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Reputation in a Digital Age: Building Trust Online for Pharmacies | Marketing Vitals · Pharmacy Podcast Network

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
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  Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Has your business's marketing flatlined? Find your pulse again with
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  Speaker 2: Marketing Vitals, bringing you innovative and turnkey healthcare marketing solutions
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: from industry experts who have developed a knack for solving problems.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: a co-hosted publication from GRX Marketing and Finch Marketing, sister
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  Speaker 2: companies that are passionate and knowledgeable about healthcare marketing.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Hey, everyone. Nicole McClure back with another episode of Marketing
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Vitals Podcast. So excited to have a guest today, Chris Alelovich.
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  Speaker 4: I'm sure I butchered that. I'm sorry. From FlavorRx. Welcome
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  Speaker 4: to the show.
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  Speaker 5: Thanks so much for having me, Nicole. And I respond
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  Speaker 5: to anything, so I think you were close enough.
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  Speaker 4: Perfect.
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  Speaker 3: So you and I have known each other for a
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  Speaker 3: long time, been in the independent pharmacy industry and always
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  Speaker 3: talk about marketing. You always have a great, a lot
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  Speaker 3: of great ideas, great resource to bounce ideas off. So
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  Speaker 3: that's why I wanted to have you on the show today,
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  Speaker 3: just to talk about digital marketing and how organic versus paid,
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  Speaker 3: you know, what works better, what are the benefits of each?
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  Speaker 3: So it's kind of what I want to dive into today.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, should be fun. Perfect.
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  Speaker 3: Well, for those few listeners out there that maybe don't
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  Speaker 3: know about you or FlavorRx, do you want to tell
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  Speaker 3: our listeners about yourself?
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  Speaker 5: Sure. I'll give you the quick elevator pitch. Hopefully everyone
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: has heard of our program, but the FlavorRx program has
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  Speaker 5: been around for almost 30 years now. We have a
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  Speaker 5: custom flavoring system that is used in thousands of independent pharmacies,
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  Speaker 5: as well as some of our chain counterparts. But I
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  Speaker 5: think pound for pound, our independents are always You know,
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  Speaker 5: some of the best at promoting the service. We have
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  Speaker 5: evolved over the last few years, which has been actually
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  Speaker 5: pretty exciting. We created or merged with a company called Fillmaster,
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  Speaker 5: which is in the pharmacy automation space dealing with liquids.
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  Speaker 5: So we have a couple of different niches where we
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  Speaker 5: now have digital reconstitution for antibiotics. And then we merged
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  Speaker 5: our flavors into that automation as well. And actually, the
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  Speaker 5: biggest part of our company now is in the services space.
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  Speaker 5: And so we manage water quality, not just in pharmacy,
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  Speaker 5: but throughout grocery stores, coffee shops, hospitals, distribution centers and beyond. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 5: it's been a lot of fun keeping us busy. Yeah. Interesting.
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  Speaker 4: I didn't know. I didn't know about that last part.
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  Speaker 5: So.
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  Speaker 4: Good to get the up to date.
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  Speaker 3: So before we dive into organic versus paid, let's talk
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  Speaker 3: a little bit about just marketing in general, kind of
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  Speaker 3: good versus bad marketing.
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  Speaker 4: What's your thoughts on, you know, what is the.
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  Speaker 3: Best way for pharmacies to promote themselves? I feel like
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  Speaker 3: a lot of them kind of struggle with that.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest challenge is that,
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  Speaker 5: you know, pharmacists went to pharmacy school and marketers went
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  Speaker 5: to business school and marketing schools. I'm a huge fan
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  Speaker 5: of Seth Godin and some of the other folks that
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  Speaker 5: are putting out books. And I've been fortunate to go
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  Speaker 5: to a lot of keynotes to kind of hear what
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  Speaker 5: makes them tick and how marketing has evolved. And so
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  Speaker 5: a lot of this is just kind of regurgitating some
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  Speaker 5: of the things that we have picked up and adopted
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  Speaker 5: over the years. But I think it is important to
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  Speaker 5: see how marketing has evolved over the years. And I
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  Speaker 5: think a lot of pharmacists confuse advertising with marketing. Yeah,
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  Speaker 5: great point. Yeah, I think the quote that always gets
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  Speaker 5: me with Seth Godin is just his definition is that
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  Speaker 5: marketing is the act of telling a story through other
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  Speaker 5: people that causes them to change their behavior. And I
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  Speaker 5: think that really hits for pharmacy customers because you're using
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  Speaker 5: the services and the experiences that you deliver on a
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  Speaker 5: daily basis to try and tell that story to folks
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  Speaker 5: that may not come into your store. And I think
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  Speaker 5: you and I have talked about this in the past,
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  Speaker 5: but I think there is a storytelling problem with independent
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  Speaker 5: pharmacies because time and time again, consumer reports and all
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  Speaker 5: those different folks will do ratings on who has the
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  Speaker 5: best customer service levels and overall the highest ratings. It's
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  Speaker 5: always independent pharmacy. And if you look at the very
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  Speaker 5: bottom of that list, It's probably some of those chain
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  Speaker 5: pharmacies that are notorious for their two and three star ratings.
