PHARMACIES THAT ACT NOW WILL SECURE THEIR POSITION AS THE GO-TO WEIGHT LOSS CLINICS IN THEIR COMMUNITIES


pharmacies to expand their catchment area beyond their local community while maintaining trusted, face-to-face care for patients who prefer it.


Training and Compliance Delivering a weight management service requires the right skill sets and frameworks. Pharmacies need Independent Prescribers to manage treatment pathways and structured training for the wider team to support patients with lifestyle advice. Providers such as Allied Health Training offer programmes that help pharmacies upskill and embed best practice. Just as important are GPhC-compliant systems and SOPs covering prescribing, dispensing, follow-up and pharmacovigilance, along with secure digital platforms for consultations and records. With these foundations in place, a weight loss service becomes both safe and sustainable.


Marketing Your Clinic Even the best service will not sell itself. Patients start their journey online, so marketing is critical, especially with a growing market saturation.


• Local SEO & GEO: Optimise your website and listings for key terms like ‘weight loss clinic near me.’ Continue to generate highly informative content, on your blog for instance, to help generate recommendations by LLM’s like ChatGPT.


• Google Ads: Capture high-intent traffic with compliant campaigns. This is quite expensive now, unfortunately and requires more budget.


• Organic social: Share FAQs and educational content to build authority. TikTok is a great medium, but please ensure you are not promoting the POM product directly!


• Paid social: Target new audiences in your wider catchment area. Meta Ads are so effective for this and still very economical.


• Email & SMS: Inform existing patients about your new service. This can be done directly from your website, or through systems like Mailchimp, VooDoo SMS or Pharmlogic.


• In-store TV displays: Reinforce your message with patients already walking through your doors. This is an absolute given and should be in every pharmacy's window.


The challenge is balancing promotion with ASA and GPhC rules. Done well, compliant marketing not only drives demand but also builds your reputation as the trusted option.


Build Trust with Social Proof In today’s market, patient reviews are as valuable as the sale itself. They create instant credibility.


• Collect Google Reviews for your service. Automate this through your digital prescribing/booking system.


• Share anonymised testimonials of patient success.


• Where appropriate, use before-and-after journeys to inspire confidence.


Social proof is often the difference between a patient choosing you or a competitor online.


Beyond Weight Loss GLP-1s dominate the headlines now, but the real prize is positioning your pharmacy as a comprehensive private health hub.


Once comprehensive systems are in place for your weight loss clinic, there is no reason not to expand into services like HRT, men’s health and dermatology. This is why setting up a system like this is so valuable and simply cannot be replicated by any other healthcare point in the community.


Weight loss may open the door, but the hybrid model makes your pharmacy fit the clinical future.


The Time to Act Is Now This is not a temporary spike. Demand is rising steadily and will continue for years. Pharmacies that act now will secure their position as the go- to weight loss clinics in their communities. Those that delay risk losing ground to online-only providers.


Turning Opportunity into Action At Pharmacy Mentor, we specialise in helping pharmacies build compliant digital pathways for services like this. We have already helped dozens of pharmacies launch websites specifically built for prescribing online.


Following our recent presentation at the Pharmacy Show 2025, where we discussed the future of digital weight loss pathways, we're continuing to work with pharmacy teams who want to position themselves at the forefront of this healthcare revolution.


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