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the new pharmacy model

The New Pharmacy Model

Pharmacies in the United Kingdom are undergoing a profound transformation. Gone are the days of simply dispensing medicine from the back of the pharmacy. The emergence of new compliance standards and regulations, alongside advancements in technology and a shift towards more patient-centric care, has paved the way for what can be aptly termed as “The New Pharmacy Model”.

This model, envisioned by our CEO, Saam Ali, encompasses a comprehensive approach to pharmacy spanning four key pillars: products and services, marketing and sales strategies, operational enhancements, and human resources development.

Take a look at the infographic below, which we’ve developed, that showcases The New Pharmacy Model in the industry. Let’s delve deeper into its intricacies.

new pharmacy model

The New Pharmacy Model, as depicted by our CEO and Founder

Products & Services

NHS Services: Pharmacies are at the forefront of providing essential NHS services, with a primary focus on prescription fulfilment. The integration of fully automated prescription fulfilment systems has streamlined the process, ensuring accuracy and efficiency. Additionally, pharmacies offer advanced services such as New Medicine Service (NMS), hypertension management, Pharmacy First consultations, flu vaccinations, and access to emergency contraception like the Morning After Pill.

Private Services: Expanding beyond NHS services, pharmacies now offer a plethora of private services under the same roof. These include travel vaccinations, ear wax removal, blood testing, aesthetics procedures, and over-the-counter (OTC) sales of various healthcare products and supplements, catering to diverse consumer needs. In the New Pharmacy Model, the pharmacy is a true health hub in the community.

Online Services: The digital era has ushered in a new era of accessibility and convenience. Pharmacies now offer online prescribing services allowing independent prescribers to sell prescription-only medication (POM), pharmacy-only medicines (P-lines), and General Sales List (GSL) items safely and securely online.

Marketing & Sales

Engagement Strategies: Utilising web-based platforms, pharmacies engage with customers through online bookings, AI-powered health assistants, live chat support, email opt-ins, and dedicated mobile applications, ensuring seamless communication and accessibility.

Marketing Channels: To amplify their reach, pharmacies employ a mix of marketing channels including search engine optimisation (SEO), social media engagement, Google and Meta advertising, digital TV signage, email and SMS marketing, and innovative strategies like QR codes to enhance customer engagement and retention.

Partnerships

Healthcare Collaborations: Pharmacies are now forging strategic partnerships with healthcare providers including general practitioners (GPs), dental clinics, chiropodists, weight loss clinics, optometrists, and medical labs to offer comprehensive and integrated healthcare solutions.

Other Collaborations: Beyond healthcare, pharmacies collaborate with travel agents, local businesses, and corporate entities to extend their services and cater to diverse consumer needs.

Operations

Enhanced Experience: Pharmacies invest in enhancing the customer experience by providing physical premises with multiple consultation rooms designed in a clinical setting. Additionally, technology infusion ensures a seamless and efficient service delivery.

Online Pharmacy: In response to evolving consumer preferences, pharmacies offer online platforms with a smooth user experience (UX), digital communications, and trackable order systems to cater to the growing demand for digital healthcare solutions.

Technology Integration: Robotics play a pivotal role in pharmacy operations with dispensing robots, pill packs, and 24/7 prescription collection systems ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and round-the-clock service. Additionally, pharmacies leverage software and hardware solutions including Pharmacy Management Systems (PMR), websites, apps, digital records, Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) systems, and automated drug ordering systems to streamline operations.

Human Resources

Training Programs: Pharmacies invest in comprehensive training programs encompassing in-person sessions covering vaccinations, independent prescribing (IP), Patient Group Directions (PGDs), CPR training, clinical assessments, and workshops to ensure staff competency and compliance.

Continuous Learning and Support: Recognising the importance of ongoing learning, pharmacies offer self-learning modules and support mechanisms through online platforms, buying groups, and membership associations to empower their workforce with new skills and knowledge.

People-Centric Culture: Pharmacies foster a positive and inclusive work culture that emphasises recognition, diversity, and inclusion, creating an empowering environment for their employees. This is key for pharmacy growth and has been neglected in the old model.