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  Speaker 5: So the real challenge is, I think, how we're not
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  Speaker 5: really telling that story in our communities of why you
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  Speaker 5: drive past the convenient intersection that has three other pharmacies there,
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  Speaker 5: and you go that extra mile to maybe a strip
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  Speaker 5: mall or something that's Not quite as convenient, but once
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  Speaker 5: you get through those doors, it's just a world of
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  Speaker 5: a different experience. So I think that kind of lays
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  Speaker 5: out the foundation for why we as pharmacy owners need
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  Speaker 5: to think a little bit more about focusing on storytelling
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  Speaker 5: and marketing, what differentiates you and how. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I feel like in general, pharmacy owners are really bad
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  Speaker 3: about um tooting their own horn so to speak and
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  Speaker 3: just you know saying all the great things that they
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  Speaker 3: are doing for their community um because they don't want
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  Speaker 3: to come across as you know gloating or whatever but
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  Speaker 3: then they go too far the other way where they
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  Speaker 3: don't say anything and then people don't realize you know
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  Speaker 3: all the great services that they.
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  Speaker 5: Offer yeah absolutely so.
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  Speaker 3: When it comes to uh organic versus paid marketing um
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  Speaker 3: You know, what would you say are kind of some
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  Speaker 3: of the best types of organic marketing and why in
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  Speaker 3: your mind it's better than paid, even though it can
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  Speaker 3: sometimes take more time than paid to get results?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think a blend is always the
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  Speaker 5: right answer. It's just which way you want to skew.
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  Speaker 5: And again, I think for a pharmacy owner that's not
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  Speaker 5: in their comfort zone in this, just making sure you're
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  Speaker 5: separating advertising from marketing. Mm-hmm. You know, with paid, you know,
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  Speaker 5: it's oftentimes a higher upfront cost, but it's like super
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  Speaker 5: targeted and it's a little easier to track if you're
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  Speaker 5: just talking about digital returns. But I think staying true
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  Speaker 5: to a true like organic campaign, it's a slow drip.
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  Speaker 5: But I think that gets a little closer to digital.
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  Speaker 5: you know, that storytelling mentality rather than just saying there's
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: a sale, it's the 4th of July, come get your
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: supplements and vitamins. And I'll kind of use that to
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  Speaker 5: segue into, you know, your first question about good marketing
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  Speaker 5: and bad marketing, because I think it's very common, but
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  Speaker 5: like To help your listeners kind of frame this out,
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  Speaker 5: what I would consider and what other experts would consider
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  Speaker 5: as bad marketing are usually trying to drive a transaction,
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  Speaker 5: and it's really promotional-based. Like I said, it's a short-term
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  Speaker 5: sale of a product, and you're talking about the products
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  Speaker 5: rather than the story and how that helps your customers.
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  Speaker 5: And another keynote that I happened to sit in on,
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  Speaker 5: which just completely changed my mind for pharmacy specifically, was
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  Speaker 5: with Brene Brown. And it was the difference of leading
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  Speaker 5: with empathy rather than sympathy. And I doubt there's many
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  Speaker 5: pharmacy owners that train their 16- or 18-year-old or just
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  Speaker 5: even their lifelong technicians that are interacting with the customers
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  Speaker 5: about being empathetic versus sympathetic. And if you think about
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  Speaker 5: building those connections and the trust and loyalty of long-term
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  Speaker 5: guests— that is like, you know, critical and what I
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  Speaker 5: think separates and, and independence do a much better job
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  Speaker 5: of it than, you know, your, your chain pharmacies where
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  Speaker 5: there's going to be such turnover and you probably see
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  Speaker 5: the same person, you know, two times in a row
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  Speaker 5: if you're going to pick up refills. So, um, And
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: we'll talk in a little bit about a new acronym
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  Speaker 5: to kind of rethink different marketing strategies. And I think
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  Speaker 5: we can just go off on a couple of different
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  Speaker 5: tangents from there.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, sounds good.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you bring up a good point with technicians
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  Speaker 3: and teaching them how to market. I feel like a
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  Speaker 3: lot of times, again, the pharmacy owner thinks the marketing
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  Speaker 3: just starts and stops with them. They obviously are the
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  Speaker 3: ones that are going out to the community, kind of
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  Speaker 3: running the marketing, but they forget to educate their staff
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  Speaker 3: not only on being empathetic, but also, hey, this is
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  Speaker 3: what we're promoting this month, if it's this service or
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  Speaker 3: that service. And so, you know, for us as marketers,
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  Speaker 3: the challenge we have a lot of times is we
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  Speaker 3: do all this great marketing, but nobody tells the support team.
