[SAM CARVALHO]: Marketing in Practice Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Beta Male Revolution, Empowered and Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, or Faith in Practice, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.
Welcome to the Marketing in Practice Podcast with me, Sam Carvalho, where you’ll discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand your business, visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design.
Hi there and welcome to the third out of four episodes on the frequently asked questions when it comes to marketing and design. So on the Marketing in Practice Podcast over the last while I’ve been addressing frequently asked questions that may pop up when it comes to design, branding, and marketing your practice. So, previously I’ve answered a question on what colors and pictures you should use on your website that resonates with both you and your ideal client. That was the first episode of the series, and if you didn’t listen to that, definitely go check it out. The second was how much branding should you pull through to a social media? Again, if you haven’t yet listened to that, definitely check it out. Then I’ll be answering another question in this episode and we’ve got one more to go after this. So, so glad you’ve taken time out of your day to join and I really hope you guys will find value in this.
So, today’s question comes from someone who’s asking that if they want to run two separate businesses, for example, a group practice and a second non-therapy business, something like it a podcast or workshop or retreat or consulting, what considerations should they take into account when branding? Would they need to be different or can they complement each other? So I think, again, something to remember when you think of branding is what is the point of branding, right? You brand your business so that you’re essentially wrapping your business in a packaging that is going to attract your ideal client. So your business is a gift and your branding is the wrapping paper. That is what the world sees first before seeing the gift. But essentially you want to be attracting the right people to that gift. So when it comes to having two separate businesses, but obviously you are the same owner of both businesses, if those businesses are dealing with different clients, then the packaging that they come in needs to be different.
So, where your group practice, let’s say your niche is marriage counseling, where that needs to resonate with couples who are experiencing issues. Your podcast might be to therapists, you know, on how to grow a group practice for example. That packaging is going to look very different. If, however, your podcast or your workshops are to support your group practice and they are there for, you know, being marketed to the same type of people, then the packaging can look the same. So I hope that’s making sense. I think it also depends on how you plan to kind of market it. So again, if you have a website for business, then obviously your branding is going to look very different. If you’re offering your podcast on your current website, your branding is going to look the same.
But again, if the audience for your secondary business is different to the audience of your primary business, then I would say you need to have two separate websites and kind of view them as two separate entities that each require their own type of marketing. So I would say when answering this question, first and foremost, you need to identify who your target audience is and then you can decide on the branding after that. Again, what is your brand personality? So once you’ve identified who you’re trying to market to through both of those businesses, what is the brand personality of both of those businesses? Is it similar or is it very different? You know, you might be kind of channeling one area of yourself into the one business, but another area in the other business and the branding actually needs to show that.
So, if on your podcast you’re a lot more humorous than you are perhaps in your group practice, the branding needs to show that fun aspect. So basically these are just questions that I’m throwing at you that you need to consider when developing a brand or when developing a logo. Obviously the logo is the starting point of developing a brand and these will kind of help you decide when you kind of ask these about both of these businesses. So you ask them about your group practice, but then you also ask them about your podcast or your consulting, and obviously if you come up with different answers, then they’re going to require different branding.
So, another question you can ask yourself is, what do you want your logo or branding to communicate? As I mentioned just now, is it more of a fun, laid back approach or is it more of a serious and a tone where you’re addressing people’s real issues?
Another question you can ask yourself is what is your color scheme going to be? So in the first episode of the series, I discussed how to go about choosing the right color scheme for your brand. So definitely refer back to that. But in a nutshell, again, it’s based on your target audience but also your preferences but also what you want to communicate.
Another the question is what design styles do you like? So these are kind of the fluff questions, if I can put it that way that will be based on your answers to the first three questions; primarily who your target audience is, what is your brand personality and what do you want to communicate? You can also check what others in the industry are doing. So, if you’ve been running a group practice, you’re obviously familiar with the branding or the marketing that goes along with that. But now if you’re wanting to set up a podcast, that’s a whole new space. So spending some time researching podcasts that are similar to yours and how they’ve branded themselves. And again, I mentioned this in the first episode, you can either decide to go along with that if that’s working, if that seems to be a color scheme that’s kind of working for that field or you can decide to stand out and do something different. When it comes to creating a logo, specific, these are some questions that I always ask clients when they come in. They say, you know, they want a logo design or they want help with their branding. These are always the first questions that I kind of put to them and includes whether you would like a logo with just a font or with an illustration or icon and if you do once illustration or icon, what would you like that to be?
So, having an illustration or icon included in your logo can be a nice way or easier way, put it that way, to communicate whatever it is you’d like to communicate, and also a nice way to kind of differentiate one brand from another. So if you’re wanting to maintain a bit of similarity, you could for example, use the same font that you’ve used in your group practice logo but then include an icon, for example, a podcast mic or something along those lines that does still differentiate them and then you need to decide what funds you prefer as well.
So again, and this is something that you’ll probably hear me stress a lot, is the importance of a brand style guide. So whenever you are asking yourself questions about the branding of your business or you’re maybe unclear about what the branding of your business is or what your visual identity is or what your main message is, I would say it’s time to sit down and fill up a brand style guide. And in the case of having two businesses, develop a brand style guide for each of them. Developing a brand style guide pretty much goes along the lines of what we’ve just discussed in the questions that I’ve just put forward. So it will include the answers to all of those questions, but it will also include things like your mission and your vision.
Some of you may not realize that when you are forming a visual identity, when you’re forming your branding, it’s essentially based on those sorts of things. It’s based on your mission, your vision, who your target audience is, what your brand personality is, what you’re trying to communicate. It’s actually based on a lot of those things. So, you may look at a logo, you may look at a website and not necessarily realize a lot of the color scheme, the fun choice, the style of the logo is all in an effort to communicate your brand, who you are and what you have to offer. So I hope that kind of answers that question.
Just to recap, I would say first and foremost, look at your target audience. If you’re attracting, if you’re wanting to attract different people to each business, then each business definitely needs to have their own brand. If you’re wanting to have the one business support your other business and, therefore, it has a similar audience, then you can kind of combine the branding, but I would still say have a little bit of differentiation when it comes to the second business that kind of shows it’s not the same as the group practice.
Cool, so this is question three out of four answered. We have one more to go. As I said, if you haven’t listened to the answers of questions one and two that delved into colors and pictures for your website and what branding you should pull through to your social media, definitely go check those out. Otherwise, I will see you in the next episode where we answer our final question.
Thanks for listening to the Marketing in Practice Podcast. If you need help to brand new business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand or you simply want to have a print flyer designed, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design. Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes, if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon. .
This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.