As a consumer this is a question I am frequently asked. To be honest, nine times out of ten I will say yes. Why? Well, because I love the freebies and discount! Witchery (my fav women’s retailer) gets me every time with a $10 reward and then me walking away with a new $200 dress.
I understand that loyalty programs are tried and tested marketing channels for thousands of pharmacies across Australia. But today, I want to talk about the power of customer data versus customer incentives to create loyalty. This is because, I believe the power in loyalty programs is the data.
So, when a customer agrees to sign up to your loyalty program, they give away some data. Normally its their email address, mobile and sometimes a birthday. This goes into your database and that’s where they are notified of various promotions in store and where there are incentives. This data is a gold mine for pharmacies! And below in the next few paragraphs I will share why.
Grow your marketing funnel
A marketing funnel is the steps a customer takes from first finding out about your brand until they convert. The best way to explain this is through this visual:
Regarding your loyalty program, when collecting and signing up more customers to your database, you are essentially adding more and more to the marketing funnel. Yes, they have made a purchase and have already visited your pharmacy however, we want to create customer loyalty. Essentially customers continually work through the marketing funnel.
Influence purchasing decisions
When do you believe purchasing decision are made by customers?
Well, if I draw on my personal experience, I generally make the decision to visit my local pharmacy before I step foot into their store. It is because they have a solution to a problem I currently have, whether that be filling a script, getting a vaccine, or picking up QV wash.
Now this is where a loyalty program comes in handy! This is because the program could communicate to customers outside of your pharmacy and influence their purchasing decisions.
Think about it, if my local pharmacy is sending me regular reminders about booking a flu vaccine because I was a part of their loyalty program, this could impact my decision to go to that pharmacy. Collecting data about your customers allows you to then market back to them in their own environment.
Tracking buying behaviour
With sophisticated loyalty programs, you have the nifty tool of tracking buying behaviour. This meaning, you can see what your customers have purchased whether that be retail products or a health service.
Having this data is extremely handy for marketing. Why? Because you can segment your loyalty program members to target specified content to them. For example, I was working with a pharmacy who wanted to notify their sleep aponea patients of a promotion on a sleep machine. This is a specific product that is of value to only those suffering with sleep aponea. Therefore, rather than disrupting or annoying the other members, we segmented the database to send an email to only sleep aponea patients.
Having the ability to remarket to customer based on their purchasing decisions is a great tool to have.
Most importantly, your loyalty program is about building relationships
I understand that the above may sound a bit “big brother” and you may feel like this could be an annoyance to your customers. At Peak Strategies, our number one value is relationships and when looking at loyalty programs, I want you to embody that perspective. You are looking at how you can assist customer with their personalised needs. The more you know someone, the better you can understand them. So, that’s why loyalty member data is so powerful for your marketing toolkit.
Would you like to learn more about how to optimise your digital marketing strategy? Check out our online pharmacy marketing course here.
Or send us an enquiry and we can see how we can help.
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