do within a few seconds? Do the service descriptions answer what patients ask at intake? Is the next step obvious? Good messaging also gives your clinicians a shared way to describe the practice to referral partners.

Giving the strategy a visual direction

Your visual identity should help people recognize the practice they just read about. So we use the strategy to guide choices about typography, color, photography, and layout.

A calming identity can still have personality, and a bold one can still feel safe for patients. Little Longhorns Chiropractic needed to feel fun for kids and credible for parents in a town that didn’t know the founder yet. Since that direction came straight from strategy, it carried through to signage and merchandise people asked to buy.

How the brand strategy process shapes the website

Strategy also decides how the site is organized. For Olive Branch Therapy Group, a two-location practice with a growing team, the strategy pointed to one question every new client was asking: who can help me, and where do I begin? We organized the copy and the Showit site around answering it.

That’s the advantage of doing everything in one project, since the person who led your strategy interview is part of the team writing your copy and directing the design. As a result, nothing gets lost in a handoff between vendors.

What the full project looks like

The brand strategy process is the first phase of the Complete Brand. The project costs $16,000 and takes about nine weeks. It includes:

1. Brand strategy and creative direction, starting with the 90-minute interview
2. A complete visual identity and logo system, with typography, color, and supporting elements
3. Brand messaging and positioning
4. Conversion-focused, SEO-informed copy for five pages
5. A custom Showit website for five pages, designed for desktop and mobile
6. Technical SEO setup, testing, launch support, brand files, and website training

We no longer sell strategy, design, or copy on their own, because each piece depends on the others, and the strategy only pays off when the identity, words, and website carry it all the way through.

For the full sequence from kickoff to launch, read the practice rebrand process. If timing is the question, see how long a practice rebrand takes. And if you’d like to start thinking through your own answers now, try this brand strategy template for an established practice.

Start your brand strategy process with a conversation

Most owners who apply already know the brand is behind the practice. They just haven’t had time to sort out what the new one should say. If that sounds like you, read when your practice’s reputation has outgrown its website first.

Then apply for the Complete Brand. We’ll set up a time to talk about your practice, your patients, and what you want to be known for next. The interview is where the whole project starts, so bring the questions you’ve been carrying around.