Establishing an online presence is imperative for your business today, but how do you know if your pharmacy is on the right track?
Your online presence should establish credibility, and allow patients to easily find the information they’re looking for about your pharmacy.
But instead of focusing on ways to build your online presence, let’s focus on some common errors your pharmacy could be making—and how to correct them.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine if your pharmacy is making any of these five common online mistakes, adapted from this list by Small Business Trends.
1. Do you use a social media page as your only web address?
Social media is more popular than ever, and it’s an easy outlet to provide patients with information about your pharmacy. But how do patients find your social media pages if you don’t have a website?
Many small businesses make the mistake of relying on patients to seek them out. But it isn’t easy to find a business if it only has a Facebook page and not a website. To avoid this issue, register a domain name that will automatically forward to your social media page when patients type it in.
Not only will it be easier for your patients to find your social media page, it will also keep your branding consistent. When you do create your website, you’ll already have a domain name that patients are familiar with.
2. Do you use a free email provider as your pharmacy’s email address?
Your pharmacy’s email address is a point of contact for your patients, and it also establishes credibility.
Pharmacies that use free email providers, such as Gmail or Yahoo!, as their main email address run the risk of turning potential patients away because they don’t appear credible.
When you register your website’s domain name, be sure to create a custom email address with it. This continues to keep your branding consistent, and it lets patients know you’re a legitimate business.
3. Have you been putting off building a website?
Websites are key to the success of any size business, but they’re something small business owners often overlook.
Having a website for your pharmacy establishes credibility, provides patients with necessary information and allows you to direct patients to social media channels, blogs and other related resources that help to sell your pharmacy.
It’s okay to start small, and expand your website as you continue to grow. There are a variety of website builders that make creating and maintaining a website easy, and they usually provide you with plenty of support along the way. (Learn more about pharmacy websites.)
Do your research to find out what kind of website works best for your pharmacy, and continue to add pages and features as you need them.
4. Have you forgotten about the website you built?
Once you do build a website, it’s important that you don’t neglect it. Many businesses will create a website, but then fail to keep it updated or properly market it.
And, make sure you keep the content fresh by continuously updating it. Regularly revise your general information, blog posts and other content you know patients will want to see. You want your content to be high quality, to provide value to patients and pique their interest.
Also, don’t forget to use marketing strategies to drive traffic to your website. After all, what’s the point in building a website if no one sees it? Social media marketing, email marketing and search engine marketing are all great ways to market your pharmacy and get patients to visit your website.
5. Did you consider a domain name marketing strategy?
When developing and marketing a new product or service, a lot of small businesses don’t realize the benefit of utilizing domain names.
When consumers search for information about a specific product or service, they’re more likely to go to a website that actually contains the keywords they’re looking for.
For example, if your pharmacy in Denver specializes in smoking cessation, you could create a domain name such as DenverSmokingCessation.com. When patients are searching for a place in Denver that offers smoking cessation services, they’re more likely to click on this domain name in order to reach a page on your website.
Check out these five steps to build your pharmacy’s online presence.