Leadership Attributes: Leaders embody visionary, innovative, adaptable, resilient, and collaborative traits, steering their pharmacy organisations through dynamic healthcare landscapes and driving positive change.

Embrace Change

The New Pharmacy Model represents a huge shift in how pharmacies operate and interact with their patients and customers. By embracing technological advancements, expanding service offerings, forging strategic partnerships, optimising operations, and nurturing their human resources, pharmacies are not just adapting to change but leading the way towards a more integrated and patient-centric healthcare ecosystem in the United Kingdom.

At Pharmacy Mentor, we’re playing a crucial role in helping pharmacies adapt to the New Model. Our marketing and development solutions help with two of the big pillars in this model in a variety of ways. If you’re keen on understanding how we can help you, please get in touch with us. Our team of experts have helped 1000’s of pharmacies embrace new solutions and engage with their audiences better.

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incredible roi on ear wax removal marketing
This Case Study is another one that blows our minds. Back in the day, we undervalued our services because we didn’t realise the ceiling for our marketing was quite so high. This Pharmacy reaped the benefits of that with their Ear Wax Removal Clinic.

About this Pharmacy

Located near London, this pharmacy was seeking to expand its service offerings and tap into the potential of Ear Wax Removal. With no digital presence prior to our collaboration, the pharmacy aimed to increase awareness and bookings for their Ear Wax Removal Clinic.

The Challenge

The pharmacy faced the following challenges:

  1. Lack of a digital presence and online booking system.
  2. Difficulty in promoting their Ear Wax Removal service
  3. The need to stand out in local search results for “ear wax removal services.” and similar search terms

Our Solution

To overcome these challenges, we provided the following solutions:

  1. Designed and developed a professional website with an integrated booking calendar
  2. Curated optimised content on the website and performed technical SEO to improve the search visibility of this particular service

The Results

Our efforts led to the following impressive results:

  1. A significant increase in organic page views, now reaching 4,000 per month.
  2. Dominating search engine results pages (SERPs) for multiple ear wax removal keywords.
  3. A total of 2,578 ear wax removal bookings generated online, with additional bookings likely from phone calls and walk-ins.

a screenshot of the pharmacy's booking calendar with 3,500+ appointments booked

With an average revenue of £60 per Ear Wax Removal service, the pharmacy has generated £154,680 in revenue from online bookings alone.

This represents a remarkable ROI of 15,468%, showcasing the power of a well-executed digital marketing strategy for pharmacy owners. You can work out how much the pharmacy invested with us.

It also showcases just how much we’ve historically undervalued our services. We are continuing to target keywords for this pharmacy owner on a monthly basis, and they are no doubt the most popular ear wax removal provider in their city.

Want to Market your Ear Health Clinic like this? Book in a consultation call with our Diagnose and Prescribe team.

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Prescription Reordering System
This Independent Community Pharmacy in the South West of the UK were stuck to their previous website because they had 1,000’s of patients on the re-ordering tool. But they needed to move away to grow in new directions

About the Pharmacy

This Pharmacy is a small multiple in the Southwest of the UK, with 3 pharmacies in the area. They had a basic, templated pharmacy website, which functioned as a subscription-based prescription re-ordering tool.

The Challenge

This pharmacy came to us in aid of growing their business more effectively. As part of the Growth Consultation they had with us, they knew they had to change to a more flexible website that would allow for the growth of their private side of the business. However, they felt stuck with their current website provider because they had 1,000’s of patients registered to the 3rd-party prescription re-ordering tool.

Another challenge when migrating patients onto a new system is that it isn’t only the pharmacy who is moving software. Making the patients aware of the transition is entirely necessary, as they’ll be ordering from a new system when it goes live. A smooth transition is vital, making sure they’re comfortable with the change and that it works first time.

an image showing the internal patient dashboard for an EPS system

The patient dashboard on the new site, displaying the area where new prescriptions orders, both NHS and Private, appear when patients re-order them.

The Results

The pharmacy has beautiful website with a modern interface, keeping things simple for both patient and pharmacist. What’s more, they own the website. This means the patient data is theirs and if they ever want to go anywhere else, the website goes with them and is not deleted.

