Our member pharmacies often run on a tight budget – financially, as well as time-wise. We know you’re stretching to meet quotas, you’re sometimes short staffed, flu season just kicked in, or you’re just too busy elsewhere to really stop and make your marketing a priority. We get it. But, you’re also a business – and businesses need to grow to survive. By neglecting your pharmacy’s marketing, you could be sabotaging its growth.

With 2017 just over the horizon, your organization has the perfect opportunity to take a fresh approach to growing business. You’re already making smart purchasing decisions as a group member, so now you can take it a step further. We’ve put a short list of marketing practices to stop doing, and marketing practices that you need to consider implementing in order to remain fresh and relevant.

Change these habits/practices:

1. Direct mail campaigns

Do you have a strong idea who your target market is? Can you build a direct marketing list that is hyper-targeted and reaches only valid prospective customers? If you don’t have the time to put this type of effort into building your target list, stop. You’re wasting money. Many companies aren’t clear on exactly who they should be targeting, and have little to no chance of delivering a successful return on investment (ROI) (1). It’s not that direct mail campaigns don’t work, or are old fashioned, it only means that when you’re operating under time and budget constraints, you’re better off putting those marketing dollars into campaigns better suited to your needs.

2. Not doing any marketing

One of the biggest excuses for not doing any marketing at all is time constraints. But, by not marketing your pharmacy at all, you’re actually hurting your business. Online marketing campaigns can be implemented much faster than traditional campaigns – and have the ability to get your product, services, or sales out in front of more possible customers in a more cost-effective manner (2). When only 13% of Americans don’t use the internet that leaves a whopping 87% that do (3). That’s a lot of potential reach. Go on Google and create a Google business page, and start asking your customers for reviews. Build an email list and send out monthly newsletters. This is where your marketing dollars will be better spent.

3. Avoiding Social Media

You knew it was coming and here it is. Over 70% of the U.S. population has at least one social media profile. Add to this that over 2.1 billion people are active on social media worldwide (4), and you’ll begin to understand the massive potential social media has for marketing campaigns. Make a Facebook page and actually post on it regularly; post items geared toward your pharmacy’s specialty, or health and wellness. Utilize a scheduling program such as Hootsuite so you can maintain a consistent posting presence. This not only gets your brand noticed by millions of social media users, but also can help boost your status in Google, upping the chances your pharmacy will show up in searches when someone Googles “pharmacies near me.”

Implement these habits/strategies

4. Consider paid social media advertising

We’ve already touched on the potential reach of social media in advertising. Now you need to consider investing in paid advertising on social media. For very little investment, you can build ads and hyper target those ads based on age, location, even marital status. There’s a lot you can do on social media that’s free, but if you want to see some real results, you have to be willing to make that investment. An added bonus: as you grow that online audience and get more customers interacting with your page and your marketing efforts, the further that investment will stretch.

5. Extend your pharmacy’s availability

You pride yourself on your customer service. You cater to your customers and make sure they leave your store satisfied. Now that you’re (hopefully) considering a web presence, now would be a good time to also consider a chat bot. A bot is an app that allows you to answer more simple questions for potential online customers, or questions that your patients may have after hours. Chat bots are the future of messaging apps, and they are being steadily implemented in healthcare settings across the country. Implementing one of these apps within your website can instantly increase your availability and help power your customer service image into the new year.

6. Keep things “personal”

Personalize and streamline your patients’ touch points to make sure they have not only a better customer service experience, but that each and every interaction they have with your organization is exemplary. To boost customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, try making an assessment of your current customer interactions and give yourself, your staff, or both, the added challenge of taking that experience one step further by finding ways to bring personal touches to your customers’ experiences.

We know our members are smart, driven to succeed, and looking to grow their business. We also recognize that time and money are in high demand, but short in quantity. However, there is no better way to grow your organization than by finding ways to make the time required to invest in your marketing. If you want to affect a growing bottom line, while still driving positive customer experiences, look at the upcoming New Year as an opportunity to make a commitment to your community, your customers, and your pharmacy. Expand your marketing horizons, and hit the ground running for 2017!

Be sure to follow this blog for more regulatory and reimbursement intel, tips and bulletins from your partners at alliantRx.

Sources:
1. http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/direct-mail-is-it-old-fashioned-if-it-still-works/
2. http://www.optimus01.co.za/why-is-online-marketing-so-effective/
3. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/07/some-americans-dont-use-the-internet-who-are-they/
4. http://www.business2community.com/social-media/47-superb-social-media-marketing-stats-facts-01431126#XQId6Uzp48k1paBh.97