Posts

Ultimate Guide to Black Friday & Cyber Monday for Pharmaciy

The Ultimate Guide to Black Friday & Cyber Monday for Pharmacy

Black Friday & Cyber Monday starts on the final Friday of November. This year, it will fall on 25th November. This guide shows you everything you need for making a massive boom in your pharmacy’s bottom line this Black Friday weekend.

What is Black Friday & Cyber Monday?

Black Friday & Cyber Monday are Red Letter Days when it comes to shopping. In recent times, they’ve been joined by “Small Business Saturdays,” where supporting local businesses is encouraged. But by and large, Black Friday & Cyber Monday are the attention grabbers.

Black Friday

Black Friday is a significant date because it’s the first weekend after the final payday before Christmas. The event pre-dated offers and promotions, and was simply a date where most people would conduct their Christmas shop.

Over time, that overwhelming volume of shoppers drove competition between businesses, who’ve steadily driven down prices in attempts to lure customers through their doors.

Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is a more recent addition, created by retailers to encourage eCommerce spend and traditionally offers deals on smaller electronic goods and items. It is only really a thing because of Black Friday.

However, with the rise in prominence of eCommerce in recent years, Cyber Monday is actually bigger than Black Friday!

How much do people spend on Black Friday weekends?

The average UK consumer is predicted to spend £283 over the Black Friday weekend, a whopping 25% increase from last year, according to research from Emarsys.

“But there’s a Cost of Living crisis!” I hear you yelling in your brain at me. “Surely people will spend less?!”

It’s precisely because there’s an economic downturn that people will spend more on Black Friday.

With less money to spend, people want more bang for their proverbial buck. Saving 30% on your overall Christmas spend sounds far more attractive when you’re spending 70% more on heating your house.

So let’s get into how you and your pharmacy make Black Friday & Cyber Monday work for you.

1. Pick your promotions and choose your discounts carefully

Standing out on Black Friday is massively down to what your promotions are, and what they include.

Balancing that with remaining profitable is where the sweet spot in the Venn diagram is.

Offering 90% discounts gets you noticed, but leaves you out of pocket.

Offering 5% discounts keeps your margins high, but won’t attract loads of new business.

Figuring out the best promotions depends on what you offer as a pharmacy, who your local community are, and who your competitors are.

Be careful (read also: Don’t do this) around including things like Emergency Contraception in promotions. Boots did this and faced a lot of backlash, suggesting if they could afford to make the prices lower, they should do that permanently.

Luxury, cosmetic and retail items are your candidates. Urgent health necessities should be avoided.

The opportunity of Black Friday weekend is bigger than the weekend

And don’t forget that attracting new business generates more awareness for your pharmacy in the future. If you made a small loss on Black Friday weekend but gained hundreds of new patients going forwards, that’s potentially a worthwhile trade-off.

For example, offering a heavy discount on a new service, like Ear Health Clinics, gives people a reason to try your service instead of their regular provider. Blow them away with your service, and you become their new regular provider. Private healthcare services like this help you stand out on Black Friday, because most retailers cannot offer them, making it unique.

2. Utilise your Social Media platforms

A pharmacy’s social media followers have almost certainly visited the pharmacy before and enjoyed the experience. Why else would they follow you on Social Media?

It’s a no-brainer to promote your deals to your own community, those who trust you are your most likely visitors.

How much promotion is too much promotion? The 80/20 rule is a good rule of thumb. If 80% of your content is organic, community-based posts for your community, 20% can be promotional. If you post five times a day, one of these can be a Black Friday post. Five times a week? One of these can be a Black Friday post.

Please don’t post the same post over and over again. That’s how you lose followers.

Also, bear in mind you’re adding to a lot of Black Friday noise – try and stand out with your content as well as your offers.

3. Send Black Friday Promos to your Mailing List (if you have one!)

Emails are one of the best options for getting your promotions out to your community. Why? Because unlike with social media, you guarantee that the email is sent to the recipient. Yes, they may not check their emails, and yes they might not open your email, but it guarantees that chance.

Social media, unless your post has attracted a lot of engagement, may only be seen by 10% of your following.

Emails get sent to every single person on your mailing list.

