Tania Clifton-Smith is a New Zealand physiotherapist and one of the first to register a .physio domain name when we launched the profession’s own extension in late 2014. Consistent with her unique clinical specialty Tania secured www.breathing.physio and redirected it to her existing .com website.

Tania is a world expert in breathing pattern disorders. With her partner Dinah Bradley they created the first independent breathing pattern disorders clinic in Australasia in 1999. Combined they have published four books, treated thousands of patients and taught over 600 physiotherapists the BradCliff Breathing Method®.

Just this week, Tania made contact with me to explore how she could make better use of the domain that she had been holding onto for five years. What prompted her to take action now? The trigger was a recent article in a major publication about breathing where a self-appointed guru was interviewed by a known journalist; causing Tania to ask why she was overlooked? The journalist’s galling response,

“You don’t have much of an online presence”.

Tania and I spoke on the phone to explore the digital marketing options for the provision and teaching of the BradCliff Breathing Method®. I explained that the first three key steps to online success are to 1) niche, 2) brand and 3) digitise. It is clear that Tania and her continually growing team have a strong niche and they have digitised their material well. Their opportunity for improvement lies in improving their brand.

Tania’s domain BREATHING.PHYSIO represents an extraordinary branding prospect. The domain is short, memorable and highly relevant. As a brand identity it describes who they are, what they do and where to go for more information in just three words – “breathing-dot-physio”. And by connecting ‘breathing’ to the existing and highly respected global ‘physio’ brand they gain immediate credibility and respect, whilst simultaneously demonstrating the clinical nature of their work. All of that before anyone has even visited the website.

I encouraged Tania to move their website over to BREATHING.PHYSIO and to adopt the domain as their actual brand identity, including their logo (see image). Next Tania would ensure brand consistency by updating their Social Media handles to their new brand identity for their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

With the brand structure now in place, it is time to start executing the digital marketing by drip feeding content from their website through their Social Media channels, creating interest and driving traffic back to their website. I encouraged Tania to give away as much free content as possible so as to demonstrate their expertise and value, but at the same time offer paid content options for those website visitors who want more.

This branding and digital marketing strategy will help Tania and the team propel their business across the globe. They will be able to sell their content online 24 hours a day and it will raise their profile to become internationally renowned.

After our chat Tania took a deep breath in, excited to move forward to business success with her .physio brand.