Independent Insights, a Health Mart Podcast

Episode 7: Marketing Mastery: Transform Your Pharmacy with Proven Strategies

Share episode

Marketing isn't just another task – it's the heartbeat of your pharmacy business. Whether you're a marketing newbie or looking to refine your strategy, this episode is packed with valuable insights to help your pharmacy thrive. Join Suzanne Feeney for part 2 of our marketing series with her guests: marketing experts Kristin Rademacher and Renee Dudek as they discuss practical strategies and tips like search engine optimization (SEO), establishing your brand, budgeting, and measuring return on investment (ROI) that promise to boost patient engagement and revenue. Don't miss out on the chance to make marketing a powerful tool for your business.

Host
Suzanne Feeney, PharmD
VP, Pharmacy Retail Operations
McKesson / Health Mart

Guests
Kristin Rademacher
Director, Marketing 
McKesson / Health Mart

Renee Dudek, MBA
Manager, Local Marketing
McKesson / Health Mart

Resources
Health Mart franchise members can access the following resources:
Marketing Edge

Technician Specialist: Pharmacy Front-End Training https://healthmartuniversity.ceimpact.com/library/course/6607

References
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to watch Part 1 of this 2-part series on marketing: Episode 6: Pharmacy Success Secrets: Marketing for Busy Pharmacists.


The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of Health Mart, McKesson or its affiliates or subsidiaries ("McKesson”). The information provided herein is for informational purposes only and does not constitute the rendering of clinical, legal or other professional advice by McKesson.

Suzanne: [00:00:00] Welcome to Independent Insights, a Health Mart podcast focused on independent pharmacy. My name is Suzanne Feeney, and I'm a pharmacist on the McKesson Health Mart team. We know that in the pharmacies, you're juggling countless responsibilities and really barely have a moment to breathe, let alone think about marketing. But we have a two-part series for you on marketing, and this is part two. And here's the truth. Marketing really isn't just another task on your to do list. It's truly a lifeline of your pharmacy business. 

Are you looking for ideas to grow independent pharmacy and make a greater impact in your community? Look no further. Welcome to Independent Insights, the podcast brought to you by Health Mart. Episodes delve into a wide range of topics to provide you with the practical strategies, expert insights, and inspiring stories to help you and your pharmacy excel.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of Health Mart, McKesson or its affiliates or subsidiaries, McKesson. The information provided herein is for informational purposes only and does not [00:01:00] constitute the rendering of clinical, legal, or other professional advice by McKesson. You are responsible for reviewing and complying with all applicable state and federal laws, rules and regulations that govern the operation of your business, including laws that apply to businesses generally, laws that apply to employers, and laws that specifically regulate the practice of pharmacy.

Suzanne: So we'll get started with this taking a broader look at how you out there listeners can really create an overall marketing plan for your pharmacy Why you need to do that and how you need to do that, regardless of whether you're in an urban or rural location, just how important it is for you to focus on

There are so many components to marketing. We just had a podcast with A. J. Asghari called Pharmacy Success Secrets, Marketing for Busy Pharmacists.

And today with me, I have two of our McKesson Health Mart Marketing team members, Renee and Kristin. So, Renee, Kristin, hello. Welcome. Thanks for joining us. 

Renee: Hi, thank you. I'm Renee Dudek and I'm with McKesson Health Mart.

Kristin: And I'm Kristin Rademacher and together we lead some of the marketing activities for our Health Mart, Health Mart Atlas customers. [00:02:00] 

My background is in marketing and promotion, specifically marketing, branding, and strategy. 

Renee: I actually handled marketing for a chain of pharmacies in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, and I'm also a pharmacy technician. So, marketing is my passion and growing pharmacy, patients, and revenue, Is where it's at 

Suzanne: and for our listeners out there whether you're a health mart pharmacy or not We have a lot of really great nuggets to share with you today and tons of experience bringing in Kristin’s marketing expert Renee yours as well and your practical application in the pharmacy. 

We're going to dig a little bit into SEO, and if you're not familiar with that term, that's okay. We'll talk through what it is and why it matters., we are going to talk a little bit about establishing your brand and then also dig into budgeting and ROI. 

