Pharmacy Marketing in 2020 Part 1 – Methods

Marketing in 2020 has changed! However, are organizations understanding how to effectively promote their messages in the current market landscape?

For years, marketing teams have been loading up their brochures and shinny company pens to visit prospective and current customers. Times have changed with the COVID-19 virus. It’s difficult to market your services in this manner as many communities are on lock down to protect our seniors and those which are most vulnerable. Good luck getting in the door!

There are several ways to market in 2020. Lets talk about four: onsite visits, phone calls, emails and through your website. On-site visits are difficult in the current market and for the foreseeable future as behaviors of restricting visitors are likely to carry over of for at least all of 2020 and possibly into 2021. Phone calls can be effective, but, take time and are many times left unanswered. Emails can be effective, but, it takes time to write, especially when companies craft emails one by one. Our experience is that most company websites are largely ineffective for a number of reasons.

Our belief at aplaceformeds.com is that we can market your pharmacy effectively which will create value for both the pharmacy and the facility. We are creating good opportunities for pharmacies and those facilities looking for a quality pharmacy but don’t know how to find them effectively. Our main goals are to link those facilities who are not satisfied with their current pharmacy service, while promoting retention and quality interactions with pharmacies that subscribe to our service through education and resources.

Now what about cost? The largest cost a pharmacy will have is always their employees. Lets say a pharmacy has a marketing budget of $10,000 a month, $8,500 was in wages. In 2019, there was travel expenses that cost the company $1,000 a month due to facility visits. Now with the current stay in place orders that are in effect, companies are now only spending $300. This is a huge opportunity. Smart Pharmacies should spend $100 on aplaceformeds.com, sign up for Zoom to do virtual meetings, and subscribe to an email service like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp and build an email database for both customers and prospects.

Using aplaceformeds.com will allow you to get your message out to a large audience and provide you with leads sent directly to your inbox. We also provide information on who to contact if they are interested in interviewing your pharmacy and who to contact if a current customer is having issues. Our staff does the rest in terms of marketing.

With all of the technology and resources available in 2020, don’t get complacent of marketing in ways that will cost your money. Let me give you an example:

The company goal is to communicate with 200 facilities.

Car Travel

First member of your staff decides to get in their car and do road trips. The goal is 5 facilities a day with a lunch appointment each day. This will take the person 40 business days or 2 months if this was all the person did. From a cost perspective lets say 40 miles a day at $0.50 a mile and lunch at $35. The company is paying $55 a day in travel and lunches alone. How much time is spent looking at the windshield? How many people are present when the visit is made and what is the quality of the sales pitch?

Phone Calls

Second member of your staff decides to phone all the facilities at the office. The goal is 20 phone calls a day with emails to those that they speak with. 10 business days to completion but, this is hard to stick with it as most sales people don’t have the determination to make these calls consistently. If successful, there can be email follow up and even do a video conference using technology. It is challenging to speak with the decision makers and to deliver a focused message to help them to make the change. Timing is everything.

Emails

The third member of your staff spends time crafting a personal message to all 200 individuals. This can be tedious for the employee and will take some time to complete. However, 30 emails can be done a day. Just like phone calls, it is hard to stick with it but, these calls could be completed in 8 days.

Importance of Digital Marketing

The reality is that a combination of all these methods is going to give you the maximum results and digital marketing is key. I would say that having a plan of continuously communicating a message at least monthly is very important for your marketing teams to do and dispense this message to your customers. There may not be huge results to begin with but, over time your message will be heard as you do all that you can to communicate your message using digital marketing. Our company, Impact LTC and aplaceformeds.com are great resources for your pharmacy to help you to maximize your results.