Advertising for pharmacies

A pharmacy's prescription volume is determined mostly by which practices are nearby and who walks past. That part is difficult to grow through marketing.

The regulated boundary

Advertising prescription-only medicines to the public is prohibited in most European jurisdictions. Non-prescription medicines may be advertised, subject to detailed rules on claims, mandatory warnings and prohibited content.

The practical consequence: advertise the pharmacy, the services and the advice, not the drugs.

Services are the growth area

Check what your jurisdiction permits before advertising any clinical service. Where vaccination is permitted, it is typically the single largest growth opportunity available to a community pharmacy.

Compete with mail order on convenience

Mail-order pharmacy competes on price and delivery. The local response is speed and presence.

What works: pre-ordering repeat prescriptions by message or app, ready within hours; delivery within the district on the same day; and holding regular customers' repeat items in stock so nothing needs ordering.

A customer who can send a photograph of a prescription and collect within two hours does not use mail order.

The advice relationship

The pharmacist is one of the most accessible health professionals available and most people do not know what they may ask.

Content and signage that says explicitly what can be discussed, from interactions to travel health to minor ailments, generates consultations that lead to sales and to loyalty.

The care home and practice channel

Supplying care homes, and arranging repeat dispensing with nearby practices, are contract relationships that stabilise a pharmacy's revenue.

Both are won by direct approach and reliability rather than advertising.

Local visibility

Opening hours, especially the out-of-hours rota, are the most searched information. Accuracy here is not a marketing nicety; people arrive at closed doors when it is wrong.