Your brand is what carries your wellness business through hard times. It’s what makes or breaks your business and what separates you from your competitors. It takes a lot of hard work to build your brand and even more to maintain your stature within the wellness community.

Here are some simple tips for building your wellness brand:

1. What’s in a name?

For the most part, wellness small businesses are regional. For this reason it’s really important to advertise your wellness business through signage and a strong name. It’s important to choose a name that appeals to you but also appeals to the community that you live in. Research names online to find one that you think you will be able to stick with for a long time. This way you can build name recognition. According to small business guru Susan Ward, the name should be easy to spell and remember. The name should also have a positive psychological message. When a potential customer hears the name it should make them want to visit. Here are some truly effective local holistic business names in my community:

Serenity Now Yoga Studio
Tranquil Moments Spa
Urban Nirvana Spa
Om Body Holistic Healing

All of these names make you want to try the services so that you can enjoy that serenity now or those tranquil moments. Sorry to be cheesy, but you get the point. That brings me to another point regarding the name. Ensure that you don’t copy someone else’s. You don’t want to work to build name recognition and then later have it all taken away. Do your research online.

2. Choose Effective Lettering

Make sure that you choose lettering that you like but at the same time is easy to work with. What do I mean by that? Choose writing that’s easy to read so that your customers can always read your name no matter how small or how big. Choose text that’s easy to replicate and available in most computer programs if you happen to get a new computer. You want to be as consistent as possible with your lettering including your signage outside your business, your cards, schedules, price list, posters, etc. You get the point. In order to build your brand you have to choose lettering that’s artistically appealing but at the same time consistent. According to Yoga Baron, lettering is much more important than having a separate logo.

3. Your Brand is More Than a Name

While the name and the lettering are very important, your brand is much more than your name. Your brand conveys your business’s key values. The best brands, according to marketing experts, highlight what customers already know about the company.

“You don’t really own your brand. Your customers own your brand,” said Brenda Alling, director of the marketing and communications department at Washington State University-Vancouver.

What does this mean for your business? Find out what people like the most about your business and allow that to be your brand. If you don’t know yet because you’re just getting started, brainstorm what you would like to be known for. If you’re an athletic trainer, do you always produce results? Is your spa a respite within a busy day? Are you a massage therapist that focuses more on pain management rather than relaxation? Is your yoga studio a place where students come to sweat and detox or is it more of a moving meditation practice? Think long and hard about what you want to be known for and then spread the message far and wide. As with your name, your brand must be consistent. Put it in your bio or mission statement on your website. Tell your customers your mission. Post it in the bathrooms and at the entrance. Put it on your Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace pages.

4. Keep on Doing What You’re Doing

Once you have your brand the best way to build it is to keep on doing what you’re doing. Live up to customer expectations time and time again. Make sure all your employees know that Serenity Now Yoga is all about serenity. No cell phones, no gossip, and no anger. It’s a quiet place where your customers can depend on finding serenity. At Gentle Touch Massage customers can be sure that you won’t be beating them up on the massage table and leaving them sore afterward. Whatever you do best, do it time and time again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 6:54 pm and is filed under Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.