The migration was rolled out carefully, with patients being sent emails with simple instructions of how to log in to the new system.

  • 1000’s of patients successfully using the system and ordering prescriptions
  • Live chat system – which is busy, showing patients’ preference for communicating that way
  • Separate Private Prescription Ordering
  • Online bookings for services now available through their website
  • Optimised service pages for the locality, resulting in greater website traffic for relevant keywords

What’s next for this pharmacy?

Possible next steps for this pharmacy:

  • Build a mailing list for retaining patients and encouraging return visits to clinics
  • Increase visibility of their new website with more SEO articles and a focus on clinic keywords
  • Continue building extra functionality into the website, such as the Independent Prescribing module

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This year, Pharmacy Mentor was recognised by Chemist+Druggist for our innovation, bringing home the “Online Initiative of the Year” award for 2022.

Saam & Fran delighted to receive the award. And Hugh Dennis, contractually obliged to appear in the photo.

What was the “Online Initiative” we won the award for?

In response to the rapid evolution of mobile technology and digital health, the change in patient behaviour post COVID-19, and an increase in demand from its clients, the Pharmacy Mentor Web team developed the Ultimate Pharmacy Website (UPW) through the vision, direction and guidance of our CEO, Saam Ali.

Before explaining the components of the UPW, it’s useful to understand what makes a website.

All houses are houses

Whether a standard two-up two-down made from bricks, or a work of architectural beauty on the side of a mountain, a house is still referred to as a house.

You can check a box that says “I have a website” with the most basic website money can buy. But that website won’t bring much value to your pharmacy business. Even the most basic website is a website. The Ultimate Pharmacy Website is also a website. But the two are not the same.

What makes it the “Ultimate Pharmacy Website”?

The Ultimate Pharmacy Website features a collection of bespoke website add-ons, allowing pharmacies to:

  • Prescribe and dispense prescription-only medicines (POMs) online via patient group directions or independent prescribers
  • Take payments for medicines online (POM, P and GSL)
  • “Free prescribe” medicines
  • Create subscriptions for recurring medicine services
  • Speak with patients virtually
  • Take clinic bookings and payments
  • Process NHS and private prescriptions
  • Message patients directly

The feedback we’ve had from pharmacies using the Ultimate Pharmacy Website is that it is helping generate new streams of income while saving time administratively. Meanwhile, patients are benefitting from greater access to healthcare and a more timely, hands-on pharmacy service.

Want the Ultimate Pharmacy Website to revolutionise your pharmacy business?

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Digitise your Prescribing Clinic & Revolutionise your Pharmacy

In this presentation, delivered at The Pharmacy Show 2022, Saam will show you how you can turn your PGD or Independent Prescribing status into £10,000’s per month. He shows you what digital tools, mechanisms and formulas you need to adopt to make it work.

 

 

The presentation has been transcribed below:

Slide 2

After she said those words and shot me down in front of a room full of people, I did something that would change the course of my life forever.

I got up, adjusted my tie, and said “I won’t do this anymore”. And walked out.

That was the last meeting I ever had with them, back in 2012.

I was working for one of the big corps and I had a very well-paid job. But towards the end of my time there, it felt like I was wearing a straight jacket to work instead of a suit jacket.

I had so many ideas for growth, but they just didn’t get listened to. I understood, of course. It’s tough to get anything through the big corporate red tape.

But I needed to grow.

And the only way I could do that was to break free and personally innovate.

Slide 3

As much as I love the NHS, I see it as a bit of a straight jacket for Community Pharmacy.

It’s very restrictive.

The market for prescriptions is heavily saturated, you’re getting paid less, and you don’t set the prices.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t focus on driving item numbers – it’s always gonna be part of your business model.

But, I’m sure you’ll agree, things a getting tighter.

But because you’re an Independent Pharmacy where no red tape exists and where you make the decisions about where your business goes, there are no boundaries like I had all those years ago.

You’ve got room to innovate.

And that tightening NHS grip can loosen if you put more time and energy into offering private clinical services.

It’s incredible what pharmacies can offer today.

And, with the help of the brilliant companies in this expo, you can become, I believe, the most powerful, diverse health hub in your city.