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  Speaker 3: So then, you know, patients come in or new patients,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: I should say, come in and.
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  Speaker 4: Ask like about it and they don't know.
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  Speaker 3: So just trying to make sure that that carries down
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  Speaker 3: through the entire market or the entire pharmacy team, Cause really,
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  Speaker 3: I think without that happening too, you're going to potentially
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  Speaker 3: disgruntle some new patients, but also frustrate your staff because
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  Speaker 3: they're like, we don't know what's going on.
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  Speaker 4: So thank you for bringing that up.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I feel like that's kind of a disconnect a lot
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  Speaker 3: of times with making marketing successful.
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  Speaker 5: And I do think, you know, when I think about
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  Speaker 5: independence versus chains, and I just came out of a
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  Speaker 5: trade show at McKesson, and so having a lot of
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  Speaker 5: different interactions with pharmacy owners, the three things that come
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  Speaker 5: to mind that separate, you know, regardless of where they're
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  Speaker 5: located and taking price, you Um, when I think of
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  Speaker 5: independent pharmacies, they typically have better relationships with their customers.
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  Speaker 5: They're very service forward, um, and, and not just like
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  Speaker 5: good customer service, but having a lot of services available
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  Speaker 5: in their stores and just focus on better like health
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  Speaker 5: and wellness experiences and outcomes, um, versus you go into
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  Speaker 5: a chain and yeah, it was really easy and convenient
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  Speaker 5: and they were open longer hours, but you know, it, you,
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  Speaker 5: there's not really a story there. How often are they
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  Speaker 5: really asking about how you're really doing and if there's
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  Speaker 5: interactions and things like that? So I think that to
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  Speaker 5: me is marketing, is you're already providing that experience, but
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  Speaker 5: it's now how do we tell the story to someone
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  Speaker 5: that's not an existing customer? And how do we attract
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  Speaker 5: more people to say, this is why you drive that
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  Speaker 5: extra mile?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, good point.
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  Speaker 3: And I think for us too, like with paid versus organic,
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  Speaker 3: With paid, there's this expectation that the results are going
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  Speaker 3: to be quicker. A lot of times it's, I want
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  Speaker 3: something instantaneous because I've I've run a Google ad or
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  Speaker 3: Facebook or, you know, whatever it may be. But those
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  Speaker 3: do take time to sometimes just as long or longer
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  Speaker 3: than organic. And we always like to try to remind
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  Speaker 3: pharmacy owners that, you know, think of the thousands of
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  Speaker 3: messages that you get inundated with, whether it's, you know,
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  Speaker 3: on your phone, when you're watching TV, streaming, broadcast, whatever.
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  Speaker 3: So we've got to first just even break through that
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  Speaker 3: clutter before people start paying attention to what the heck
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  Speaker 3: you're even saying. So that's where sometimes just kind of
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  Speaker 3: trying to set those expectations of telling your story takes time,
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  Speaker 3: whether it's done through organic means or paid advertising.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, and I think that's where you want to
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  Speaker 5: always have a blend, whether that's 50-50, 60-40, whether it's
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: personal preference or working with local groups and agencies that
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: can assist with that part of the business. I think
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: it's totally fine and normal to kind of lean on
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: the experts there for some guidance.
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  Speaker 3: Now, I think you have a Google Maps exercise for us.
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  Speaker 3: I wasn't sure if it was now or if you
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: wanted to do it later in the podcast.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, we can definitely jump in. One thing, I love
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: doing this if I do present at different conferences. And
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: anyone listening can do this at home, but When you
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: think about what is the first impression of your pharmacy
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  Speaker 5: to a non-existing customer, it's not your website. It's typically
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  Speaker 5: now it's Google Maps and when someone's searching for the
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: best pharmacy near them. Or it might even be when
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: you move into a new neighborhood. This is certainly the
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: case in my neighborhood. When someone moves in and they've
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: got young kids, they're asking, who are the good pediatricians?