So I'm really excited for everyone to hear from both of you today., so first off, Kristin, I'll throw it to you, what are some of the very first steps a pharmacy should take if they're brand new to marketing?

Really not doing much other than they got [00:03:00] their sign out there and maybe a Facebook page.

Kristin: The first thing to really take the mystery out of it is analyze where you are in your business cycle. Are you a new pharmacy? Are you looking to start from scratch, and you want to not only introduce your brand or your name in the community, but you also want to grow business.

So, something where you've been established for a little bit of time, and you'd like to maybe add a new line or increase traffic to your front end or introduce a new service or solution. Really, if you just look, you can focus on a specific area.

So, know where you're starting. And from there, decide what it is that you want to promote, or what do you want people to know about you?

Suzanne: One of the things that is a hot topic right now, based on a lot of the different legislation that's going through states, is point of care testing, or really more specifically, test and treat.

And , it's a great avenue for pharmacies to pursue but a lot of times what [00:04:00] I see happen is pharmacies who have had the ability to do this will get it started and then it kind of stalls out and a reason that I think is probably the lack of marketing, the lack of awareness, and I don't think just a Facebook post or maybe one ad is going to do that.

What you mentioned was how do you establish a new line? And get that out there and I'm guilty of this as a pharmacist.

I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to get, all the policies and procedures. I'm going to train my staff. I'm going to buy everything, going to make sure I'm following the regulatory rules. I'm ready to go. I'm so excited. And then nothing happens., and it's that marketing piece that we don't learn about in pharmacy school, or really have time to think about in the pharmacies.

So, Renee, I know you have experience with launching this in pharmacy stores, Kristin, you've seen this in different ways. Can you two talk a bit about that?

Kristin: Some of it is commitment to a product and. Before you start promoting, make sure it's good for your bottom line. Make sure it's something that's actually going to help your business or it's something that [00:05:00] you know your community has been asking for. And then focus there. commit a lot of your messaging to that product or to that service. 

Suzanne: I want to hit on the point of what I heard you say, Kristin, is make sure that it's good for your community and where you're at and, is it a need? And I think that is a true important piece, that pharmacies can do.

Cause there's a lot of different revenue drivers out there right now, but what works in your community?

 Renee, do you have any tips on how to do that? How do you know what's going to take off in the pharmacy? any practical tips for how to assess what could work in your pharmacy?

Renee: Yeah, it's find out where you're at right now, like Kristin said, but also from a measurement standpoint. 

One thing that we measured was, and this might be a better stat is the margin front end margin. So, we were at 21% and we wanted to make it to 30. And with some of the tactics that we used; we ended up making it to 29. 30 in certain cases, but it was just nice to be focusing on [00:06:00] the margin items that worked for our pharmacy and cut out some of the rest so that we could get to that margin goal.

How many customers do you have? What type of customers do you have? What kind of medications are driving pharmacy revenue. and where are the opportunities from there? So, some pharmacies I've worked with before, we dug into where are they at with patients?

How many patients are buying a front-end item? How many patients are, in need of, a certain supplement. The pharmacy that I was at we dug in and just found out that 82 percent of our customers were not buying a front-end item.

Suzanne: Okay, so wait, hold on. 82 percent of patients coming into the pharmacy were getting their prescriptions and nothing else.

Renee: Exactly. 

Suzanne: Wow. 

Renee: So, there's a huge opportunity right there where you don't really have to do a whole lot. You know what I mean? It's like, what's your plan then? 

Suzanne: Which maybe feels so much more achievable than, oh, I want to start this point of care testing program. 

Kristin: That's right. And it goes back to determining where are you in your [00:07:00] business cycle and knowing those metrics really start to make your path forward a lot more clear.

Suzanne: So maybe don't start with a bright, shiny object, but look at your business and see what simple steps that you could take that were really going to impact your bottom line and help support your patients. Cause Renee, as soon as you say that I just think, oh my gosh, all those prescriptions that are going out the door without medications that are available OTC to help a side effect support or ancillary support, just all the options out there.