There’s so much potential for growth down this route.

Slide 4

Yet, like my store manager all those years back, I’m still hearing these sentences from time to time.

The way of the NHS has been a habit.

But these comments don’t stand any more, and here’s why…

Slide 5

I’ve broken it down into chunks:

  • Your sphere of Influence
  • The Boom in Private and Digital Healthcare
  • How our behaviour has now altered
  • Your ease of access to training
  • Revenue Potential
  • And Digital Marketing

Slide 6

When you go down the clinical route, your sphere of influence….the rest of this content is available in The PM Academy! Sign up for free here to download all the slides and the transcript 🙂

Boosting Travel Clinic Bookings with Google Ads Pharmacy

About

This community pharmacy wanted increased Travel Clinic bookings. On the cusp of summer, making immediate impact was high on the agenda. The pharmacy already had an optimised Travel Clinic page on their pharmacy website designed by Pharmacy Mentor. With a budget of £300, they talked with us discussing their needs and our Diagnose & Prescribe team recommended a Google Ads strategy.

Challenges

  • Appearing efficiently for target audience.
  • Tracking return on investment.
  • Ensuring effective use of budget.
  • Creating copy for the ad which encourages clicks.

How we did it

Pharmacy Mentor created and ran a smart Google Ad in the pharmacy’s area, which appeared throughout Google’s search network. We linked the advert directly to the pharmacy’s Travel Clinic page, which has a call to action button “Start a Travel Consultation.”

Tracking

We placed an analytical tracker on the “Start Travel Consultation” button on their website, measuring the amount of people who not only visited their website, but actively began the booking process.

Results

After just £277 (not even the full £300 budget):

  • 2.3k people saw the advert
  • 333 clicks
  • 82 consultations started online
  • 35 Calls direct to the pharmacy

The pharmacy took plenty of bookings and they were delighted. They couldn’t wait to reinvest those profits in additional advertising. We have continued to propel their Travel Clinic to this day with Google Advertising.

Interested in boosting your Travel Clinic with Google Ads? Simply get in touch with us and we’ll be glad to help.

About

Pharmacy Mentor launched a new website for a community pharmacy in October 2021. Understanding that websites aren’t much use without visitors, we recommended that the pharmacy employed a blogging strategy, driving traffic from Google to their website.

Challenges

  • The top of Google is a profitable place, making it competitive.
  • Lots of competing clinics in the local area.
  • Producing professional, ethical advice in the blog.

How we did it

We talked with the pharmacy owners about what services were most profitable for the pharmacy. Once we knew that, we mapped out a 6-month content strategy, covering a range of profitable services the pharmacy wanted patients to find.

Our blogging team then created optimised blog posts on the chosen subjects. These blogs posts answered FAQ’s, highlighted symptoms, causes and treatments for the relevant query and had relevant high-quality imagery supplementing the text.

We started creating the blogs before the website launched, attracting visitors from the moment it went live.

Tracking

Using Google Analytics, we tracked the traffic generated by these actions for each specific blog post, as well as for the overall website visitors.

Results

From launch, the site averaged around 30 visitors per day, which meant hundreds per week. But the important thing is that these aren’t just people stumbling across the website.

  • 3.6k targeted visitors to the site since launch
  • The pharmacy is the top result on Google for every query we created a blog post for
  • Ear Wax page delivering exceptional results, with over 300 visits in the June 2022.

These visitors are searching for pharmacy services, and they’re finding this community pharmacy online.

The important thing isn’t really how many visitors the website got in the first three months. The important thing is this strategy continually delivers visitors all year round. Especially when Flu season kicks in.

Want to get more visitors to your website? Simply get in touch with us and we’ll be glad to help.

A successful Travel Clinic is one of the most profitable private services for Community Pharmacies. But how is success achieved? How are those profits unlocked? Let’s go through the Top 5 ways any community pharmacy can boost their Travel Clinic bookings.

Is running a Travel Clinic worth it?

By now, most pharmacists in the UK understand the opportunity of Travel Clinics. But that’s the drawback for a lot of people. “Everyone’s doing it,” you think. It’s not worth doing when it’s so competitive, right?