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: Who are the good pharmacies? Who are the good dentists?
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: And you like just see like all the testimonials just
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: popping up in real time. And so oftentimes that is
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: your your first impression from a new customer is either
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: what they're hearing from others, whether it's directly through that
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  Speaker 5: testimonial or they're searching up what's the best pharmacy near me.
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  Speaker 5: And I don't know, what generation are we on now?
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: I guess Gen Zs, I mean, after millennials. But folks
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  Speaker 5: that are having kids for the first time, they're going
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: to look for the best pharmacy near me. And so
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  Speaker 5: the reviews on Google Maps are a huge way to
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: make a good first impression. And I would say in general,
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: independent pharmacy has better overall ratings than their pharmacy counterparts
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  Speaker 5: or their chain counterparts. That is something that you always
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: want to keep adding to it. The more reviews that
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: you have, the more credible that four to five star
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: rating looks when you've got hundreds, if not thousands of
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: reviews versus 10 or 20. And I think there's different algorithms,
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: which I haven't taken the class more recently, but you
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: can go in and learn all about how to master
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: that search engine optimization and tap into those ratings. But
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: That will determine how you show up in that particular
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: search based on the frequency, the total number of reviews,
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: and obviously having a better rating than the other folks
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: in your community. So my activity would be to type
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: in whatever town you live in is what is the
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: best pharmacy. And I live in near Severna Park, Maryland.
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  Speaker 5: So I would say, what is the best pharmacy in
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  Speaker 5: Severna Park, Maryland? See what shows up in the community
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: where you're based. And hopefully you're at the top. But
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: if you're not, at least, you know, OK, this is
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: what someone's going to see when they come to this area.
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: And You know, look at the reviews of your competitors,
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: look at the reviews that you have right now, and
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: don't run away if there's an issue. Run towards it
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: and work to fix that because maybe you have a
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: technician that's not delivering the best service, and you might
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: see that in a review if, you know, if, God forbid,
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: that's out there.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. No, great suggestion.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: And I think just to add to that, a lot
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: of times– If businesses don't pay enough attention to their
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Google business page, whether making sure it's up to date,
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: you know, you can add posts kind of just like Facebook,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: other social media platforms. So you can post photos, you can,
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: you know, talk about event services, things that you're going
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: on in the pharmacy. So again, back to your point,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: all of that stuff helps with SEO, but also just
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: helps your business grow. look more complete when somebody's trying
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: to find a pharmacy. I think if they see your
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: page and it looks like, yeah, you haven't had a
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: review in six months to a year, and it looks
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: like it's not all filled out, then they may pass
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: you by for your competitor.
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: So, and all that stuff's free to do. It's just,
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: you know, taking the time to do it.
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: Yep, absolutely.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: So looking at content, give me your thoughts on organic,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: or sorry, not organic, original and authentic content. You know,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: obviously AI is a huge thing right now, but, you know,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: In my opinion, AI is not there as far as
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: having that empathetic personal touch to content, especially for pharmacy marketing.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: But just wanted to get your thoughts on that, kind
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: of why authentic content is so important.
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, everyone's got a phone in their hand,
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: and every app and every company is fighting for that
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: 10 seconds of your attention. I don't know many folks
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: that just see an ad for a product that say, oh, man,
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: that's going to captivate me for the next five minutes. Right.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: you know, sharing whatever those experiences I I'll use flavoring
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: shameless plug of, of how that can be a part
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: of it. We have a promotion that we suggest to
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: our pharmacy customers called do us a favor to get
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: a free flavor. And while most pharmacies charge anywhere from
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: three to $ 5 when they, you know, flavor a prescription
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: you can offer your customers that you'll waive the charge
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: if they're willing to make a, like a social media
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: post or even do one of those reviews. So, That
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: is authentic, and they're sharing that not with your existing
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: customers but with their network. And to say that, you know,
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: Billy or Susie was just sick with the flu, and
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: we just went to XYZ Pharmacy, and, you know, they
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: were able to flavor it and made medicine time so
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: much easier. Sharing those types of experiences, I think, is
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: a real, like, awesome way to have authentic and organic content.
