3 Tips to Attract New Patients

So, you want to increase the number of patients in your independent pharmacy.

Did you know that marketing is the only element of your business that creates significant results, while everything else is just a cost? What you market and how you do it can make the difference between success and failure in today’s very unforgiving marketplace.

Imagine having a winning business model that attracts more and more patients because you have solutions to their aches, pains, and other chronic health maladies that they simply cannot get elsewhere.

Here are 3 tips to help you attract hoards of new patients and become the obvious expert for integrative medicine in your community:

1. Differentiate yourself

Give patients at least 1 compelling reason to leave their current pharmacy and bring you their business. The more reasons, the better.

Being faster can help grow your pharmacy business if you can get patients in and out in 12 minutes, versus their 1-hour wait at a chain store. But if patients have to travel 50 minutes to save 30, you’ll never attract anyone with this strategy.

Better yet, offer patients a free 15-minute consultation on topics such as getting rid of allergies the scientific way. If you’re not sufficiently knowledgeable about this approach, then do the research ahead of time.

You can also use seminars to build your compounding business. The right marketing will fill a small seminar room, and the right presentation will drive patients to sign up for a personal consult, which will lead to more compounded drug scripts.

If patients don’t hear something rare to share, and if you do not have at least 1 competitive advantage, then you will be in deep trouble sooner or later.

2. Embrace strategic marketing.

Put all of your pharmacy marketing on steroids, and then use a marketing strategy to guide, drive, and control every moneymaking activity you ever do.

This marketing strategy must clearly describe how the patient benefits from your business, rather than what you do, which has no benefits. Your marketing most definitely should address patients’ needs.

Using several strategic approaches can help. For instance, sending direct mail to higher income families close to your pharmacy can produce an enormous amount of sales.

The most important thing is to make sure that you give each patient the information and education that he or she is not getting elsewhere, especially relating to how a particular product benefits him or her.

Below is the top half of a winning ad I have run in 42 states. It pulls in people as far as 35 miles away and has sold as many as 99 units from a single appearance in a newspaper.

Notice how the ad first addresses the arthritis sufferer’s pain, and then offers a positive solution. The rest of the ad follows in the same logical yet emotional order.

Putting emotion into each and every ad is a must. Any old marketing is a waste of money. Only the type depicted above can get you where you want to go.

If you cannot write good copy, but you still want to have quality advertising, then hire someone with a proven track record. Because marketing is the only element of your business that can achieve significant results, a copywriter’s work may be worth gold.

Strategic marketing gets you more business now and builds your brand for the future. Both are desirable, and both are achievable.

3. Participate in a local health fair.

This single event enables you to get in front of large numbers of people. Just make sure that the health fair you choose attracts truly health-oriented individuals, as opposed to those looking for free food.

Give people many reasons to stop by your booth. When you do, you can wind up with a contact list of dozens—even hundreds—of viable prospective patients.

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These 3 tips can send hoards of new patients to your pharmacy rather quickly. Your marketing should not only produce an immediate and very measurable response, but also brand your pharmacy consistently.

The Pharmacy Sage can be reached at (518) 346-7021 or Lester@ThePharmacySage.com