Wrong.

Making your Travel Clinic successful

Despite the fact that a lot of pharmacies now run Travel Clinics, unless your local competitor happens to be dominating the space, it’s absolutely worth your pharmacy running one too. Even if they are dominating the space, it’s likely because there is no competition.

1. A Travel Clinic Website

Travel Clinics have huge revenue potential. Some of our clients make enough money from their Travel Clinic alone, it is its own business. Any successful Travel Clinic should have its own website. Just in the same way that Argos is owned by Sainsbury’s. You’ll often find Argos stores within Sainsbury’s stores, and yet the websites are kept completely separate.

Why?

Because they’re two separate businesses, with different services and products on offer, trying to jam everything into one website dilutes the message and dilutes the brand.

Some of main benefits of a separate Travel Clinic website:

  • A more intuitive patient journey with specific online booking calendars
  • Doesn’t confuse your pharmacy website
  • Focused Travel Clinic content

Google Adverts for your Travel Clinic

What do you do when you know what you need but you don’t know where to get it? It certainly isn’t flicking through the yellow pages anymore. You do what everyone does. You Google it.

I’ve heard people judge Google Ads before they’ve tried it. “I don’t click on ads,” they said. They presupposed that because they didn’t click on Ads, nobody does.

Do people click on ads?

The reality is, people do. Without getting too bogged down with the hows and the wherefores, most searches don’t have commercial intent. Around 93% of searches on Google are either informational or navigational, according to a survey. And those people do not click on adverts, in general. Of course they don’t. If you’re looking up how to cook fish, it’s unlikely you’re clicking on an advert selling fish, no matter how low the low prices are. Because if you’re looking up how to cook it, the chances are you already have the fish.

But if you’re searching for cheap fish, then the odds of you clicking that ad leap like a salmon.

A 2021 study carried out by GroupM UK and Nielsen reported that 94% of total search engine clicks go to organic results, with just 6% of click share left for paid search ads.

The stats for searches with commercial intent (7%) matching up with the overall click share of searches being (6%) shows that, contrary to popular opinion, searches with commercial intent do get clicks. Which is great, because those are the clicks you’re after. Paying for people to click on your ad when they aren’t booking an appointment is a waste of money.

2. Google Maps Ads

Google Maps advertising is a recent addition to the marketing arsenal available to pharmacies. Just in the same way you would advertise anywhere else, Google Maps advertises…well, in Google Maps. When people search on Google Maps for “Travel Vaccines”, “Travel Clinic” and other related searches, that is a HUGE signal of intent. You don’t ask generally for directions unless you’re on the way.

Appearing at the top of the results on Google Maps is a great way of increasing walk-ins for your Travel Clinic. And because it’s new, there isn’t a lot of competition on the platform.

3. Google Search Ads

If you want any proof that Google Search Ads work, you only need look at who’s currently running them in your area when you Google “Travel Clinic”. More often than not, it’s the big boys.

I can’t compete with them,” you say. The reason the top results on Google win is convenience. Shopping around takes time. But community pharmacies win at convenience. The likelihood is that people will pick the option closest to them, and that’s you. (For example, my nearest Clinic by clicking on a big supplier was in a neighbouring town, over 30 minutes drive away.) If there was a rivalling community pharmacy with an option close to the top on Google, I’d 100% go there instead.

Search Engines – Get found for “Travel Clinic” in your area

A common misunderstanding with websites is that just having one is enough. Without understanding the intricacies of the Internet, it’s a fair assumption. But having a website is just like having a pharmacy. If it isn’t listed on the map, how can people find it?

How do search engines work?

Search Engines like Google help Internet users navigate the world wide web. You almost certainly know that already. Like you know that when you put your foot down on the accelerator, your car goes forward. And you can know that, but not understand how the engine works. The same is true for how Search Engines work. You understand what they do, but not how they work.

Every website is designed, just like every car is assembled. But just like a Mini Metro is built differently to a Ferrari Enzo, website design varies too.

Search Engines regularly run what are essentially MOT’s across all websites, assessing them for suitability for users.

