Postcode checker launched to help pharmacies 'identify and respond' to local health needs
A hyperlocal postcode checker has been launched to help UK pharmacies identify and respond to health needs within their local communities.
Created by Brand Champions, the tool pinpoints the “services and health concerns local people are searching for” and provides pharmacies with “a snapshot of the marketing and engagement opportunities in their local area” within two weeks.
Read more: CPNI: Pharmacies should be ‘fully embedded’ in winter planning
The tool also identifies “practical opportunities for the pharmacy to convert its physical proximity to local customers into greater awareness, relevance and engagement”.
Brand Champions say their analysis tool “draws exclusively on publicly available, open-source information, including local authority, Census and NHS data, alongside insight into local search behaviour, audience needs and pharmacy visibility”.
Making local opportunities visible
The company’s CEO and founder Fiona Wylie called the public’s trust in and proximity to pharmacies “incredibly powerful” but added that “proximity alone doesn’t make you top of mind”.
She said “every postcode is different. A pharmacy serving young families will have different opportunities from one serving an older population; people will be looking for different services, asking different questions and using different channels to find answers.”
“The postcode check is about making that local opportunity visible. We take publicly available information and look at it through a marketing lens to show pharmacies who is around them, what matters to those people, where the pharmacy is – and isn’t – showing up, and where there may be an opportunity to act,” she added.
Read more: Over 280,000 people have lost their local pharmacy this year
It comes after Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland called for pharmacies to be “fully embedded” in winter planning.
And it follows the National Pharmacy Association announcing that at least 280,000 people have lost their local pharmacy in the first eight months of this year.
You can try the tool here.