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: You're not going to be able to chat GBT, you know,
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: that type of experience.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, great example.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: And talk to our listeners about newsjacking. I'm guessing a
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: lot of them haven't heard this term. I, you know,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: my brain always goes a mile a minute.
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: And so, you know, whatever the current events are, whatever
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: the headlines are, if there's an easy hook that you
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: can try and tie something into, you know, the pharmacy space,
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: it's a great way to just get some short-term quick
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: burst and some relevance. Obviously, the World Cup is going
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: on right now. So I wish I had a better
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: example of, you know, some sort of soccer-themed, you know, promotion.
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: But And if you're a pharmacy that's in any of
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: these towns that's hosting, I mean, what an opportunity to
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: try and just, you know, acknowledge, hey, we know what's
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: going on. We know we've got this whole new audience
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: that's in town. And, you know, maybe this pops up
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: on their feed and that'll be a connection and they'll
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: come on in. That's one example. I mean, if there
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: are actual news headlines, GLP-1s, obviously, if there's anything tied
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: to that or supplements and other things that are just
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: answering questions about it, positioning yourself as an expert where
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: someone can say, you know, I'm not sure who to
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: go talk to about something like that. But, you know,
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: to come in and, you know, have that relationship and,
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: you know, that's just tying into whatever the local current
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: events are.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, got it.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: Um, so let's switch gears a little bit, talk about SEO. You,
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: you kind of touched on it earlier, um, when it
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: came to getting Google reviews, but any other advice that
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: you have for our listeners, just kind of, you know, SEO,
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: I feel like is such a buzzword. You can really
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: get into the weeds on it, but, um, kind of
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: some high level recommendations.
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I think the biggest thing, if it's not your
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: area of expertise, then it certainly is an opportunity to
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: find that time is precious in pharmacy. You're working 12
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: to 15-hour days. Do you want to come home and
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: try and figure this out on your own? You might
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: have resources in your store. technicians and younger folks might
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: be more savvy in this space and could be an
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: opportunity where they want to learn more about that and
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: kind of help be a part of that solution or
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: implementation team. But if you're using the right target keywords,
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: If you're looking into geofencing, and that's the act of
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: highlighting a geographical area where everyone in that little invisible fence,
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: whether it's a specific event at a certain time or
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: something like that, your ad is prioritized in that area,
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: you're going to pay premiums for that. But I think
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: just even taking a step back to optimizing the content
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: that is on your website. Any articles, if you're posting
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: those on whatever the topics may be, making sure that
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: they're current and they're active links and things like that nature,
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: that all helps with how you can optimize where your
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: pharmacy shows up in a random search based on certain keywords.
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think that probably needs its entire own
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: podcast or six-week class to go along. So I don't know.
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: I'll dive too deep into that.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: Agreed, yeah. And it's even more complicated now with voice search.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: And all that fun stuff.
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: And I think that's a good segue to, you know,
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: in your opinion, how has marketing gotten more challenging the
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: last couple of years for pharmacy owners?
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, just like I said, fighting for attention. Yeah. It's...
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: tougher now than ever. You know, I think I'll use
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: that to kind of segue into, you know, what I've
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: I don't remember if this was– I think this was
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: actually a Harvard Business Review article about the new marketing mix.
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: They used to call, when we were in college, the
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: four Ps of marketing, which focused on product, place, price,
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: and promotions. The new way to kind of pivot and
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: think about that is called the SAVE method, which is
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: focusing on solutions– Focusing on your accessibility, providing the best value,
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: and providing the best education. So instead of promoting a product,
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: it's educating them about that product and how it's going
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: to solve a problem. Not just focusing on our product is,
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: you know, XYZ is, you know, 30% off, but the
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: value of what that can, you know, save or deliver
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: over the long term. Not just that our location or
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: our products have good placement, but how your store is accessible.
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: Maybe you have after hours chat and things like that,
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: that they can talk to an employee if needed. And
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: not just that you're dealing with products to sell or upsell,
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: but how those are solutions for whatever ails them. Got it.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: And I think a lot of pharmacies miss opportunities with
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: not marketing to their current patients. You know, we get
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: so focused on new business, new business, where in turn,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: marketing to your current patients is one, usually more effective
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: because they're already coming to you and two, much cheaper.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: And so just wanted to get.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Your thoughts on, you know, PMS data, you know, in
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: their dispensing system is a great way to target letting
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: the patients know about other services they offer. But kind
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: of what's your thoughts on that? Any additional ideas?
