No matter the size of your pharmacy’s front end, the holiday season represents an opportunity to increase foot traffic and, potentially, sales. Whether you have a gift department, seasonal items, local products, etc. doesn’t really matter because increasing foot traffic isn’t just about splashy advertising or Small Business Saturday deals.
The holiday season is the perfect time to drive traffic through community involvement. Specifically, partnering with a local charity. DiversifyRx CEO Dr. Lisa Faast stopped by to tell us all about this strategy during our November CLIMB Webinar. You can watch the session by clicking here (it’s just 10 minutes!) or keep reading for the top highlights on how to become a community destination this holiday season.
How it works:
During the holidays, it’s common to see donation stations in retail spaces. Canned food drives, Toys for Tots, clothing collections, gift trees, pet food drives and more. Local and national charities partner with retail businesses (like yours) to host drop off sites for their donation initiatives. Research shows that people will donate if it’s easy and convenient. Having community drop off points is one of the ways charitable organizations make sure they are checking those boxes. Your mission, if you aren’t already doing it, is to find an organization that needs a partner, and become that partner.
What are the benefits:
Besides the obvious point of doing something amazing in your community, becoming a community drop off site for a charitable organization is easy and free advertising. People that have never been to your pharmacy before will be stopping by to drop off their donations. This is an automatic foot traffic generator. Plus, your pharmacy name and address will be a part of whatever marketing the charitable organization puts out there. You get to fulfill a need for an organization doing meaningful work in your community, and you get new people visiting your store.
Take it to the next level:
You have the partnership, and you’re generating the foot traffic. How does that turn into profit? Here are some of the things you can do to make sure foot traffic turns to purchases.
- First, offer a personal thank you. Recognize the donation being made and take the opportunity to have that first personal interaction. All relationships have to begin somewhere and “Thank You” is a great starting point.
- Next, invite the customer to look around the store, with a coupon for purchases made that day. Normally, we are proponents of the future dated coupon. This encourages the customer to come back to shop again. However, in this instance, you want to make the most of that initial visit and capture new business. So along with your heartfelt thank you, provide a coupon they can use that day. (You can extend the eligibility out if you’d like as well.)
- Capture information if you can. An initial visit is a great time to grab an email address so they can be added to your mailing list. This way they can start to learn about all of the wonderful services your pharmacy offers.
- Round up for charity. Take your community involvement a step further by incorporating a checkout charity program. Invite customers to round up for the charity you are supporting when they check out.
- Offer customers the opportunity to donate their loyalty rewards to a charitable organization. If you have a customer loyalty program, this is a great option to offer during the holidays.
Lastly, while the holidays are a great time to get involved and drive traffic, this is something you can keep moving with all year as you support different organizations in your community. There are more great tidbits and strategies for success in Lisa’s 10 minute video so give it a watch now!
