One trait of a thriving pharmacy is a good patient base, and a patient base is always in a state of flux. Patient move away, move into nursing homes, or otherwise just evaporate. To continue to thrive, a pharmacy needs to continue attract new customers. Advertising, therefore is important.
The advertising continuum can range from simple to inexpensive. For example, word of mouth and reputation can result in regular referrals from current patients or other health care providers. Other times, advertising is broader (and more expensive), like a television or radio advertisement to let the public know about a new or important service you offer.
Every pharmacy will have a favorite advertising outlet. Some might find newspaper most effective, others might find that television, radio or a medium like a billboard on a busy road are superior. One newer method of advertising is the placement of materials online within search results. Google, Bing and Yahoo! all sell advertising space that matches your advertisement to searches that are likely to be associated with potential patients and customers for your services.
Computers were becoming mainstream in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and those that grew up in that time period (Generation X) are generally very computer savvy and now in their 40’s and 50’s. Generation X is also starting to required medications as they enter middle age. In other words, Generation X’ers are prime targets as new potential pharmacy customers. Online advertising (e.g. Google AdWords and other programs) is a very appealing way to target these individuals to get your pharmacy’s message across. Internet advertising has real potential to a business like a retail pharmacy. Internet advertising, however, is still in its infancy, and its effectiveness for pharmacy is largely unknown.
Putting an advertisement to appear in search results from providers like Google, Yahoo! or Bing is not straight forward if you are a pharmacy, though. All of the major search engine companies have policies on advertising pharmaceuticals or pharmacy services, and these policies state that internet pharmacies must have a VIPPS or e-advertiser credential (both available from NABP) in order to advertise.
The VIPPS Program is designed to identify legitimate internet pharmacies from the plethora of illegal internet pharmacies that exist. NABP describes the benefits of certification as:
With thousands of rogue sites illegally selling prescription drugs, VIPPS offers a way for legitimate sites to set themselves apart.
A NABP VIPPS endorsement will set a pharmacy back $6000 initially and up to $5000 annually. The endorsement involves an on-site survey and verification of licensure along with verification of compliance with a host of policies that lend credibility to an online pharmacy. Internet pharmacies often do not cater to walk-in customers, and may not even have a storefront. The site survey to verify the legitimacy of the business is an important part of this certification.
Welcome to Pharmacy Jeopardy
Alex Trebek: “The answer is: A brick-and-mortar store with a simple website selling prescriptions to local customers in for in-store pickup.”
You: “What is a retail pharmacy, Alex?”
BZZZZZT!
Alex: Sorry, that is incorrect. The correct question is “What is an Internet Pharmacy”
You see, if…
- your customers pick up in store, or receives home delivery from your own employee, and
- only rarely do you have to mail a prescription (then and only into areas you are licensed already) and
- your store also has a website of any type, and
- your current customers can request refills from this website…
Your pharmacy is categorized as an internet pharmacy by the search engines.
The sticking point, as far as the search engine companies are concerned, is the ability to request refills online. This is a service that is critical in today’s pharmacy world. Even patients with little aptitude with computers regularly use online refill pages at their pharmacy website (independent and chain alike). They have come to expect and demand this of their pharmacy. Unfortunately, this one service makes every brick and mortar pharmacy, in the eyes of the search engines, an internet pharmacy. And internet pharmacies have to have a certification in order to advertise on the search engines.
A VIPPS certification is overkill in this respect, and NABP recognizes this. NABP also offers an e-advertser certification that will allow the pharmacy to advertise on the search engines if it only offers online refills on its website. This certification does not involve an on-site survey; the emphasis is on a review of the pharmacy’s web site. This makes a lot more sense for actual pharmacies in established communities, but astonishingly, NABP charges $2000 per year for this certification. When asked how they justify this cost, NABP officials referred to the “extensive website review” that they do to ensure that the pharmacy meets their criteria.
I am not sure who is doing the review of the website at NABP. I have personally reviewed hundreds of pharmacy websites over the last 10 years while involved with an pharmacy accrediting organization. Most websites took between 5 and 30 minutes to thoroughly explore and evaluate for compliance with stringent accreditation rules. Few were exceedingly information dense> The worst of these were not difficult to review in less than 60 minutes. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in mathematics to calculate that this works out to more than $2000/hr to review a website.
Advertising ROI
Every dollar spent on advertising is supposed to bring in profit to offset the costs of advertisement. This return on investment (ROI) is often difficult to calculate, as bringing in one new patient to a pharmacy might result in a anywhere from a few dollars per year to thousands of dollars per year in sales.
But this yearly certification is not advertising. It is only a license that allows you to spend money advertising with the search engines. One still has to purchase advertising space. The yearly tax (in the form of a certification) effectively makes each advertising campaign with a search engine substantially more expensive. The high expense, coupled with the unknown ROI on an unproven advertising medium, makes the proposition dubious for all but the most aggressive pharmacies.
Conclusions
I generally try very hard to put a positive spin on everything covered on the Thriving Pharmacist, and it is difficult to spot a silver lining for pharmacies. Even so, I will try not to disappoint.
First Conclusion: if one really wants to advertise using this method, consider disabling web based refills. This should enable an exception to be made with the search engine provider (though this is not a promise). For those patients wanting access to easy refills on the go, look into companies that offer cell phone app based refills instead. This might allow you to maintain a balance between online advertising and convenient refills.
Second conclusion: Look at search results using terms like “local pharmacy” on several search engines. Chances are that your competitors (even the chains) are suffering from the same restriction. This means that you are not at a competitive disadvantage. In my case, our pharmacy appears above local chains every time (for what reason I really don’t know). If you feel like becoming the first one to test the uncharted waters of this advertising forum, go back to the first conclusion and read it again.
Third conclusion: It would take a very large response to search engine based advertising to break even after one includes the up front and annual certification costs to advertising. That does not mean, however, that a positive ROI is not possible. With great risk, comes great reward…maybe.
Finally, if being labeled an internet pharmacy by Google, Yahoo! and Bing bothers you, let them know. Contact their advertising departments and explain why you are not an internet based pharmacy and lodge a complaint. If you would be willing to spend money advertising on their site (without a NAPB certification), ask them why they don’t want your money. With enough traction, maybe the rules will relax and allow brick-and-mortar pharmacies to avoid the NABP “internet pharmacy” tax.