How to Create a Winning Marketing Strategy for Your Pharmacy

As community pharmacists continue to expand their services and become a more central part of local healthcare, the need for effective marketing strategies to promote services to patients is increasing.

In this blog you’ll get a clear, step by step guide to setting marketing goals, choosing the right marketing tactics and measuring results so you can build an effective marketing strategy for your pharmacy.

Understanding the market, and where you fit into it

Like any marketing, success will come down to a few key things:

• Understanding your customers
• Understanding the current marketplace
• Understanding where you fit into the market in the eyes of your customers

The easiest way to understand this is to conduct market research. There are two types of market research you can use here:

1. Quantitative research - These can be large sample surveys that can help you understand the main things your customers think or know, for example do they think current pharmacy services meet their needs?
2. Qualitative research - Typically done in smaller samples (like focus groups) this type of research can help you drill down into the “why” of what customers think.

Competitor analysis is another useful market research tool that can give you a better understanding of how you compare with other pharmacies your patients or customers could use.

When looking at competitors you should examine how you compare in areas like services offered, prices, customer satisfaction and what type of marketing they are doing.

Having this information will help you focus your marketing efforts in the areas you can have the most success - like showing you which services patients are most interested in so you can focus more effort on those.

Goal setting - What do you want to achieve? And how will you know when you’ve got there?

Without setting clear goals there’s no real way of knowing whether your marketing is being effective, or whether you need to change tactics to avoid wasting money.

SMART goals are commonly used in marketing to identify and measure clear objectives from which to judge campaigns.

SMART goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

An example of a SMART goal for pharmacies could be: “I want to increase sales of X service by 5% over the next 6 months.”

Choosing the right marketing channels

With your goals set, now is the time to look at the different marketing channels.

Which avenues you’ll choose for your pharmacy marketing will depend largely on your audience and the results you want to achieve. If your SMART goals demand quick results, for example, this could make tactics like organic social media void as they take time to build a following.

These are some of the most common digital marketing channels you can use:

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

PPC is the ‘pay to play’ arm of search engine marketing. When patients type specific searches into Google like “where can I get a flu jab” your PPC ad will appear in the top results of search.

PPC can be an effective “quick win” for marketing to specific searches as the position you rank in search is based on the amount you’re willing to bid for the keyword, rather than the authority of your website.

The only thing to consider is that you’ll pay for every click your ad achieves.

In-store digital displays

Despite the rise of online pharmacies, the majority of patients still prefer to visit a community pharmacy in person when looking for medication, especially if they have a question.

This provides a great opportunity for digital in-store displays to cross-sell and upsell products, or to push specific promotions.

Online profiles

A Google My Business page is one of the best, and most cost effective ways of local marketing online.

When patients search for pharmacy services online, a well optimised Google Business page (outlining where your pharmacy is located and the services you offer, along with strong reviews) can put you front and centre.

This online visibility can be crucial when patients are looking for services they may not automatically know you offer.

Content marketing/ SEO

With more pharmacy services now available online, having a well optimised website can be critical for your business.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the organic version of PPC.

Rather than paying for clicks, or to be at the top of search results, you “earn” the right to be top based on the quality of your website and its content.

Online content like blogs, case studies, eBooks, videos and infographics can all be great educational content for patients in the early stages of research and can put you in front of a large audience at the exact time they’re interested in the services you offer.

Speed of results from SEO can vary depending on where you’re starting from (a brand new website and domain can take longer to rank highly in a competitive market compared to an older domain that needs optimising).

However, long-term, content marketing and SEO can be more cost-effective than PPC, so is definitely worth considering.

Email marketing

Email marketing has one of the highest returns of all marketing channels, but is difficult to get right because people value their inbox and don’t appreciate constantly being sold to.

When looking at email marketing, it’s more effective to provide a mix of educational content alongside sales and offers.

For example, emailing contacts with tips to stay safe in the sun, or reduce the risks of cold and flu can keep your email list engaged.

Then, when you do make a pitch, your contacts will be warmer to the idea.

Tracking the success of your marketing efforts

There are many metrics you can use to track the success of your pharmacy marketing strategy.

The most obvious - and commercially beneficial - are the number of new enquiries and sales you generate from your marketing efforts.

For example, achieving 40 new patient enquiries from a specific pharmacy services page on your website.

However, there are softer results that you can track, which will show whether your marketing is on the right track.

Measuring website traffic, for example, is often considered a “vanity” metric but can be a good indicator that your website is becoming more visible for online searches and that sales will follow.

Similarly, tracking open or click rates in your emails can be a good indicator that patients are finding your content useful.

How Cegedim can help with your pharmacy marketing

A strong, effective pharmacy marketing strategy is a critical part of any community pharmacy looking to increase revenue and profits while improving customer relationships and loyalty.

At Cegedim, our content marketing solutions like Pharmacy Display can help you stand out improve your marketing to customers to help build more awareness of your services and increase your brand awareness among patients.

If you want more tips on effective marketing for community pharmacies, download the "Ultimate Guide to Pharmacy Marketing" for more comprehensive insights and strategies.