I mean, Antibiotics. Do you have a new thermometer? You know, all these different things that you could think of. So, were you able to find that number from your prescription management system? Or how did you know that 82 percent weren't buying anything else? 

Renee: We did from our front-end point of sale system.

 So, we knew that when we rang up a prescription, what else came with that prescription? and then we also determined that there was a huge opportunity, like you mentioned, with supplements. So even if it's statins. Um, CoQ10 might be a good [00:08:00] option because if somebody's feeling tired or, lagging CoQ10 might help out, as a supplement, and pharmacies that just simply implemented that, found some significant growth, because of the amount of statins that we had.

and then the other, area that we found growth was during COVID, a lot of people started using drive thru. Which is huge convenience, but there's also a huge opportunity there that we don't think of when people are going through the drive through, how can we talk with them about, the different things that we offer?

Because now they're not coming into the store. But we still have all these things that we can help them with. So being sure to train your staff , and make sure you educate everyone on the conversations that they have at the drive thru rather than having that awkward pause, while they're waiting for the prescription, they can sit there and have a conversation or use, a flyer or some sort of print communication to talk with those customers, which is nice.

Kristin: I'm going to bring it back to marketing tactics from what we're talking about to make it really clear and hopefully take the mystery out of what [00:09:00] marketing is.

So, Renee's talking about suggestive selling. So really marketing is just formalizing that. Effort and telling your staff. Hey, this month, everybody that comes to the front end or goes to the drive through that has a statin. Here's a short script. That you can use to promote our co Q10. And on top of that, it's 10 percent off this month.

So that's really all marketing is formalizing what you're doing and putting it into some sort of plan. Measure first so you know where you started and measure afterwards, so you know the impact of that effort.

Suzanne: And I think, just a trend that I will say from being with pharmacists and being a pharmacist, pharmacists and staff, a lot of times get uncomfortable in that suggestive selling space.

Which I think is, we're doing our patients and communities a disservice, because when I think of all the opportunity to [00:10:00] purchase these items in the pharmacy and then have those questions answered by pharmacists or hand in hand those recommendations made based on the medications you're taking, for those who are listening in and nervous about that , this is truly good patient care to make sure people are aware of what could help them in their healthcare journey.

Also being that wellness destination? So how, people are coming in for prescriptions, but there's other items there that they could purchase that will help them in their wellness journey that maybe aren't necessarily prescriptions. So, we probably as a profession hear that suggestive selling and are like, oh, but I think that's an area for growth because that's really how you're layering in marketing to your business.

Kristin: So, it's if it is suggestive selling is. Cringeworthy. Look at it as you're sharing your expertise. You want to be seen. You are seen as a health care expert in your community and for your patients. All of us look to either a doctor or a pharmacist. To tell us what we need and we expect you [00:11:00] to play that role and you do so it's really simply sharing your expertise with those patients because it could benefit them and so it's formalizing that process and that goes to building your brand and being consistent in your messaging and what service you get is that you are a healthcare expert and a provider of that expertise for your patients. 

Suzanne: And that's how you like you said, build your brand and differentiate yourself it's this holistic care and you're getting this level of expertise and that's how things are different at your particular pharmacy, because it's not just about the speed, it's about convenience. It's about expertise and, whatever fits your brand. Just To recap, I heard you say, Renee, so many great examples and then Kristin formalizing that plan.

and to do that, creating a calendar, what are the items that you're going to focus on this month or setting goals. I've been able to visit some pharmacies where they're working on marketing , and that suggestive sales , [00:12:00] and then there's also a selling space, which is really just leveraging the staff that's there, leveraging those resources that are already there to make sure you're spreading awareness of what you have and asking these questions and making recommendations.

 but setting goals around that. And I think that's really helpful. I always think of when I go into the pharmacy in September and I'm trying to get ahead of like respiratory virus season because there's nothing worse than waking up. in the middle of the night and not having what you need on hand.

So just creating that sick day kit or whatever ideas again work for your patients. Because what I'm hearing both of you say is. First, look at the numbers and look at your patient population and then decide what you can do. Kristin, you mentioned building your brand and, I don't know that many pharmacies intentionally, think of this or think, hey, what, what do we represent? We're pharmacists. We represent safety and getting your medications but you kind of led into that before. So, share some thoughts on why branding is truly so important for independent pharmacy.