Don’t have a mailing list for your pharmacy? Read, (or bookmark to read later) our complete guide to Email Marketing for Pharmacies.

Sending an email a week before your Black Friday deals, the day before, and on the day, makes sure you’re at the forefront of people’s minds when they’re thinking of the deals they can get.

So if you do have a mailing list, use it! (And if you don’t have one, get one!)

4. Beat your competitors’ Black Friday deals

Black Friday was borne out of competition for consumers’ attention, and it remains the tinder on which the money in consumer’s pockets burn.

Paying attention to your competition is critical.

After all, it doesn’t matter if you’re offering 20% off if a pharmacy across the road is offering 30% off everything. There’s loyalty to your pharmacy, but there’s also loyalty to one’s own bank accounts.

5. Don’t be afraid of spending money (especially promoting eCommerce offers!)

If you’ve got an eCommerce arm to your pharmacy business, capitalising on Cyber Monday is an option you shouldn’t overlook.

With the potential to make multiple thousands of pounds in retail sales, spending a couple of hundred pounds guaranteeing people find your website and products isn’t a bad idea.

With both Google Ads & Facebook Ads, your discounts and offers can be seen by thousands of people on a weekend where spending money is at the forefront of their minds.

If, because you’re a pharmacist and not a digital marketer, you want help managing digital advertising, we can help.

6. Feature your products in your promotions!

It isn’t enough to say 20% off everything in-store, especially when, as a pharmacy, you’ll have to put the dreaded asterisk* against everything* to exclude prescription medication.

When every retailer is offering these discounts, yours won’t stand out.

Feature and promote the products you believe generate the most excitement in your store, like NuroKor or Fitness trackers! Discounts on bigger ticket items are the most enticing reason people visit specific retailers.

So if you’re discounting them…feature them in your promotions!

Enjoyed this article? Sign up for our FREE Newsletter for Pharmacy Growth Hacks like this one and get notified every time we release a new article.

/by
6 unusual pharmacy partners

6 Unusual (but Useful!) Community Pharmacy Partners

Making partnerships in your community is a great way of increasing your community presence and growing your business.

The reality when looking for pharmacy partners, is that striking up relationships with any business in your community is possible. Whilst partnering with the local GP surgery goes without saying, there are other partnerships with natural two-way referrals that often go unexplored.

1. Gyms & Leisure Centres

We’ll start with perhaps the most obvious pharmacy partners of the bunch, the place where people either live or avoid…the gym.

The exact nature of the partnership may depend on what your pharmacy offers, and what type of facility you’re partnering with. For example, a relaxed spa-type leisure centre may prove a better partner for a Health Food Pharmacy or an Aesthetics specialist. More of your iron-pumping, gut-crunching, throwing tyres at punching bags gyms may refer more naturally to a pharmacy with a good range of supplements.

woman lifting weights at the gym

2. Travel Agents

Errr…do I really need to explain this one?

The unusual thing about this partnership is that it shouldn’t be unusual. Travel Agents make excellent pharmacy partners. But many pharmacists don’t bother building relationships with Travel Agents.

Sure, there’s very little chance of you being able to refer them business, but perhaps offering a discounted rate for their referrals gives them an extra value proposition to their clients.

High street travel agents might be less likely to partner (though you don’t ask, you don’t get) but self-employed Independent Travel Agents are increasingly common.

You’ll often find them on Instagram, so reach out to them and ask! Even if you get blanked, what has it cost? And what do you stand to gain? The risk/reward is so disproportionate, the only reason I can think of that more pharmacies don’t do this is that they’ve not thought of it.

So, you’re welcome.

a message on instagram reaching out to an independent travel agent to propose becoming pharmacy partners

A direct message (DM) sent on Instagram.

3. Furniture Shops

This is definitely a bit more left field, but there’s definitely scope for back and forth between a pharmacy dealing with people with posture and mobility issues and furniture shops which provide specialist furniture to support these issues.

Whether it’s a patient complaining about back pain despite being given the right treatment, or a customer purchasing a bed or a chair who complains about chronic or debilitating pain, there’s room for both parties to refer to each other for additional support.

