Are You a Doctor Who is Ready to Build a Personal Brand?
Let these famous doctors show you how.
Before we get into why personal branding is important for doctors, let’s define what a personal brand is.
A personal brand refers to an individual’s public reputation. What do people know you for? Do you have a reputation for soothing children before a procedure, or are you the doctor that is known for being cold towards their patients? Whether you know it or not, you have already created a reputation with your patients and the public eye over time.
What many doctors get wrong is that they believe that they already know what their personal brand is. A good marketing strategist can help doctors create a plan to bridge the gap between where their public reputation currently is and where they envision it should be.
Doctors Have Control Over Their Personal Brand
What is great about personal branding is the fact that you, as a doctor, are able to control it. You have absolute power over how people perceive you. It’s not an overnight process. However, it is worth going through the process of consciously creating a brand once you understand how powerful of a marketing tool it can be. Don’t believe me? Here are a few examples of doctors who use personal branding to their benefit.
If you haven’t heard of ZDoggMD, then you need to quickly turn to his YouTube channel and start watching some of his satirical healthcare videos. He does parodies of popular hip hop videos as a teaching tool for patients and doctors, alike. How is he using personal branding to his advantage? He’s got a booming primary care practice in Nevada and is a frequently sought after speaker to help patients become more medical-savvy and doctors to be a bit more human. He mastered the art of controlling his own narrative so people see him as a knowledgable primary care physician, but also as a man who is passionate about making the medical industry more people-friendly.
Dr. Oz is probably the most famous doctor in the world. His TV show is seen all over the world. The media loves to quote him as the authority on everything related to health and wellness. He is probably best known for offering a medical perspective on how to take care of the body everyday and not just when you fall ill. Besides his TV show, you can access Dr. Oz via his app, podcast, magazine, and a host of social media sites. What makes him a master at personal branding? Dr. Oz is more than just a clinical practitioner or even a medical thought leader. He’s a master teacher. He understands that people are going to do a Google search before they go to the doctor’s office. So he has chosen to take his knowledge and teach it to patients in a language they understand.
My personal favorite is Dr. Axe, chiropractor and natural health guru. If you want to know how to use kale to get your body back in alignment, then he is the doctor to go to. How is Dr. Axe winning the personal branding game? He is a master at the blogging about natural health that is always backed by hard, scientific facts (although I’m sure he doesn’t personally write the blog posts). He then takes the scientific material and makes them more digestible via infographics and videos. He goes a step further to make the information practical through the use of recipes and other at-home treatments made using everyday ingredients found in the kitchen or health food store. He has expanded his natural health empire to include products like essential oils, supplements, and recipe books.
But I Don’t Have Time to Build a Personal Brand…
If you are a doctor who wants to build his own personal brand, it’s important to know that you don’t necessarily have to go as big as these doctors I mentioned here. These are doctors who have decided to create an international public persona that leverages their expertise to create a multi-pronged business.
However, whether you own a small independent practice in a rural town in Utah, or you are part of a large network of hospitals, it is still possible to consciously build a personal brand that can bring your more patients as well as turn you into a local expert.
Personal Branding Through Education
Educating patients is one of the best ways to build a personal brand. Make a habit of appearing in places where your patients hang out. You can create your own in-person workshops at your practice. For example, Monday evenings may be a great time to invite your patients over to learn more about how to decrease stress by making a few lifestyle adjustments. If you are a cosmetic surgeon, you may want to create an Instagram page that educates patients on what they need to do to get the best results from your services.
At the end of the day, deciding to take control of your personal brand as a doctor can only benefit your practice. The work that goes into consciously building a personal brand can help you not only build a booming practice, but it can also help create choices that allow you to rest or work on other creative projects when needed. A powerful personal brand can help you create and leverage other helpful products and services that will help you make money beyond just seeing patients.