Kristin: Branding is what happens after you introduce yourself. [00:13:00] So if you're meeting someone and I say, Hi, I'm Kristin Rademacher. And you say, Hello, I'm Suzanne Feeney. We've introduced ourselves to each other, but I don't know anything about you, Suzanne.

So, I need to ask you questions. You need to offer information. And in a very simple sense, branding is just that. It's offering enough information so that people in your community start to know who you are, what you stand for. And you don't have to be all things. You pick things that are true to you and that you can be consistent with.

And if people believe they share values with you, your store, which would become your brand, they will remain more loyal customers because they see themselves reflected in your values, how you operate if convenience is very important to me. And that's something that you really [00:14:00] promote because it's important to you.

 That's the same as you meeting someone at a party and you, find things in common. And so, I might go to 1 store over another because of the brand in the brand values. And so, if you just simply put your name out there on a sign, that's great. That's needed.

But what advertising and marketing does is it allows people to learn truly more of who you are and what you stand for.

Suzanne: Any tips on how to make that happen? I wrote down some really great thoughts. Be true to you, be consistent, which I think is sometimes what happens in marketing is we're on a sprint and we're going to do this and then we get busy and maybe we pull back a little bit.

So that consistency is important, but what are some ways that, independent pharmacies can brand? I think of some simple things the pharmacist is usually Out there in present and able to create that relationship at my pharmacy. We used to make sure to introduce ourselves. Hey, [00:15:00] I'm Suzanne.

I'm the pharmacist. You're picking up this today. Here's some things I need to tell you, which surprisingly doesn't happen. Usually it's, hey, can you pick up your script and sign here? So just letting them know that I was the pharmacist and, a funny story is I used to. Yeah. Ask patients, well, what are you taking this medication for because they tell us to do that in pharmacy school to check learning and understand they could be on it for different things.

And a lot of people started to look at me like I was a bit crazy because they're like, well, don't you know, you're the pharmacist so that was kind of fun, but it led to some really good conversations. And so that was the brand in our pharmacy that you were going to get to talk to the pharmacist.

The pharmacist was going to share information and not just say, what questions do you have? and I think that really drove people in because they wanted that level of experience or, where they're not reading things on the back of the vial where it says, Hey, if they're under a certain age, go call your doctor.

Well, what do you do when you have a sick kid with a fever who's five and you don't know the right dose, your pharmacy's there. So that was our brand and our identity. but I would love to hear from both of you, maybe some other ways [00:16:00] to really, come up with a brand. What are some active things pharmacies could do?

Kristin: I'll start with one so, If you can find a slogan, if you can take what you just said, and if you can put words to it, even if it's, we're here for you, it doesn't have to be rocket science, but it's something that you can tag your messaging with. Or where you can always talk to the pharmacist, we're here for you, or you take that same, trait and you can't be in the front end all the time when you're behind the counter and maybe it's suggestive, shelf talkers where, pharmacist Suzanne recommends is.

Whatever product it is, or another staff member, one of Renee's favorites for cold and cough, and if you can start infusing whatever it is that's most important and defines you throughout your store and your messaging, it reinforces it even when you aren't able to. [00:17:00] To be there front and center and that's really branding in a nutshell.

It's tactics and tools that help reinforce what you stand for when you can't always be the voice.

Suzanne: My local bookstore has, those shelf talkers that staff recommendations and they always catch my eye even if there's something I think I wouldn't normally look at. So, great suggestion.

And Renee, I know, I know you have a bunch of good ones too from your time in the pharmacy.

Renee: one thing is, I know of a pharmacy that had a compounding division, or section and they created a bottom rash ointment for babies, and it actually worked really, really well.

got really well known in the community. It was called Benson's Bottom Paint. And they marketed that, and they became the pharmacy known for Benson's Bottom Paint. Um, sounds kind of silly, but, more than just, moms and dads would go in, it became quite a product for all of their customers. And, so, yeah, where are you going to go?

