Inside: Use this free marketing checklist to get your independent pharmacy marketing in top shape.
Just like patients need checkups to stay healthy, your pharmacy’s marketing requires regular reviews, too.
Ideally, you’d have a full-time staff member devoted to ensuring you get the most out of your marketing dollars year-round.
But if you can’t afford a full-time employee to run your pharmacy’s marketing, consider hiring a marketing or a communications professional on a consulting basis.
A consultant can review your marketing plan, promotions, and overall approach. Regular reviews will keep your marketing as up-to-date and effective as possible.
RELATED: Are You Making These Pharmacy Marketing Mistakes?
And, regular reviews by an expert provide a new point-of-view. So, you’ll learn tips and get marketing ideas you may not have thought of.
How to Evaluate Your Pharmacy Marketing in 7 Steps (Free Marketing Checklist!)
Your marketing techniques require regular review. Whether you hire a marketing consultant or perform marketing in-house.
Otherwise, how will you know if it’s working?
We’ve put together this general marketing checklist to help you regularly evaluate your marketing results.
Use this marketing checklist to:
- Look for areas where you can improve
- Identify weaknesses you might not know about
- Streamline your pharmacy’s overall marketing
1. Review your pharmacy brand
Start by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your brand.
You’ll want to evaluate the freshness of your brand, if it represents your pharmacy, or if it needs an update.
You should review your brand every couple of months to make sure it’s on track to where you want it. But a full brand overhaul only needs to happen every two to three years or more.
Questions to ask about your pharmacy brand:
- Have you set the purpose of your brand? (Why do patients connect with you?)
- Is your brand different? Is it competing in the market?
- Have you defined your brand message clearly? Are you communicating it?
- Have you set a brand identity? Does it need an update? (i.e. professional logo and design)
- Do you apply your brand consistently to marketing materials?
- Do people talk about or share information about your brand?
- Are patients loyal to your brand?
2. Assess your traditional marketing
Examine any traditional marketing content that you pay to have placed.
By looking at all of your traditional marketing, you can determine if the advertisements and promotions are worth the money. You can also assess if you’re receiving the desired results.
RELATED: 25 Irresistible Pharmacy Promotion Ideas to Get More Patients
Perform this review every couple of months. It’s also a good time to determine which advertisements and promotions need updating. And, you can identify marketing avenues that don’t sync with your pharmacy’s brand.
Traditional marketing channels your pharmacy may use include:
- Billboards
- Direct mail
- Directories
- Events (health fairs, community events)
- Giveaways
- Magazine advertising
- Newspaper advertising
- Radio
- Transit advertising (buses, taxis)
- TV
3. Review your digital marketing
Marketing your pharmacy digitally today is a must.
And if you want your digital marketing to get results, you need to consistently hone and tweak your digital marketing methods and strategy.
Ask yourself these questions monthly.
Questions to ask about your pharmacy’s digital marketing:
- Is everything on your website completely up-to-date?
- Are you posting regular digital content? (Blogs, social media updates, news announcements)
- Are you working on search engine optimization?
- Can your patients easily use your website and find what they need?
And, make sure you use multiple digital marketing channels to promote your pharmacy. Because patients like to receive communications in different ways, you want to use as many methods as possible to reach as many people as possible.
Digital marketing channels your pharmacy could use include:
- Email and e-newsletters
- Mobile apps and text messaging
- Online paid advertising
- Social media
- Your pharmacy website
(Learn the right way to use digital marketing for your pharmacy from an expert.)
4. Assess all marketing materials
How you communicate your pharmacy’s brand, vision, values, and personality matters.
And, the marketing materials you use to attract potential and current patients represent your business.
Take a hard look at your pharmacy’s marketing materials at least once a quarter.
What to look for in your marketing materials:
- Do they serve their purpose?
- Are they current?
- Are they consistent with your pharmacy brand?
- Do they look up-to-date?
- Is the information correct?
- Is the message correct?
Marketing materials can include:
- Brochures
- Business cards
- Flyers
- Handouts
- Mailers
- Postcards
- Signage
If you don’t have a full-time marketing staff member, let a marketing consultant perform this task to lighten your workload. The consultant can identify gaps in your marketing materials that you might not see.
5. Look at your marketing expenses
When you regularly review your marketing efforts, you can identify problem areas. You know, those places where you’re not using your marketing dollars wisely.
Maybe you’re spending too much on giveaways. Or, you’re not seeing a bump in business from a partnership.
It’s difficult to see waste when you’re in the trenches of the work. So, make a point to set a marketing budget and review your marketing expenses annually.
You’ll pinpoint areas where you can slim down spending. And, you’ll see what works best so you can put more money into those efforts.
6. Create (and review) your marketing calendar
Depending on how far you work in advance, review your marketing calendar monthly or annually.
Creating a calendar ahead of time ensures that you don’t have long stretches without a promotion.
At least once a year, review your calendar. Go over the events that worked. (And didn’t.) The promotions that succeeded. (And failed.)
And create a calendar for the next year based on these findings.
7. Assess your pharmacy marketing goals
Every quarter, you need to evaluate your pharmacy’s marketing goals.
Check in and see how well you’re reaching those goals. And, look for areas where you can improve.
Questions to ask when reviewing marketing goals:
- Are your marketing goals aligned with your business goals?
- How are you measuring the success of your marketing?
- Are your marketing goals attainable?
- Do you need to adjust your goals based on results?
Use this marketing checklist to guide your pharmacy’s marketing strategy. With regular check-ups, your marketing materials and promotions will be fresh and effective.
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