The large furniture retailers are probably harder to contact, but if you focus on smaller, local businesses, firing them an email is again a very small output of time for the potential of a partnership.

bed with mattress

4. Personal Trainers/Yoga Instructors

Both personal trainers and Yoga Instructors work very closely with people actively taking measures to improve their health.

They also tend to have good ongoing relationships with their clients, and are trusted sources of advice.

Reaching out to these people for a referral exchange? Recommend them to patients looking to get more active, and they recommend patients to you for things like joint supports, supplements, etc. It’s an unusual partnership with a very normal business relationship.

yoga class led by instructor

5. Sports Clubs

Sports clubs are pillars in their communities, and great for bringing people together. They also help keep communities active and healthy, aligning with your goals as a pharmacy (pun intended.)

There’s a range of clubs in most communities, all of which make excellent partners for community pharmacies:

  • Tennis Clubs
  • Football Clubs
  • Athletics Clubs (including Running & Cycling Groups)
  • Rugby Clubs
  • Golf Clubs
  • Crown Green Bowls

Every one of those sports routinely sees minor injuries which don’t need a doctor or a hospital – but often need treatment. And more often than not, they go without treatment, because there is no obvious solution.

Making your local sports clubs aware of your offering and how you can provide a service to their members’ problems is simply a matter of having a conversation and, as with most partnerships, putting up some posters & leaflets around the club.

How can you refer people to sports clubs?

Perhaps you can’t refer people to the sports clubs. Unless you have a fantastic relationship with them and are encouraging more rigorous exercise, it’s likely not a natural course of conversation. But there are multiple ways of reciprocating value:

  • Supplying First Aid Kits
  • Sponsoring Their Kits
  • Offering free assessments for any sports injuries
  • Featuring their posters on your noticeboard.

There’s another set of clubs you can target, namely societies at Universities. But that is such a big opportunity, it deserves its own section.

girls playing volleyball in a sports hall

6. Universities, Societies & Student Unions

There’s a wide range of opportunities for partnerships between pharmacies and universities. It’s a partnership with a lot of potential both ways.

Firstly, in the UK at least, the wait for a university doctor is extensive. Pharmacies offering initial health consultations as an alternative could see a wave of demand from young people with disposable income.

But here are some of the other ways you could provide a value proposition to both the university and its students:

  • Sexual Health Awareness Days
  • Women’s Health Clinics
  • Travel Clinics for Gap Years, Placements & International Students
  • Sports societies for all the same reasons as Sports Clubs
  • Alternative to University Doctor

Driving students into your pharmacy comes with great cross-selling opportunities. Hangover remedies, noise-cancelling earplugs for sleeping, contraception…the list goes on, especially once you’ve talked to the person and understood what their particular needs and circumstances are.

university students

Partnerships shape businesses

One major partnership can revolutionise businesses. Where previously it made no sense to stock certain products, with the right partnerships, they could be your best sellers. It’s worth considering what you’re open to offering, as well as what you do offer when you head into these discussions with potential partners.

Finding Pharmacy Partners is easier online

Whilst meeting face-to-face is always better for building relationships, you understandably won’t have time to schedule meetings all over town.

This is where emails or social media are your friends. Especially a great social media presence.

What’s the first thing you’d do when assessing whether or not a business held any sway with its community?

Pretty much the only thing you can do to assess it. You’d check out how many followers they had, and what kind of engagement they get on their posts.

Of course, that isn’t strictly necessary. If you don’t have a great social media presence, don’t let that stop you from reaching out.

Enjoyed this article? Sign up for our FREE Newsletter for Pharmacy Growth Hacks like this one and get notified every time we release a new article.

/by
Email Marketing for Pharmacy - The Ultimate Guide
, ,

Email Marketing for Pharmacies – The Complete Guide

Attention is an opportunity for relationship building, identifying problems, and presenting solutions. A well-planned email campaign gets you regular attention and the results that follow.

 

Sending emails requires email addresses to send them to. It also requires permission to comply with GDPR. We covered this in our article on Data Collection for Pharmacies, so we won’t include it here. But it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re serious about emails for your pharmacy.

