By Anyssa Garza, PharmD, BCMAS – Digital Pharmacist Staff
Many independent pharmacies don’t take advantage of one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to communicate with patients. According to Statista, the number of e-mail users in the United States is expected to reach nearly 255 million by the end of 2020. And consumers commonly cite they prefer brands and companies contact them through e-mail. It is no wonder, why e-mail is likely to remain one of the main marketing channels. This is one of the many reasons that email marketing is important to your pharmacy.
Email Marketing Increases Brand Awareness
If you are a Digital Pharmacist customer, email marketing capability is already built into your Digital Pharmacist platform. That means you can send emails out to your patients with a couple of clicks.
Utilizing your weekly email newsletter makes it easy to promote events, in-store offers, and any pharmacy news you may have — all increasing your brand awareness and keeping your pharmacy top of mind. For help in optimizing your weekly email newsletter, email help@digitalpharmacist.com.
An example of a promotion you can include in your newsletter is shown below. If you would like these promotions added to your email newsletter or if you need help with digital marketing, email demand@digitalpharmacist.com.
Email Marketing Gives You Control Over Your Pharmacy’s Message
You can’t always control what patients say about your pharmacy on social media or via reviews, but you can control what you put in front of them. With email, you can easily control when, how, and to who your message is delivered. You can let your patients know about seasonal promotions, events, services, or even ask for patient reviews through your newsletter. You no longer have to rely on word-of-mouth or the local newspaper to get your message out to your community. It’s now entirely up to you when your news hits your patients.
You Learn Actionable Lessons – and Fast
One of the great things about email marketing is that you can have an idea of your success within a couple hours of sending something out. We are not just talking about open rates or click-through rates. You can find out how active your patients are with your marketing, gauge interest on promotions, and even test out new pharmacy offerings. Even if an email campaign flops, you learn quickly what not to do on your next email send (and you are not out thousands of dollars). Compare that to the extremely high cost of radio and TV advertising, where a failed campaign would be disastrous.
In case you missed our blog post about how to leverage your email newsletter, you can read it here.
If you are not taking advantage of email marketing, we would love to help you make the digital transition. Give us a call at 877-959-7550 or email demand@digitalpharmacist.com.
References
https://www.statista.com/topics/1446/e-mail-marketing/