I'm going to go to that place with Benson's Bottom Paint. I'm going to go over there. Because they know what [00:18:00] they're doing, and they found some credibility through that because it was a nice product, and it was catchy. 

Kristin: compounding is a great added revenue, so it's something that really promoted beyond just that one product, their ability to compound all kinds of things.

You're listening to Independent Insights, a McKesson Health Mart podcast with host Suzanne Feeney, VP Pharmacy Retail Operations for McKesson/Health Mart. And guests. Renee Dudek, Manager of Local Marketing for McKesson Health Mart and Kristin Rademacher, Marketing Director for McKesson Health Mart. 

Let's continue.

Suzanne: As I hear both of you talk it's just so fascinating because, Kristin, you always come in then with there's a process and there's a strategic plan within marketing, but it's hard because it feels a little bit like organic and magic at the same time too.

 There's so much work that goes into it. And it's not just luck, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I mean, sometimes it is right. We all have maybe some of those viral moments, but can [00:19:00] you talk a little bit about how the pharmacy can balance that? I feel like we're always hanging in this balance of.

Do I put time and effort into it, or can it just happen? How does the magic happen? What is that framework and structure? 

Kristin: So, the first thing I would suggest is be true to who you are. So, Benson's bottom paint was something that They didn't invent it for a marketing gimmick.

They invented it. It was a great product. And then they leaned into it. So, find where you are comfortable as a pharmacist, or if you're a technician listening to this, find areas where you are comfortable, where you could support the pharmacy's message and who they are at their core. So, it's not a fluke.

It is planned, but it also doesn't have to be mysterious. Find something that you're comfortable with and lean into it and then be consistent with that message. Maybe it's something where you just, your store [00:20:00] loves decorating for the seasons. Well then work your marketing plan around seasonal specials.

Maybe it's, end caps. Maybe it's the kit you mentioned Suzanne. That's a great idea. Maybe you promote a special product or a basket that you put together specifically for a season or to that end. Maybe it's something for your community that you are really known for your friend and selection of gifts or gifts.

Greeting cards. I know one of our advisory board members, they became known as the puzzle store because during COVID, they started adding puzzles to their front end. And to this day, they're known for their puzzles. So, it can seem like a bit of a fluke, but if you add something, that's again, going back to your measurements, look at your data and what are sales for a particular product.

And if you see something that's going really well, lean into it.

Suzanne: And that feels easy. If something's going well and it's [00:21:00] working, just go all in, lead into it. So now the hard part, we talk a little bit about budget and return on investment or ROI. what should an independent pharmacies marketing budget look like?

 If we have to give people a jumping off point, that's not zero? Or it's not throwing it on the shoulders of everybody else. That's already there. What does that look like?

Kristin: So NCPA suggests 4 percent of a pharmacy's gross revenues should be used for marketing.

So, if you bring that back down, if you're bringing in 5 million dollars a year and your gross profits. Are about a million dollars. You take 4 percent of that. And that brings you to about 40, 000 a year that would be allocated for marketing or a little over three grand a month, and it's a benchmark. So don't feel overwhelmed if you're not at that spot.

And also, it depends again, like we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, where you are in the life cycle of your business. If you are a brand-new business, [00:22:00] You probably would do well to try to invest that 4 percent to establish yourself. If you are more established, you might be able to pare back on that a little bit.

Or if it's a new product or line that you want to introduce, you might want to even do more than that for a period of time. But that's an average. Renee, you have great experience in the data and measurement so that stores can make the most of that. 

Renee: Yeah, measurement can be confusing at times.

So to simplify it, a couple of easy ways to measure our patient count is your patient count going up. , now that you're running your marketing, you can run that through your, pharmacy program and know how many new profiles that you've created in a month, also basket size. So, when people are coming in and purchasing something, how much are they purchasing?

You know, is it $25? Is it two items? Is it three items? Where do you want that to be? And then look again at your, highest margin items and where's the opportunity there. Is it supplements? [00:23:00] Is it, during the holiday season? Do you offer batteries with toys? You know, it's the suggestive selling again.

