Posted by Shareef Aldubais on 12/27/2013 to
Starting A Medical Supply Store In Houston TX
How to Start a Medical Supply Store - Part 2
Welcome to Part 2! We talked last time about how important it is to get your promotions started months before you even open the doors of your new medical supply store. I can't tell you how much that piece of advice will save you and I'm back this week to talk a little bit more about promotions and more specifically, internet advertising.
Online Marketing for Medical Supply Stores
Aside from local radio stations, newspapers, and magazines related to medical supplies, there is the place where everyone goes to find out exactly what you're selling and they want to know how to get it now - online. Around 80% of shoppers go online first to find a store near them and 97% of those go to the store once they find one nearby. That's a pretty crazy metric, right? If you live in a city like Houston, which has around 4 million people, that's a huge market!
Medical Supply Store - Tip #2
Get your business online as soon as possible. You're probably thinking - duh, no brainer - but you would be surprised at how much time people will spend picking out the flooring options for the store and pay any attention to their best and most valuable money-making asset, their website. So get on it! Do your research, learn all you can about websites, search engine optimization, Google Ads, Bing Ads, Google My Business, and more. This is the single most important part of your local business income, so work at it from the get-go and you will have a nice start, but leave it behind and you will suffer.
More Than Just Medical Supplies
Starting a medical supply store is more than just having great medical products that aren't available at regular stores - you have to take control of your advertising part. You can have all the medical supplies in the world but if no one knows you exist then your store will be a ghost town. If you can't find the time to learn or feel it's too hard for you, hire a skilled digital marketing agency. I know, more overhead, but the rate of return on this investment will pay off in a big way.
Choosing an SEO and Advertising Provider
Digital ads can cost around $1500-$3000 per month depending on your budget and market. Make sure you calculate for this amount as search engine optimization can take at least a year before you start ranking in a good position. Put aside a budget of no less than $30k to pay for an SEO service. Warning, there are a lot of black hat SEO companies that will take less money, but use shady, not approved methods to artificially inflate your rankings. If their tactics are bad enough, Google or other search engines could blacklist your website. Do it right and you will succeed, take short cuts and you will destroy your chances of success.
Happy Holidays and best of luck on your medical supply store.