 

 

Email Marketing for Pharmacies – Where to start

 

Probably the first thing to establish in your own head is that email has replaced post for most people. Mail used to be the primary form of communication to people. But the world has changed. If I wrote someone a letter nowadays, I wouldn’t expect a response within a week at least. There’s no interaction or functionality with a letter. I can’t touch it and visit a website. I don’t have to store it safely in my house if I want to refer back to it later. It’s expensive and time-consuming and it just can’t do what emails can.

That doesn’t mean there’s no room for letters in a marketing campaign, but if you sent letters as regularly as you sent emails, it would cost you a fortune and you’d probably get complaints. It’s a lot easier to delete an email than it is to throw away a letter.

 

digital button for email marketing for pharmacies

Email Marketing for Pharmacies by Pharmacy Mentor

 

The benefits of Email Marketing for Pharmacies

Email marketing isn’t flash or showy, and that’s generally why it’s underused. It’s private, so it never really gets the publicity of a popular social media post, or a glamorous TV ad. Out of sight, out of mind. But here’s why it should be on your mind and on your to-do list…

Inexpensive

Even if you value time and have us do it, our admin fee and your email software are the only costs. There’s no additional budget necessary. Compared to paid marketing, another fantastic customer acquisition tool, email marketing is inexpensive and generally performs better than any other form of marketing for the investment.

Targeted

Splitting your customer base up to personalise and tailor your emails.

For instance, customers who come in for clinical services may not have prescriptions. If you’re sending them emails about prescriptions, they may unsubscribe. The same is true for any irrelevant communications. There’s only so much attention people pay to things that aren’t relevant to their interests.

Trackable

With most email software, you can track the number of opens, link clicks, and unsubscribes. All these help analyse the effectiveness of the emails. So if something isn’t working, you know about it and adapt. And if it is working, you continue doing what works. Combine this with Google Analytics on your website, and you can track where your website traffic comes from. Since marketing effectiveness varies for a whole host of reasons, tracking and analysis are massive.

Convenient for mobile and desktop users

Your market consists of both older and younger generations, each with their own preference for devices and software. Almost everyone has an email address and when people check their emails, they often have more time on their hands. (Checking emails replaces the time that less mail through the door has saved, which people only did when they have time to read full letters.)

Regular + Relevant = Revenue

For memory’s sake, you can break down the three key things you want from an email campaign into 3 R’s. Here’s why.

regular add relevant equals revenue

Regular

This doesn’t mean every day. Regular means predictable, and as you’d expect. I might expect to hear from a pharmacy once every two weeks. But if I signed up for a holiday deals bulletin, I expect a daily roundup of any deals. The right amount of emails for one person might be too many for another. Like anything in marketing, it’s worth testing to see where the sweet spot is in your audience.

Of course, you could have a great one-off email you send out and then not send another one all year. This isn’t a failure, but it’s not maximising success.

Relevant

In other words, not spam. Spam targets everyone and hopes it’s relevant for some people. You want your marketing lists as relevant as possible. You can segment your mailing list to maximise relevance. People engage more when they feel an email is really speaking to them as an individual. Targeting women for a period delay service? If you segment your mailing list, you can talk in a way women respond to, but men wouldn’t.

Revenue

If you’re not getting revenue, you might as well not show up. It’s last because you need the first two before you get it. But ultimately, revenue is the main reason you’re marketing in any form. Using call-to-actions is key here. Fortunately, people are familiar with taking action after reading an email, so you’re playing into an already existing mindset.

As with all aspects of your marketing, you want to be proactively pushing the right services at the right time. It’s no good promoting flu jabs in July. We have a Pharmacy Marketing Calendar which we use to develop strategies for your pharmacy if you need help structuring your campaigns.

Online Payments

If you’re not already set up to take online payments – you should be. Not accepting payments online nowadays is the equivalent of not having a card machine. You lose out on so much customer spend because you can’t take their money the way they want to give it.

 

Ready to adopt email marketing for your pharmacy?

 

Get in touch! We can help with everything you need to get started, including which software works best for pharmacies.

We don’t just preach this stuff, we practice it! Subscribe to our newsletter for regular updates, including articles like this one and see how we run our own emails. Be sure to check your email for confirmation and always check our Privacy Policy before signing up. 

 

 

/by