 I like to call it, being helpful selling, to let people know that you're just trying to help them out, they don't want to make another errand. So, if they're buying a toy, should they buy batteries? Supplements are a great opportunity.

Services are a good opportunity; people feel confused about their medications and would really love to talk with somebody and set aside some time for that. And again, you're being the expert in helping them., I think those are two things you could do. Patient count and basket size. Some low cost, no cost things.

Again, just that I call it upsell or helpful sell. Signage on the shelf. I know Kristin, talked about that earlier, but what if you had a sign that said, hey, pharmacist, Katie recommends vitamin D during January because we're all without sun. And vitamin D can help with mood.

It can help with body function and then just start that conversation. Maybe somebody would come to the counter and start that conversation. Look at again your largest margin [00:24:00] items and what's on demand? Like, what are people buying?

Suzanne: Look at what cycles. So, if you're going into the fall and it's summer, you're doing some planning, okay, what were my top items? Run some reports and know what your top items were going into that season.

Renee: Well, especially going into like cold and flu season. What is recommended? Do you have to buy a brand name? No, you don't. You know, the ingredients are exactly the same in most cases. So why would you pay $2 more? And then on the pharmacy end of it, your margin is a lot better with, a generic than it is a brand.

So, just looking at those things and deciding where you want to start, what do you want to measure? And then, once you start your marketing, start counting that and start looking each month at what's happening. 

Kristin: You guys had some great. Stats so when you first started, you found that 82 percent of the customers were not purchasing a front-end item. Once you started marketing activities and you measured again, what did you find? What did the data show as far as the success of [00:25:00] the efforts? 

Renee: So, it was 82 percent not buying a front-end item. I think we ended up shifting that to 65%. So, we had a lot of people starting to buy front end items.

We also implemented our, drive thru program. So now when people came up and, we asked them if they had seen our flyer had they seen what we had on sale that month, or we saw that they were taking a certain medication, maybe a supplement would help.

And by the way, we have those buy two, get one free this month. Would you like me to go ahead and add that to your Purchase and all of those things helped. It was just, again, that what is working, what are our patients taking for medications, where are opportunities, if they have a diabetic medication let them know about an education series that you have coming up, just to talk about, I know you've been on this medication for a while, but there's some new technology.

There's some new information out there. We're going to be sharing that on Saturday. Bring your friends, family. We can help you out with that. Another opportunity. It's just, again, taking a look at the medication. So GLP ones, we know [00:26:00] that those aren’t, necessarily a revenue driver right now, but where are the opportunities there?

You know, people have a lot of nausea with that. So why don't you recommend a nausea medication or, there are protein shakes out there. It's not easy to keep food down necessarily when you take that medication, but a protein shake could help. And again, you're being that helpful pharmacist, but also taking a look at things that help with your revenue and your margins.

Suzanne: We talk about, okay, what is this benchmark? And Kristin, I heard you say, about $3,000 a month, is a benchmark, right? And it could be more than that. If you're rolling something out, it could be certainly less than that, but where should pharmacies invest these dollars?

Is it hiring somebody to do marketing? Is it running ads? We can talk about a little bit about an online presence. Oftentimes paying for some of the services to help support search engine optimization or SEO that can be helpful. So how do you decide what to do?

 You make the decision as a pharmacy that you're going to allot some dollars for this. We've talked about different things to measure. But what do you do [00:27:00] besides hiring somebody to manage marketing full time? Where can you spend some of those funds? 

Kristin: And even if you don't have the funds to be able to hire someone full time, there are a lot of great, efficient digital tools that you can use that help you be places where you cannot be.

So, SEO means search engine optimization. It's when people search online for something, it's helping your business grow. Results your pharmacy to come up higher in the results that the person gets so the majority of your audience starts their search for a product or service online. So, you need to be there if you are not doing some type of online advertising you need to be there.

Suzanne: Would you say that's true based on geography? No matter where you're at, you should have some sort of online presence. 

Kristin: Correct. So more than 70 percent of the population [00:28:00] starts online, depending what age you are, is whether you start on social media.