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm not sure what percent of, you know, your
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: listeners might be like compounding pharmacies or dispensing like pet
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: meds or anything like that. But I'll just use that
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: as an example. You know, it's probably 60, maybe 70
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: percent of the folks that you're filling scripts for probably
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: have a pet at home. And so, you know, that
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: is a lead. And, you know, just Having a promotion,
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: a pet-related promotion or theme, and seeing who is engaging
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: with that is a great way to figure, okay, we've
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: been filling your scripts for the last few years, and
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: did you know we can fill it for Fido and Fifi?
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: And so just using your existing customers, again, like them
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: telling the story to their friends and their networks, that's
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: a great way to, you know, have a more organic
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: way for them to do your marketing for you. Yeah.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: And sometimes, you know, it can be simple as just
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: asking the patient. I think sometimes we're hesitant to just ask, hey, yeah,
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: do you have a pet at home or can we
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: help with their medications or something like that?
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, it could also work for, you know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: if you recognize someone's in that kind of sandwich generation,
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: you know, if they're caretaking for, you know, their parents
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: and things like that. And, you know, that just happens,
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: you know, more organically over time as you have that
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: relationship and build that trust and loyalty. It gets easier to,
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: you know, kind of ask those questions.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: For sure.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Well, anything else to share with our listeners that we
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: didn't touch on?
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: Oh, boy. I think the last little activity that we've
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: done in some of these other things is just kind
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: of writing out what your marketing promise is. And I
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: think it's a good activity to do internally with your employees,
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: asking the technicians, like, what– Who is our pharmacy for?
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: And so, like, my pharmacy is for people who believe, like,
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: you know, X, Y, Z. There's no right answer. There's
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: no wrong answer. But sometimes the answers you get from
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: your techs and other staff might open up some other conversations.
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: For sure, yeah.
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: You know, focusing on what type of customers you want
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: to attract. Again, it's hard to think about, it's hard
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: to think beyond the walls of where you're filling scripts. And,
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: you know, there's so much going on that you're just like,
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: you know, taking care of the folks that are there,
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: but thinking beyond those walls and who in a perfect
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: world do we want to have? And again, I'll use Our,
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: you know, pediatric services, it might not be a high
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: dollar item, but if something, a service that you offer
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: already does attract younger families in the community, well, you're
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: building your customer base for the next 10, 20 years. So,
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: you know, it's up to you guys who you want
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: to focus on attracting. But once that's defined and the
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: whole staff agrees on it, then I think it gives
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: you guys a little bit more vision and direction to
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: kind of work in the same direction. you know, in
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: the same direction. And then lastly, it was just, we
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: promise that engaging with our pharmacy will help you get blank. And,
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: you know, what are you trying to get folks out
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: of that? Or what are you trying to get your
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: customers to get out of coming with you? And again,
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: I think that all goes back to the services, the experiences,
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: and the relationships that, you know, you guys are focused
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: on delivering compared to what they're going to experience going
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: across the street or, you know, whatever that intersection might be.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: That's a great exercise. To your point, it's always interesting
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: to see, or do your techs think something totally different
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: than you do as the pharmacy owner?
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: So great conversation starter.
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: You know what? There's one other thing I wanted just
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: to share. And that is, I know a lot of local,
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: like small town, like newspapers often have like annual awards
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: of like, you know, what is the best of. It's
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: really important and it's really like easy marketing. You can't
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: believe how much it'll do for you, but always apply
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: for those. and then share that as a campaign because
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: your loyal customers will want to vote for you. I mean,
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: they love coming to you and they want to share
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: that story and help you tell that story. So always
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: apply for those awards and then use that as a
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: marketing campaign to kind of rally your customer base. And
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: then hopefully you win it. And then it just becomes
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: that much better for everyone to have better visibility of, oh, man,
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: I had no idea. Like something good must be happening
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: over there. So So try and look out for that
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: if it's available in your communities.
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, great idea. And again, it's free. So great way
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: to promote your pharmacy. Well, Chris, thank you so much.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it as always. You always have a lot
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: of great marketing ideas. If somebody does want more information
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: on medication flavoring, where can they find you guys at?
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: FlavorX.com. That's our website. And then F-L-A-V-O-R-X. We are at
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: a lot of the major trade shows. So hopefully you'll
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: see our fun booths there. And yeah, we can travel anywhere. Perfect.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: Yep. Thanks so much, Nicole.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: And this is Nicole wrapping up another episode of Marketing
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: Vitals podcast. For more information on pharmacy marketing, visit pharmacymarketing.com.