Do you want to learn how to market an online pharmacy store for maximum sales? Want to know the proven tricks used by experts in the industry to drive profitable sales? Then this article is for you!
Create a Buzzworthy Brand Name
The first step to successfully marketing an online pharmacy is to come up with a brand name that is both relevant and easy to remember. Since your potential customers will not have your actual brand name in mind when searching for a product online, you want to make sure that they are able to find your website easily when searching for the products you offer. To create a buzzworthy brand name, consider using a memorable phrase, word or combination of words that are relevant to your niche. For example, MyMemoryStore.com became Memorex.com, and they both represent the same online pharmacy that offers pharmaceutical and vitamin products to help people with short-term memory loss. When a consumer searches for “short-term memory loss medication” or “vitamin for short-term memory loss” on Google, your website will appear among the first few results.
Build a Brand Voice
Building a brand voice is all about establishing consistent branding throughout your digital marketing channels including your website, social media and mobile apps. The first step is to choose your Platform. There are numerous platforms that you can choose from such as WordPress, Shopify and Blogger, to name just a few. It is important to note that not all businesses will be able to operate on every platform; however, you can build websites that work across all major social media channels and mobile apps (e.g. Android and iOS).
Once you have chosen your platform, connect with other designers, developers or business people who can help you along the way. Once you have your basic web structure in place, you can begin to add more functionality, including a shop that accepts online orders and provides a customer-friendly experience. Ensure that the website reflects your brand voice and that all of your collateral materials (such as print and digital advertising, social media campaign, etc.) comprise of the same voice. While many businesses opt to hire a professional web designer to help them build a custom-designed website, those who are looking to build a website for the first time can use a free theme from either WordPress or Blogger.
Dedicate A Subdomain For Your Website
In addition to establishing a brand name and brand voice, you also need to decide on a subdomain to use for your website. A subdomain is a URL that is contained within a domain name (e.g., shop.mydomain.com vs. mydomain.com). Since your subdomain will be a placeholder for the information that you will need to fill in as you develop your website, it is important to choose a short and easy to remember subdomain.
Once you have chosen a subdomain, connect with a webmaster who can help you set up your website. If you are looking to use WordPress as your content management system, the platform provides a one-click install option for webmasters who want to set up a blog on their site. Once you have your basic site set up, you can begin to add more functionalities.
Launch a Blog
Blogs and Podcasts are two of the most popular and effective ways to generate and drive traffic to your site. By creating and maintaining a blog, you can provide valuable content to attract and retain potential customers. In addition to building a platform that provides valuable content, you can use the blog to directly promote your website and products. If you have a sizable audience, you can also use your blog to directly promote products and brands that you believe in.
Blogs that provide content on a regular basis are typically found more valuable by search engines and considered as more authoritative than blogs that provide content only once or twice a year. Therefore, the more frequently you post, the more valuable content you will provide to your readers.
Set Up Email Newsletters
An e-newsletter is a weekly or monthly email that provides news, updates and discounts for your subscribers. Setting up an e-newsletter is extremely easy and can be done in just a few minutes using a tool such as MailChimp, ConvertKit or HubSpot.
The key to establishing an effective e-newsletter is to choose a template that is easy to follow, comprehensive and contains useful information for your subscribers. It is also important to regularly send out new content to keep your subscribers interested and engaged with your emails. If you want to grow your e-newsletter, you can include an opt-in form so that you can continue to receive emails from your customers once they have subscribed. You can use a tool like Google Forms to create the form easily and then connect it to a Google calendar so that you can ensure you send out the email at the appropriate time.
Display Product Images Correctly
Since your customers will not have your physical product in their hands, you need to make sure that the images you are using for marketing purposes are of good quality. There are free tools like Shoppe that can be used to determine the optimal image size for each of the products you sell. For photo-sensitive consumers, enlarge the print size of images so that they are not distorted when viewed online.
In addition to ensuring that the images you are using are of good quality, you also need to make sure that they are the correct dimensions. Most websites allow you to upload a product image that is 2,000 pixels x 2,000 pixels, which is the recommended size for high-quality images. If you are using an image hosting service, such as Pixabay or Depositphotos, be sure to check the dimensions of the image before using it.
Use Social Media To Create Awareness
Creating awareness is the first step to driving traffic to your website. Once you have established a small audience, you can use social media to promote your website and products. Since people are typically more engaged with other brands and businesses they follow or belong to, you can use social media to gain credibility and increase your brand recognition. You can use social media to follow, connect with and share content produced by experts in your niche.
To create awareness and drive traffic to your website, you can use platforms like Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to post content regularly and compellingly.
Use Digital Marketing To Get Found
If you want to be found by potential customers, you need to optimize your website for SEO (search engine optimization). Since your customers will be searching for products that are relevant to your niche, you want to make sure that their search results include your website. To get started, you can use free tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights, which checks the performance of your website and provides suggestions on how to make it faster. For businesses who want to grow their online store, you can also use SEO tools that can help you track the effectiveness of your efforts, identify weak spots and provide suggestions on how to improve your conversion rate.
To get found by potential customers, you can use SEO to boost your ranking on major search engines including Google, Bing and Yandex. In addition to boosting your search engine ranking, you can also use SEO to gain credibility with major search engines and gain trust from prospective customers. To do this, create high-quality content regularly and make sure that the content you create is both relevant and interesting to your target audience.
Use Email Marketing To Build And Maintain Relationships
Since users have grown accustomed to receiving emails whenever they subscribe to a newsletter or engage with a brand via social media, you can use email marketing to build and maintain a relationship with your customers. Building a relationship with your customers does not necessarily mean you have to send out a constant stream of emails, but it does mean you have to make sure you follow up when you don’t get a response to a promotional email. You can also use email marketing to provide customers with valuable information that relates to their product or service interest.
A major drawback of social media is that there are so many different platforms and functions that can be used for marketing. This means that you have to establish a presence on multiple platforms, which requires consistent and constant maintenance. Since your customers are already on social media and can access your content anywhere and anytime, using email marketing to send out regularly scheduled newsletters is the best way to keep your customers informed and engaged with your content.
With the above advice, you will be able to market an online pharmacy successfully and build a solid foundation for growth. Using the right tools and integrating your various platforms will give you the best chance of reaching your full marketing potential.