So, Instagram, TikTok, or whether you're using a Google search engine. For the most part, for independent pharmacy, the target audience is a little bit older. I don't mean elderly, but it's you're talking 35 on up. 

Suzanne: It's not the 20-year-olds who are finding it on TikTok. It's probably something new now, not even TikTok.

Kristin: So that group starts online and a very easy, no cost way to help Your search engine optimization is to ensure you have a Google business listing. If you do not have a Google and I'll throw Bing in there as well. But Google is probably the more popular search engine. It is free to you to start a Google business listing.

Basically, it is. You claim your business. It allows you to post pictures. It allows you to get [00:29:00] reviews, solicit reviews from your customers. It allows people to add photos themselves, and it's no cost to you. And that helps you to rank higher in the results that return when people are looking for you.

 When you hear marketing, it doesn't always mean I have to spend a boatload. You need to make sure some basic things are in place. 1st, there are services. And for Health Mart customers, we have a program that allows you to put your listing in once and we'll publicize your listing over 60 different online directories like Yelp, Bing, Google, et cetera.

And it's very economical, but that's a way to make sure that when people are searching for you that you're found. You can also do a paid campaign. And what that means is you are going to put dollars towards certain keywords that people would search for. So, pharmacy near me, flu [00:30:00] medications, wheelchair near me.

You kind of put yourself in the shoes of your patients. If I'm looking for services, what would I put in the search function? 

Suzanne: And, and I'm just thinking, I support a lot of pharmacies in very rural areas who could potentially be starting point of care testing. So, while all their patients in that, 2400 or smaller community go to them for their medications and maybe puzzles or whatever they've leaned into.

If you are starting that new service. They might not know that you offer that, so this is a key case where they're going online saying hey, I need to get a strep test for my child. Where can I go because it's Saturday at 8 p. m. What's open tomorrow? So they're doing that search process and with that what you just described Those keywords that you maybe you would pay for when you're launching something new even in a smaller rural area That pharmacy would show up then and that might be news to a patient who's only coming in every three months 

Kristin: Sure, and so at this point I imagine some of you are [00:31:00] probably like, oh, wow, that's like really overwhelming because.

Honestly, digital marketing can be overwhelming, even for somebody who works in the profession. It's ever changing the algorithms that different sites use change. So, I would recommend if you need to allocate your budget, make sure you have a place, which I would say is a website, preferably over a Facebook page.

Make sure you have a place for consumers to land. So if they are searching, they need to be able to click through to find you and hire someone to help you get your website in a good spot, and then I would also allocate budget to digital marketing, whether that's paid search, that's probably your best place to start, and that's those keywords that we talked about.

So if someone is searching for a strep test, you're going to come up and also for a more rural [00:32:00] setting for a pharmacy owner, you can play with your, uh, you hear the word geo targeting, but you can play with the range of where you want to target people. So, for an urban area, you might just want three to five miles right around your store for an urban area.

You might want to target 15 to 20 miles out because you know, that's going to pull from the next town over to come in. So those are things that you can control. And. I would suggest that you pay for someone to help you initially with setting up your search and then making sure your website's friendly to use so that customers have a good spot to land.

Suzanne: I did want to ask, you mentioned, to have a website versus just a social media like Facebook page. Can you expand a little bit on, why that's so important?

Kristin: For Facebook the algorithm only about 40 percent of the people who actually have liked your page are going to see your message on a regular basis.

And for Facebook, [00:33:00] again, only the people who have liked your page. So, for a digital campaign, you could do Facebook ads that's going to go out to people who match your customer target who might not already interact with your page. So that's going to get people into your page to find you to click through to your website to introduce them to you, your store, your services, your brand, and they might start following you after that.

But the Facebook algorithms really aren't great at, you're not reaching as many people as you may think you are if you are simply using your Facebook page as a way to promote your store. 

Suzanne: And it feels like if I'm looking for a strep test, just to keep going back to that example, I'm probably going to go to a search engine and pop it in there, versus going to something on social media.

So that could be totally missed. 

Kristin: Yes, and SEO. [00:34:00] So again, search engine optimization, the search engines, the term is they like to crawl different sites to match the keywords with what you have on your site with your website. You can use. The way it is written to make sure that those keywords are resonating.

