In the world of private practice, establishing a strong brand presence is crucial for attracting clients and building credibility. A well-designed brand can help you stand out in a competitive field and convey your expertise and professionalism. However, sometimes hiring a professional brand designer may be cost-prohibitive, especially for those starting out or on a tight budget. Don’t worry; there are still plenty of effective steps you can take to create a compelling brand on your own. In this blogpost, we’ll explore some DIY branding strategies to help you build a budget-friendly brand for your dietitian private practice.

How to Start Your DIY Branding

Define your brand identity

Before diving into DIY branding, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your brand identity. Start by answering some fundamental questions:

• What is your mission and values as a dietitian?
• Who is your target audience, and what problems do you solve for them?
• What sets you apart from other dietitians?

Understanding your brand’s core values and unique selling points will provide the foundation for your branding efforts. In custom design work, we always start with these questions in our intake questionnaire to understand the strategies behind your business.

Creating Your DIY Branding

Your visual brand identity includes elements such as your logo, color palette, and typography. However, when you often work with a custom brand designer, you’ll get multiple logo variations and sometimes patterns or textures (this is our favorite part of the process!). Here’s how you can create these items without a designer:

• Logo: There are various online logo makers and design tools like Canva that offer templates and customization options. Keep your logo simple and aligned with your brand’s message. We’d recommend using Canva templates strictly as a template. Really try to make it unique by finding unique typography to use. You can also play around with designs and try different layouts from a template! Note: make sure you export these in a true black and true white!
• Color Palette: Choose a color scheme that reflects your brand’s personality. Websites like Coolors or Adobe Color Wheel can help you generate harmonious color combinations. It’s important when selecting a color palette to consider what your brand personality is but also what your ideal audience likes!
• Typography: Select one or two fonts that align with your brand’s style. Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts offer a wide selection of free typefaces. You can even search on a paid website like Creative Market to purchase a font and upload it into softwares like Canva to create your graphics.

DIY Marketing Materials

Now that your branding has been completed, don’t forget about your marketing materials! Design marketing materials like business cards, brochures, and social media graphics created using online design tools. Canva and Adobe Creative Express are great options to create these materials on and they have great starter templates to do everything yourself.

We’d recommend the following:

• Creating 4 Instagram feed templates (1080×1080 OR 1080×1350) with variety of contents
• Create 6 Instagram highlight circles
• Create 1 email signature

Tips for Making Your DIY Branding a Success

Consistency Is Key

Maintain consistency across all your branding elements. Use your chosen colors, fonts, and logo consistently on your website, social media profiles, and marketing materials. This consistency will help reinforce your brand in the minds of your potential clients.

TIP: It’s going to be more helpful if you export your logo in many colors in different formats. We’d always recommend a true black and true white, but consider creating logos in your chosen color palette as well. You never know when you’d need these!

Seek Feedback

Once you’ve created your DIY branding materials, seek feedback from your ideal audience. Honest opinions can help you refine your brand further. We’d recommend starting with your current clients: ask them how they feel when reviewing your brand and if they feel it accurately depicts the value you are providing to them.

TIP: We know it’s going to be hard to not ask your family and friends what they think on your logo design. However, they aren’t the ones who will be buying your product or service. Instead, ask potential or current clients: they’ll have the best insight.

Learn and Iterate

Branding is an ongoing process. As your private practice grows, continue to learn about branding and design principles. You might eventually have the means to hire a professional designer, but until then, refine your brand iteratively.

Ready to Outsource Your DIY Branding to a Professional?

At Chloe Creative, we are a branding agency niched into the clinician space. We are here to help take you to the next step in private practice by creating something absolutely custom to your business.

Here’s what past clients had to say:

• Amazing from start to finish! Chloe and her team made my vision come to life. Honestly it was WAY better then I expected. I felt the process was user friendly, and super fun! I loved how easy Chloe and her team were to work with! Any changes I wanted/needed were improved upon in a timely manner! Highly recommend. – Living My Beks Life
• Working with Chloe and AK was an absolutely wonderful experience. She truly understand my vision for my brand and made it come to life. I AM IN LOVE with my logo!! – The Ostomy Dietitian
• Chloe and her team were amazing to work with! I am a Registered Dietitian and I was looking for new branding and a new website and Chloe Creative Studio exceeded my expectations! I have had so many new clients reach out to me just because they loved my website. I highly recommend Chloe and her team! – Hannah Byrne Nutrition