Take a tour of pharmacy websites (banner and non-banner) and you’ll see the same images and faces.  Walk around ANY pharmacy conference and low and behold - same faces are on banners, stands and brochures.  It's fake, lazy and stale.  I don't know who would want their business represented like that.  

This is a result of “stock image libraries”, a collection of images from “iStockPhoto” or “Dreamstime” - where the website publisher grabs generic medical/pharmacy images. Whilst very convenient, these images will damage a brand by making it look non-genuine. In addition, many of these images are from U.S. American or European sources and often do not represent the scenes, dress and image of Australian pharmacy. You also have to be careful of copyright laws here, fines do apply and are chased!

For a local business, it is essential to have photos of your own pharmacy, your own people and scenes familiar to your customers. This may mean hiring a photographer to do a photo shoot or applying learnt techniques with a good camera. Camera phones can do a really good job of taking photos – the skill required is to compose your photo correctly. 

Profile photos of key staff will make your site stand out. Be careful not to publish surnames but do make sure there’s a first name and position to a face. Areas of expertise, experience and something interesting about the person creates a sense of authenticity.

We work with our website clients to present an authentic experience online for their customers.  We also provide them with a guide to taking good pharmacy photos.  In addition, we have a stock image gallery of pharmacy shelves and products to give flavour of familiar scenes.  

That starts the journey for customers - who are introduced to the pharmacy, pharmacists and staff well ahead of time.  By doing this, existing and new customers are familiar, develop a bond and will organically get to know who their local pharmacy really is.  

Things to avoid

•    Using stock pharmacy imagery
•    Poorly taken phone images
•    Poor lighting
•    Taking photos without basic training on composition
•    Altering the aspect and resolution of photos
•    Publishing images with a large file size
•    Placing images out of context with no caption or search text tags
•    Using irrelevant images

Don't be a catfish pharmacy! Things to avoid when trying to be geniune...