Top Mistakes to Avoid in Medical Practice Logo Design
By: Tina Bell Director of Marketing, HealthCARE Express So you’ve decided to open your first Medical Practice, or perhaps you’re rebranding after 10 years. Either way, you’re now asking yourself one important question. “What should my logo look like?” After all, designing a logo is one of the most fun parts of creating your marketing plan. Unfortunately, many Medical Practice owners with the best of intentions find themselves making big mistakes in the logo design process. What can you do to make sure you’re not one of them? Mistake #1: Not Knowing Your Brand Your logo is the visual representation of your brand. If your brand’s focus is on kids, your colors will be brighter and your fonts may be more whimsical. If your focus is on speed, your logo may feature symbols related with time, speed, and emergency. When you go to a graphic design artist, it helps if you can give them a clear picture of what you want your logo to convey and who you want it to appeal to. One good way to start this process is to come up with your elevator sales pitch. Then convert that into a slogan. You may or may not incorporate your slogan into your logo, but combined, the sales pitch and the slogan may help your logo designer develop a concept you’re both super excited about. Mistake #2: Focusing On the Wrong Features When it comes down to it, your name is your brand. Whatever people think of when they hear your name is what your brand means to them. Always remember that you are building a brand. Many Medical Practice owners opt to call themselves “Medical Practice” or to play up their services instead of their name in their logo. This may work well if you’re the only “Medical Practice” in your town. But the moment a competitor comes in with the same services or name, your “Medical Practice” brand power just went down. Additionally, if you grow your list of services from just Medical Practice, and your logo only features that, it may be confusing when you’re talking to someone about your occupational health program. My recommendation would be to build your logo around your Clinic’s name and not your services. An easier way to think about this is to think about retail stores. When Wal-Mart first opened, it educated people on what Wal-Mart meant. Now Wal-Mart has competition. But it's competition doesn't build it's logo around the word "Retail Store". Mistake #3: Using Too Many Colors Another common mistake people make in logo design is using multiple colors or shades in their logo. While these may make your logo beautiful on your website and digital brochures, they can often be hard to duplicate on t-shirts and embroidered items. Additionally, the more colors you use, the more you’ll pay to have your logo imprinted on banners, brochures, and promotional items. If you decide to go with a multi-colored logo, make sure the designer also sends you files of the logo in a black and white version and in a one color version, too. Mistake #4: Not Getting Others Involved Your staff is the true creator of your brand. The experience they create for your patients will make or break your success with word-of-mouth marketing. So ask for and encourage their input. While you may not use any of the designs or ideas they submit in the long run, parts of their designs may spark the idea you’ve been looking for. And getting the whole team on board to create a project will help foster a spirit of teamwork. Your enthusiasm for the project will foster their excitement. These tips should help you in theory with designing your logo. However, it’s important to remember this is only a starting point. There truly is no right or wrong way to design a logo. Sketch, explore and create!