4. Optimising your Website for Search Engines

Optimising your Website for Search Engines is like letting an engineer fine-tune your car before it goes in for its MOT. Without it, you probably won’t check all the boxes, and you’ll be ranked lower. With it, you’ll tick every box and have a much higher chance of ranking amongst the top results on Google.

5. Optimised Travel Clinic Content helps your website get found

Search engines will only point people in the direction of your website if it thinks your website has what they’re looking for.

How do the search engines know if your website has what they’re looking for? You write content for it.

For instance, if you want to be found for Yellow Fever Vaccines? Create a page specifically for Yellow Fever. Answer some FAQ’s and away you go.

Want to learn more about how content on your website can help drive footfall into your pharmacy? Check out Why every Community Pharmacy should be Blogging.

Read our Complete Guide to Winning Google for…a Complete Guide to Winning Google. It breaks down SEO, how people use Google and how combining the knowledge of those two things gets your pharmacy higher up that results page.

Combining these three tactics is a winner

How do we know? Every Travel Clinic we’ve helped market using all three of these tactics in their strategy is a successful business.  (Website/Ads/SEO).

Want Pharmacy Mentor’s help with your own Travel Clinic marketing? Book in a call for a chat with our Pharmacy Growth Specialists.

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How much should pharmacies spend on marketing?
How much should you spend on marketing your pharmacy? It’s a question we get a lot. With a few things to consider, this article gives some insight into our experience with client budgets and success rates.

How to get comfortable with your marketing budget

Spending money marketing your pharmacy is no longer optional. Nowadays, if you’re not marketing your pharmacy, even your existing patients are at risk of being poached by either online pharmacies or local pharmacies who are marketing. But it’s important to know your pharmacy marketing spend.

When it comes to your pharmacy revenue, it’s natural to want more. More patients. More profit.

But when it comes to marketing spend for your pharmacy? Suddenly you’ll feel an overwhelming urge to want less. Less agency fees. Less advertising budget.

And that’s understandable. You don’t want to pay any more than you should, but you recognise that speculating and accumulating often correlate. The balance of what you’ll end up paying usually lies somewhere between the two.

Know when to say no

Unless a pharmacy is prepared to be marketed, piling loads of money into a marketing campaign is wasteful. Just because you want something to happen, doesn’t mean it will.

More budget does not necessarily equal more sales (though of course, in the right circumstances it can). This is simply a word of caution against flawed marketing. Many people have been burnt by either inefficient, incompetent, or inept marketing at some point in their past.

Make sure whoever’s responsible for your marketing has a good track record, or knows your industry or business incredibly well. Preferably both. Not everything in marketing works all of the time, but controlling the parameters is important so nothing ever gets out of hand.

Pharmacy Mentor is proactive with this, working with our clients to understand how the strategy is impacting their business, and changing the tactics if needed.

Marketing Budget as a % of Revenue

how much should you spend on marketing your pharmacy? this graph shows a range of figures from different industries, where healthcare, which is the relevant industry to pharmacy, shows 10% of total revenue should be spent on marketing.

Source: The CMO Survey & Deloitte Digital

What needs bearing in mind with this statistic is that whilst 10% of an average community pharmacy turnover (between 50k-100k/month) seems like a lot of marketing spend, (£5k-10k/month) this figure incorporates things like wages or agency fees, as well as the time you spend on research, recruitment, and training, which ultimately has a monetary value.

One of the benefits of using an independent community pharmacy marketing agency like Pharmacy Mentor, is that you’re already saving on the cost of hiring and training an employee.

R.O.I. (Return on investment)

This is understandably at the forefront of pharmacy business owners’ minds. You want the most bang for your proverbial buck. Income must be balanced with outgoings, after all. Typically the way people think about this is “how many patients are going to come into my pharmacy as a result of this marketing action?”

That obviously would generate a good figure in your head of what you’d like to spend. If you stand to make £1k from a marketing action, then naturally you’d spend £500 on it. And whilst that’s certainly a measure, the issue is a little more nuanced. How do you know what you stand to make, for instance? This is where the reliable agency comes into play. It’s why an agency specialising in an industry is ideal. Because you have to rely on experience to know what’s possible, to understand what you’re likely to get. And therefore, what the right amount to invest is.

