My weeks have been filled with a lot of meetings of late and in these meetings a common theme keeps cropping up. All pharmacies are looking for a simple marketing strategy that they can implement to boost their customers’ average spend in store. The most common approach in pharmacy is when a patient needs a specific prescription or service, your team is trained to offer additional products or services during that transaction. This is a valuable yet simple method, and I recommend for every pharmacy to do this.
Following these meetings, I've been pondering other ways to increase revenue however I've also observed that pharmacies are currently wanting only efficient and, more importantly, cost-effective strategies. Budgets are getting tighter, and I understand the importance of looking at what you can do in store without breaking the bank. So, I want to share a straightforward and budget-friendly marketing idea for your pharmacy.
Let’s get cracking!
Buyer Personas
Referring back to the start of this article about the add-on item for your patient transactions, this theory is deep rooted in understanding how you, as a pharmacy can better help a patient with their health. You’re essentially pre-empting what they need before they realise they need it. The concept of buyer personas has a very similar thought process.
So, what is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer for a business (in this case your pharmacy.) It is based on market research and data and typically includes demographic information, behaviours, goals, challenges, and preferences of this target customer group. Buyer personas will help you better understand your customers and tailor your communication trails to effectively reach and engage with them.
I suggest creating buyer personas for 2-3 customer groups who frequently visit your pharmacy. These personas should represent individuals most likely to make purchases at your pharmacy in the next 1-3 months. When I say, "create a buyer persona," I mean thoroughly explore the details of these individuals, such as their preferences, health concerns, values, and lifestyle. The more you understand your persona, the more effectively you can market to them. Some examples of buyer personas are a first-time mother, niche health issue such as Diabetes or Asthma patient, or it could be age centric, like a senior patient.
To explain this useful tool for your pharmacy, I have created my very own buyer persona.
As seen in the above example, creating a persona requires planning. You need to understand your patients and figure out how your pharmacy can make their lives better. Your pharmacy team has an extensive wealth of knowledge when it comes to health conditions because they've studied them for years and patients may not know as much and require your expertise. Your research and training are helping patients in addition to their prescriptions requirements. You're telling them about other ways your pharmacy can support them. Furthermore, you can create what I like to call patient journeys for your patients. When it comes to social media, email marketing and SMS, I like the content to be purpose driven. By having a buyer persona set up for specific groups you’re ensuring that when you’re investing time in sending content, it relates to the patient. Below, based on Annie’s persona, I have created a table of communication across various channels for a 12-month period.
As you can see, I've crafted a communication plan based on Annie's buyer persona aiming to consistently prompt her to visit the pharmacy. The core idea is to establish the pharmacy as Annie's trusted health provider in managing her asthma. This strategy is straightforward because it's rooted in leveraging the pharmacy's expertise to improve her life. Ultimately, patients are continuously seeking solutions to their problems and our role is to proactively remind them to visit and ensure they are taking an active role in their healthcare with you rather than leaving all decisions to them.
As you assess your pharmacy's growth potential and explore ways to increase revenue, consider developing buyer personas tailored to your pharmacy. Once you've established these personas, create a communication calendar for engaging with your patients. What's particularly valuable about these buyer personas is that they provide an understanding of how you can assist your patients. Furthermore, they simplify the process of planning your content calendar for email, SMS, and social media marketing efforts.
I would love to see which popular personas are coming to your pharmacy so as a bonus, I have provided a free template link below for our buyer personas. Download a copy and get started on creating your personas today.