Inside: If you don’t use marketing to differentiate your pharmacy from your competitors, you could lose business. Show patients what makes your pharmacy different.
As the owner or manager of your independent community pharmacy, you know why patients should choose your business over the competition.
But do patients know what makes your pharmacy different?
If you don’t use marketing to differentiate your pharmacy from your competitors, you could lose business.
Why highlighting what makes your pharmacy different matters:
- Increase your patient base
- Keep loyal patients
- Maximize profits
Discover how to use marketing to position your pharmacy to compete in five easy steps.
Step 1: Gather market research
The more you know about your prospective patients, the easier you can market to them.
Use market research to target your best prospective patients. And, learn what unique needs your pharmacy can meet.
Strategies to collect market data:
- Use your city’s latest census to get demographic information about people in your area
- Speak with local physicians. Find out the top medical conditions in your area.
- Check your current patient base. Analyze data about the patients who currently use your pharmacy.
Step 2: Segment your market
After you understand your market better, break it down into smaller, key groups.
Market segmentation helps you narrow your target market. So, you can better understand key patients’ wants and needs—and cater to them.
Segment your market by:
- Geographic location
- Demographics
- Psychographics
- Behavior
- Medical conditions
Other areas to look into:
- Size
- Buying habits
- Media use (magazines, newspapers, websites and social media sites)
Step 3: Perform a SWOT analysis
Before marketing your pharmacy, you need to take a critical look at your business.
Use a SWOT analysis to determine your pharmacy’s position in the marketplace.
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis looks at the internal and external factors that affect your business. And it helps you find the value your pharmacy provides compared to your competition.
Strengths
What does your pharmacy do to meet patients’ needs better than your competitors?
For example, does your pharmacy offer the only drive-thru in town? Or, is your pharmacy the only place to receive travel vaccines within 50 miles?
Weaknesses
What patient needs do your competitors meet that you don’t? Or, what do they do better than you?
For example, do your competitors stay open 24 hours? Or, does your competition have a better front-end selection?
Opportunities and Threats
Your pharmacy faces external opportunities and threats within the complicated health care industry.
But you also face other opportunities and threats including:
- Legal
- Political
- Technological
- Cultural
And, opportunities can become threats and vice versa. For example, technological developments could be an opportunity or a threat.
Here’s an overview of opportunities and threats your pharmacy likely faces.
Opportunities your pharmacy faces include:
- Growing your patient base
- Marketing to your best patients
- Revitalizing your pharmacy’s brand
- Finding new revenue streams
Threats your pharmacy faces include:
- Increases in mail order
- PBM mergers
- Federal regulations
Step 4: Define your marketing strategy to differentiate your pharmacy
After you complete a SWOT analysis, you can plan a marketing strategy.
Armed with the information from the previous steps you should:
- Identify the true needs of your market
- Identify the areas where your competition is lacking
- Determine where your pharmacy satisfies those needs
Capitalize on the unique features of your pharmacy. For example, if millennials make up a big part of your market, focus your marketing strategy on them. Market services they enjoy using digital refills, health e-newsletters and text message prescription reminders.
Step 5: Use your marketing strategy
Your business can’t be everything to everyone.
So don’t try to be.
You’ve already done the hard work to create a marketing strategy to differentiate your pharmacy.
Stick to your strategy and trust that it’ll work.
RELATED: Are You Making These Pharmacy Marketing Mistakes?
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