A question we get all the time is do you offer social media management?
The answer is no. And here is why.
Although we can manage your accounts and there are many pharmacies that do outsource their social media management. We see the best results when the accounts are managed by the team internally.
What makes community pharmacy so different from other businesses is the relationship your team has with their customers.
Community pharmacy isn’t about selling products to the masses, it is about tailored care for individuals. So, this needs to be reflected in your marketing strategy.
As a community pharmacy you are not selling products, you are selling expertise. So, that is why it is so important to get your team involved with your digital and social media marketing efforts.
Often it can be hard to find someone who wants to take on ‘extra work’, but as an owner you need to allow flexibility and opportunity for someone to take over this role. We have found it works best when a pharmacy or retail assistant takes on the role and with the right structure it will only take a couple hours per week.
A few ways to help get the buy in from your team include:
Start the conversation. Open and honest communication is key. If your team understands what your goals are as a business they will be able to feel more involved and a trusted part of the team. This communication needs to be ongoing, weekly is ideal but monthly works too based on your availability.
A good way to structure this is for there to be a monthly marketing report which is shared with the team and owners. This is an opportunity to see what did well in the months and what did not do as well. It will allow the whole team to feel involved and help bring new ideas to the table. If a team member sees a post they were involved in creating did well, this will encourage them to get more involved in the future.
This meeting then paves the way for the following month's content, plan out every post you want for that month at the start. That way you are ahead of the game and are actually saving yourself time. It is then just 10minutes or so per day to check the accounts, reply to any messages or comments and spend time liking and following other pages.
Set KPIs for your team. This is not just about your marketing person, but your whole team. A few KPIs which I encourage are sign ups for your rewards program and scripts on file. A key part of pharmacy is creating loyalty with your customers. Your rewards program and your scripts on file are the best ways to do this.
This can also be a part of your monthly reporting process. Set monthly goals and report back on the progress of these. If your team reached or exceeds their goal, offer a reward. Something as simple as a free lunch or coffee can go a long way to build a positive store culture.
Use a Content Calendar. Just because one person is responsible for the marketing, doesn't mean all responsibility to get photos and videos is on them. A content calendar is a technique we use to help share responsibility and accountability across the team.
A content calendar allows you to plan your content across the month based on your niche and content pillars. It is then up to your team to take responsibility for one or more of these pieces of content (photos and videos).
Content pillars are topics of interest for your target market. For example a pharmacy which has a demographic of young families may want to have their 4 content pillars as, fertility, baby care, pregnancy and I always encourage the last pillar to be team.
The reason it is so important to have a focus on your team is that at the end of the day this is your point of difference, no other pharmacy has your unique team. I have also found that the top engagement posts are always team based. This includes celebrating birthdays, training days, promotions, marriages, babies and anything else your team is happy to share.
If you are interested in learning more about how to get the buy-in from your team, this is one of the lessons in our Pharmacy Marketing 101 Module.
The Marketing Module is one of the easiest ways to get your team started and feel confident about taking over social media for your pharmacy. It is a 12 week course designed to teach your team everything they need to know about pharmacy marketing in just an hour per week.
The best part? We can get you started at any time and I (Renee) am here every step of the way to help and support your team.
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading and your reward is your own Content Calendar template to use in your pharmacy! Simply fill out the form below to download.