If you want to do strep test as a keyword search, you need to make sure on your website, you have something about a strep test. So even when you're not paying for that term to come up, if somebody puts in strep test. And the search engine crawls in a radius right around that person, they're going to match up, find those words on your website and bring that back to the customer as a result.

And that's not quite the way the Facebook algorithms work. They do crawl Facebook, but you'd be better off having a website where you are in more control of what those [00:35:00] keywords are.

Suzanne: So, I'm hearing definitely getting a website up and going to make sure you have some sort of presence in digital media space for these search engines.

You can have photos of your location and then also reviews. I think reviews are so important, in this day and age. So, I think all three of those things can really come with that website. 

One of the things I wanted to talk a little bit about was for those who are listening, who are health Mart franchise member, we do have a lot of tools and resources available to you.

So we wanted to just spend a couple of minutes and specifically talk to that group of folks who are listening in, because we do have a marketing platform where you're able to use some allocated funds to have digital support, reputation management, social listings, which is really helpful to get this off the ground.

And we also have a lot of tools that are available to help you integrate marketing, resources. So, to really help you level the playing field. So, you don't have to come up with things like circulars or some other basic marketing concepts that you have available to you [00:36:00] as part of your franchise.

So, Renee, I know you're talking about marketing edge all the time with me and the pharmacies that I work with. so, give maybe the high-level overview of marketing edge and how our pharmacy teams can use that for success.

Renee: It's a great resource. There are many printed materials or marketing materials that you can just simply download. You can get them printed or you can download them, print them yourself. Anything from bag stuffers to flyers A frames, banners, you name it. And they can find branded merchandise on the site. Which is, you know, if you want your staff to be known for all looking the same and professional and scrubs, we have those, or there are those on the site, 

Suzanne: I see t shirts a lot that look really great.

So, and the whole team looks uniform. 

Renee: Yeah. In addition to that, there are, marketing resources. So, if you're wondering what to do for the month of October, we have a planner on there that'll tell you things that you can promote within your store in October, so that when you're working on that plan, you can work ahead.

Suzanne: Wait, I love that. 

So, we talked about strategy and planned and here it is. It's [00:37:00] available for Health Mart pharmacies. 

Renee: And then we have some, simple digital marketing plans that are turnkey. So, we can plug in, whatever you're wanting to promote. We have some, things planned out that we're promoting each month, which might make sense for your pharmacy, and you can just plug right into it.

 It's a great resource for the pharmacies and then also for those Health Mart pharmacies, some funds available where, we'll help you with your marketing. As long as we're co-branded with Health Mart and your pharmacy, there are some funds available to help you out with your marketing to make that leap into it a little easier.

Kristin: I think also to add to Marketing Edge is you've got a team of folks who are here and happy to help you. Your sales consultant, Suzanne is part of the VP pro team. They've got another layer of support and Renee, and I are here to help with any questions that you may have. That might come up and you can reach us through your sales consultant. [00:38:00] 

Suzanne: Yeah, that's a great call out, Kristin, because a lot of times, the sales consultants are really there to help you tap into all these resources. So, if you're a Health Mart pharmacy and you're listening into this now and you're like, oh, you know, as soon as I get through respiratory season, I'm I am starting the new year off with a marketing plan.

You can come back and listen to this. You can talk to your sales consultant. And then Kristin mentioned, my role is a VP pro. But there's seven of us across the country, and we're really here as pharmacists to help you as a resource. So, depending on what state you're in, you can certainly reach out for shared brainstorming around marketing with somebody who's a pharmacist or has been in pharmacy for a long time.

Well, thank you both so much for your time, you know at independent insights, which is a health Mart podcast We really work to bring together independent pharmacy owners and other community pharmacy experts to inspire all pharmacy team members So plug in each month and you'll hear ways to innovate patient care services and strengthen the overall health of your business.

Subscribe to Independent Insights wherever you listen to podcasts. New episodes are released [00:39:00] weekly. Together, let's make a lasting impact and shape the future of pharmacy.