BRANDING YOUR VETERINARY PRACTICE

Part 1: Logo Design and Digital Update

As our practices rely increasingly upon our online presence and marketing becomes more essential, establishing a consistent, clear brand for your veterinary practice is necessary.
 
What Is Branding?
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.
 
In other words, branding encompasses more than just a logo; it also involves a consistent font, color scheme and overall feel. It visually represents the personality of your veterinary practice and is essential to convey your identity to your clients.
 
Here are my recommendations for getting a handle on your clinic’s brand, and how to revitalize it to create a consistent “brand kit.”
 
In each of the next few blogs, I’ll be sharing information and resources for you to either improve your existing brand kit, or create one with an existing logo or even starting from scratch.
 
Logo
Perhaps the most important component of a brand, your veterinary clinic should have a consistent, clear logo. Ideally, you should have this available in multiple digital formats (think .jpeg, .png, .pdf). I find that many clinics, especially those lucky enough to have a long-standing history, do not have access to a digital form of their logo and/or it lacks clarity.
 
If you need a new logo……
If your clinic doesn’t have a consistent logo, or it’s time to update, now is the time. Expect to pay a decent amount for a brand new logo, however. You may want to reach out to a local graphic designer, make a post on your Facebook page to ask for opinions and/or recommendations, or use a logo design service such as those on 99designs.com and/or graphic artists on www.fiverr.com.
 
Regardless of who you choose to design your logo, poll your clients. What would they like to see? What type of images resonate with them? Regardless of what designer(s) you choose, insist on a few variations of your logo. Share these with your clients- consider a Facebook vote and/or display the choices in your front lobby and encourage client feedback. You may love a particular design, but if your clients all hate it, you have a problem.

Pro Tip: If you end up creating a brand new logo that includes any text, be sure to ask the designer to tell you which font(s) and/or colors (hex or RGB) were used.
 
If you need an update or digital version of a logo…..
To remedy this, I would recommend having your logo “vectorized.” A vector image is the best possible quality of image, and is scalable to any size and detail. If you have a vectorized image it will look great whether you’re putting your logo on something tiny like a business card, or blowing it up to billboard size.
If you’re happy with your current logo, this can be established easily and relatively inexpensively with any graphic designer or many online services. It does require a graphic design program like Adobe Illustrator, but this is an easy task for many graphic designers, or for those of you with access to the software. Other alternatives include again looking on multiple online websites and/or sellers from www.fiverr.com.
In my experience, I’ve been able to send a scan of an old logo, even from an old business card in for vectorization. In just a few days and usually for less than $30, your logo will be returned to you in a digital format. Fuzzy lines are sharpened, colors are recolored, and your old logo should be restored to its once glamorous self.
 
If you plan to apply this logo to any other materials or images, it’s important that you also ask for a logo in a .png transparent background format. This will allow you to overlay your logo onto your social media images, new marketing materials, etc. without having to worry about the background color and any excessive white space.
 
I generally try to find a seller that offer to send the file in multiple formats: .jpeg, .png, and .pdf. This essentially ensures that no matter your marketing needs, you’ll have the format you need.
 
Next, I also try to ask for full color, black and white, and inverted logos. This can increase the overall cost, but if you’re up for the challenge these tasks are easy to complete yourself in PicMonkey.com using their free service. Stay tuned for my next blog to learn how to do it yourself.
 
Have questions? Need a new logo or vectorized image? Send me a note and I’ll connect you with my designers and get you on your way to a new, more useable part of your brand! 
​-CD

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