Visible R.O.I.

Sales and leads are an essential part of any business, and so this is naturally something you’ll want to see as a result of your marketing. Digital marketing is amazing for tracking and analysing stats, so provided you get your analytical tools set up, measuring the effectiveness of your spending is available from the first visitor to your website to the last person to click on a Facebook Ad. Measuring how many people it takes to see your advert before you get a conversion into a sale helps you understand how much budget you need to put into an advert, for instance.

But what about websites? It’s baffling that people would spend more on a billboard advertisement than they would on their website. An advert may cost you £500 for one month and get 10,000 eyeballs on it. Your website will last a minimum of 5 years, and if it’s done right, will attract hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of visitors over the course of this time. And people don’t want to spend over £1,000 on this? A good website, and search engine optimisation which helps people find it through Search Engines like Google, are the most cost-effective investments you can make. Trying to cut corners and reducing your marketing budget on areas like this hamstrings your business’s potential for growth.

Invisible R.O.I.

The invisible R.O.I. is hard to measure, for obvious reasons. But it does exist. And sometimes it can be the most powerful return from your marketing.

If I asked you to name a brand of sportswear, you’d probably immediately think of Nike, or Adidas. This is because they’ve marketed so relentlessly and consistently that they’re the first thing that comes to mind. Now, you might not race out to buy their trainers when you see their adverts, but the fact you remember them is the invisible ROI I’m talking about.

And this is something that directly correlates with your marketing budget. What price would you put on being the first place people thought of when they need healthcare, be it a service or a retail product? That figure may be hard to quantify, but it’s certainly worth bearing in mind when you’re considering how much to invest in advertising. It’s also a consideration when thinking about your branding budget, which is a much ignored, yet important part of marketing.

For a local business, you might only ever be able to get to the forefront of your local community’s minds, but that does require significantly less spend than a national campaign. You can also lean heavily on your personal branding, and the fact that your local community will recognise your face online. For bigger businesses, or online pharmacies, it’s far more important that your branding stands out, because that’s how people both recognise and remember you.

Diminishing returns in pharmacy marketing

The law of diminishing returns certainly applies to marketing to your local community.

How are websites like wine? Read below.

Turning Websites into Wine

To continue with the example of websites, it’s a bit like a bottle of wine. You don’t want to buy a really cheap one, because you won’t like it, and you might as well not have bothered. It’s a complete waste of money.

You can also overspend. No matter how much money you put into it, there is only so good a bottle of wine can get.

The happy medium, where you spend £7-15, you’ll probably find a perfectly good bottle of wine that does the job.

It’s pretty much the same with websites. The average community pharmacy should be spending between £4-10k on a website, depending on their current need. Only much bigger businesses should be spending more than that. Any less than that, and you’re looking at something which probably isn’t worth the money you’re investing into it.

Services

Let’s say you’re advertising a Flu Vaccine Clinic. There is only a certain amount of people that will come to your pharmacy for the jab. Obviously, if all of those people have signed up for their jab, you wouldn’t want to continue to push your ad out and spend extra budget. But what’s slightly less obvious is the point where your spend stops being as efficient. This is all about measuring and analysing. Over the course of a few months, you can tell where the optimal level of budget is for that service, and adjust your budget accordingly, in that instance, for the next flu season.

eCommerce

Products, on the other hand, provided you are able to ship nationally, have a much higher ceiling for saturating your market. If all people have to do to buy from you is tap a button on their phone, then it doesn’t matter if they’re in Gretna Green or Greenwich. You can spend a lot more on marketing eCommerce before it stops being effective. Of course, you need to have an effective eCommerce website to be worth spending money on sending people to it. Check out our guide on creating a successful eCommerce website here.

So how much should I budget for my pharmacy marketing?

The devil is absolutely in the details here, and it definitely does differ from pharmacy to pharmacy depending on what your objectives are.

Newer pharmacies, or pharmacies that haven’t previously had a digital presence, should be spending more on brand awareness, specifically in your local community. This will typically skew your budget towards things like SEO & Social Media. But once you’ve established yourselves as a brand online, it’s time to focus on converting that awareness into business.

