Knowing your audience is rule #1 for a successful business! It is especially important for brick-and-mortar businesses like pharmacies.
Knowing your audience’s likes and dislikes, and preferences show that 1. you care about them as people, and 2. you are the right business for them.
Now this blog does have some how-tos, but take this tale as more of a how NOT TO!
The Importance Of Knowing Your Audience
A single photo recently sent the small town of Wasco, California, into a frenzy!
Let me set the stage.
Wasco and Shafter are tiny rural towns located exactly 7.54 miles apart in Central California and are mortal rivals! This storied rivalry goes back as far as anyone can remember and is very ingrained in each community, so much so that the conference that the high school football team plays in has it chartered that these two teams MUST play in week 9 each year. Their rivalry is actually a bylaw, the Wasco Tigers and the Shafter Generals!
The football games are epic; both towns shut down, and the stands are packed on both sides with wild cheers of either ‘burn Generals burn’ or ‘burn Tigers burn’! It’s wild, and experiencing this small-town passion is something you will remember!
The Photo That Started It All
The week the photo below showed up on social media, the cries of Wasco residents could be heard worldwide!
Last year a very beloved mom-and-pop restaurant named Carol’s, for the original owner that had fed generations of Wasco residents since the 50s, was unexpectedly closed one day. Now the restaurant has gone through different owners over the years.
Rumors flew this time, though, that the new owner was the same owner as the rival Shafter’s General Headquarters restaurant. The speculation and rumors continued for about a year until today… the stories were true! Worse yet… the new owners renamed beloved Carol’s the General Headquarters, as in the biggest rivalry in the valley. It suddenly felt like the Generals just took over the town of Wasco!
The Consequences Of Not Knowing Your Audience Are Real
Now I don’t know the new owners or what in the world they are thinking. But what I do know is this:
- All press is NOT good press in a small town or a niche community.
- Knowing your audience is key!
- Doing research is worth it.
- The Reward is a Raving audience.
All Press is NOT Good Press
No doubt about it, the new owner of this restaurant made a splash, but is it a splash that is going to endear them to the community? No. You may want to start new programs or services in your pharmacy, which is a must for growing profitability, but you must ensure you have your patients in mind.
Knowing who they are is the first step. Understanding their needs, preferences, pain points, and behaviors is essential for successfully starting new programs or branching out into new audiences.
Failing to understand your audience, your program or service may struggle to capture attention, fail to address their needs, or even alienate your audience. In today’s digital age, where competition is fierce and attention spans are short, knowing your audience is more critical than ever in the short burst that we get their attention. There is nothing wrong with rolling out your new program with some razzle-dazzle. Just ensure the razzle-dazzle doesn’t drive your patients out the door!
Who is your audience?
Your target audience for a specific program, product, service, or pharmacy is your target group. These folks are the ones who will read, watch, or listen to what you create. Your audience could be anyone from potential to existing patients, practitioners, media partners in your community, and even followers or fans on your social media.
Understanding your audience will help you craft programs, make smart OTC-sourcing purchases and create content that will resonate with them and addresses their needs. Your audience could be defined by various factors, such as age, gender, health goals, medical conditions, behaviors, shoot even some hobbies; you know, those crazy people who LOVE to run…
Why knowing your audience is important
Raving fans! Raving fans is why knowing your audience is paramount to creating a thriving pharmacy. When you know your audience, you can tailor your content to their needs, preferences, and behaviors, essential for capturing their attention. Raving fans become an army of marketers for you. These patients feel heard and seen; in return, they will help you generate referrals. Word of mouth still reigns supreme in the fight for generating leads. Failing to know your audience, you risk creating content that falls flat, fails to capture attention, or alienates your audience, like our new Wasco restaurant owners.
How to define your audience
Defining your audience is identifying who they are, what they need, and what they’re interested in. There are various ways to define your audience, such as creating buyer personas or conducting market research. The goal is to create a clear picture of your audience, what motivates them, and what they want. AI is making this easier than ever. Don’t hesitate to use tools like ChapGPT to help you.
Doing your market research is worth it.
Creating buyer personas and conducting market research
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal audience. It’s a detailed description of their demographics, behaviors, pain points, and goals. Creating a buyer persona helps you understand your audience, what they need, and how to reach them. To create a buyer persona, you must gather data on your audience, such as age, gender, location, interests, behaviors, and job titles. You can collect this data through surveys, interviews, or even AI.
Once you have the data, you can create a persona representing your ideal audience. This persona should have a name, a picture, and a detailed description of their needs, preferences, pain points, and even name it! Make it a habit to “run” every program, OTC, or content through your persona. Asking ‘where a Wasco Tiger would like to eat’ would have told the restaurant’s new owners that it isn’t at a place named for the Generals!!
Engaging with your audience
Engaging with your audience is essential for building your tribe. You can engage with your audience through social media, email newsletters, or texting. The goal is to create a conversation with your audience and build a relationship with them. Doing so increases the chances of making a loyal following, generating leads, and even new pharmacy patients.
Tailoring your content to your audience is creating content that resonates with them. You can use language, tone, and style that resonates with your audience and address their pain points and interests. Make them think you made it just for them!
The Reward is a raving audience.
An excellent business quote is a business’ #1 job is to turn customers into raving fans. Once you do this, growing your pharmacy will be much easier. Every new product or service you launch already has a built-in buyer audience.
If you are looking for the right expert to help improve your pharmacy, I invite you to check out DiversifyRx and Pharmacy Badass University. Our team checks all the boxes from ‘been there, done that’ to a proven track record of success, tons of references, and a money-back guarantee!