At that point, you’ll want to heavily invest in a digital ecosystem. Central to this system is an awesome pharmacy website, allowing clinical bookings, EPS nomination, data collection, online payments and attracting patients from search engines with great SEO content. You’ll also want to invest in email marketing, which helps retain your patients and drives more revenue from people who’ve already used your business.

All these things are part of a wider strategy. Some elements that might be less costly are still important. Just like the tyres on a car don’t cost as much as the engine, but you can’t run a car without them. It’s important that you invest in a whole strategy.

It’s also worth bearing in mind, that a website is an investment you only need every 5-10 years. Divide your total spend by between 60-120 to find your monthly spend depending on how many years you expect the website will last.

Marketing spend for Quickly Growing Your Pharmacy Business

After noticeable growth in your business, in either your prescriptions or clinical arms? For example, if you’re starting a new private clinic, a spend of around 6-10% of your monthly revenue is normal. 

Marketing spend for Maintaining the Growth of Your Pharmacy Business

If you’re feeling the pinch with the competition and you’re looking at preventing any drop-off, and maintaining your churn rate, you’re looking at less investment. Nevertheless, you still need to invest between 2-5% of your monthly revenue, which is usually enough for keeping your business healthy.

Spending Less on your Pharmacy Marketing?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that cutting your expenses is a good thing. It’s only good if you’re still getting the same returns. Marketing is an investment in growing your business. If you’re spending below the figures we’re talking about, the likelihood is that you’re missing out on business. Your pharmacy will suffer in the long run as a result of these budget cuts.

Want to get real specific?

Without talking to you about your specific services and business objectives, there’s no way we can be more specific than giving you a general idea of the budget you should commit to marketing.

Talking to our Pharmacy Growth Consultants is a great next step if you’re looking to make better use of your marketing budget.

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why distance selling pharmacies need a dep website immediately
The NHSBSA is currently checking if Distance Selling Pharmacies are operating without a fully-compliant DSP website.

Why you need to have a Distance Selling Pharmacy (DSP) website 

Back on the 5th January, 2021, we released an article called “Distance Selling Pharmacy Websites – What the New Regulations Mean For You”. That article takes you through exactly what the GPhC regulations mean for DSPs.

Essentially, if you want to run a licensed DSP,  you need to have a website, and it needs to fulfil a specific set of criteria. If you need the details, check out the article.

The NHSBSA Check-up

The Pharmacy Provider Assurance Team, part of NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), are in the process of requesting Distance Selling Pharmacies provide them with proof (e.g., a working link to their website) that they are operating with a compliant website.

What this means is you cannot simply get away with not having a website. There are ongoing checks, and these are regulations. So ultimately, you’ll face regulatory action if you aren’t compliant.

How do I create a DSP Website?

Creating a DSP Website is no longer as simple as using a website builder to create a basic website. Since the changes in regulations by the NHS, you need to create a website that adheres to their professional standards. To create a compliant Distance Selling Pharmacy, use our Distance Selling Pharmacy Websites – What the New Regulations Mean For You article as a reference. If you’re building the website by yourself, you can use it to make sure you include every element you need to be compliant.

Outsourcing Website Design

Of course, you might want to leave the website design to the professionals. Pharmacy Mentor work with Rushport Advisory, creating fully-compliant Distance Selling Pharmacy websites for your pharmacy. With our websites, you’re safe in the knowledge that you will pass any NHS auditing of your site.

You don’t want to pay for a website only to find out it isn’t compliant. You’ll have to pay for more development, or worse yet, a whole new website.

Pharmacy Mentor websites are yours to own from Day 1 (some web providers simply rent you their software and it doesn’t belong to your business) and feature everything you need to pass any NHS audit.

Setting up a Distance Selling Pharmacy?

If you’re simply in the process of setting up your Distance Selling Pharmacy, and you’re reading this to understand what you need to do in future? Check out How to Setup a Distance Selling Pharmacy in England. It’s a comprehensive breakdown of all the steps you need to take to set up.

Have any questions about this article? Want us to build a fully-compliant DSP website for you? Get in touch using our contact page.