Three quarters of pharmacists say their customers are only aware of some of the services on offer. And we think the solution is marketing!
There is an odd gap sitting in the middle of community pharmacy right now. Around the country, pharmacists are treating urinary tract infections, managing asthma, resupplying contraception and dressing wounds. The training has been done. The protocols are in place. The clinical evidence keeps stacking up in favour of the model.
And most people walking past your front window still think of your pharmacy as the place you collect a script.
What the numbers actually say
The 2026 UTS Community Pharmacy Barometer, published in April, surveyed 360 pharmacists nationwide with data collected in late 2025. Asked what they had delivered in the previous six months, the results were striking:
- 82.8% had managed a urinary tract infection
- 68.9% had managed rhinitis
- 64.4% had performed minor wound management
- 57.5% had managed asthma
- 56.9% had managed shingles
- 50% had provided hormonal contraception
Only 2.2% of respondents said they had provided none of the professional services included under expanded scope of practice trials. In other words, this is no longer a fringe activity for early adopters. It is what community pharmacy does.
Then comes the awareness question, and the picture changes. A large majority, 77%, reported that their patients were aware of only some of the services their pharmacy offers. The report’s own conclusion is worth sitting with: although pharmacies are recognised as healthcare access points, many people still primarily associate them with the traditional role of dispensing medicines rather than the broader range of clinical and professional services they provide.
There is one more figure that should stop any pharmacy owner in their tracks. Just 38 of the 360 respondents identified consumer interest as a key factor driving their provision of full scope services. Demand is not pulling these services along. Pharmacies are pushing them uphill.
Why this is a marketing problem
While the awareness gap is a sign the services need more time, more government promotion, and a broader rollout, it is also a sign that pharmacies are not marketing these services effectively.
The service quality question has already been answered. The University of Newcastle PATH-UTI study saw more than 17,000 women access pharmacist-led urinary tract infection care. Nine in ten were satisfied or very satisfied. Complete symptom resolution within seven days was reported by 79.4% of patients, and pharmacists adhered to clinical protocols in 99% of consultations. The hard part, the part that took years of advocacy and training and clinical governance, is done.
What is missing is much smaller and much more ordinary. The woman in your suburb at four o’clock on a Saturday afternoon with UTI symptoms and a closed GP clinic does not know she can walk into your pharmacy because nobody has told her. That is something you control from your own shop floor just by improving signage, search and word of mouth.
Adding a new service line means training, equipment, rostering and risk. Promoting a service you already deliver competently means telling more people about something that is already sitting behind your counter, fully costed and ready to go.
A quick word on qualifications
Worth being clear about this before going any further. These services sit under state and territory legislation rather than a single national licence, and being capable of delivering a service is not the same as being authorised to deliver it where you practise. Approved training, eligibility rules and the conditions you can treat differ in every jurisdiction and are revised regularly. Confirm what your pharmacy and your pharmacists are currently authorised to deliver with your state or territory health department before you promote anything.
Six things worth doing this month
1. Put it on the window, not just at the counter
When barometer respondents were asked what would help, physical in-store signage was the first thing they named. It is worth being specific rather than clever. A sign reading “Expanded scope services available” means nothing to the public. A sign reading “Pharmacist consultations for urinary tract infections. Ask our team.” is understood in two seconds by the exact person who needs it, and it keeps the focus on the consultation rather than on any medicine that may or may not follow.
One caveat. Whatever goes up should be professionally designed and printed to your brand, and consistent with the rest of your signage. You are asking someone to trust you with a clinical assessment, and a laminated A4 from the office printer quietly argues against that. Before writing your own, check whether the program you deliver under already supplies consumer-facing material, since anything produced for the program itself has usually been through the compliance checks already. The Guild’s Scope of Practice hub carries resources and information state by state. Your local council’s signage rules apply as well, whatever the wording.
2. Fix your Google Business Profile
Someone with symptoms at the weekend does not start at your website. They search for treatment near them, and they choose from what appears. Make sure your profile lists your professional services individually, that your hours are accurate including public holidays, and that the services are named the way a patient would say them rather than the way a clinician would. Keep it current, too. An out of date listing advertises something you may no longer be authorised to deliver.
3. Remove the friction of asking
Plenty of people will not walk up to a busy dispensary counter and start describing symptoms in front of a queue. A simple online booking link, a clearly marked private consultation room where one is available, and a team trained to offer a quiet word rather than wait to be asked will all convert interest that currently walks back out the door.
4. Brief your whole team, not just your pharmacists
Your assistants have far more customer conversations than you do. If they cannot confidently explain what your pharmacist can treat, who qualifies and what it costs, then your best referral channel is going to waste. Regular staff training, plus a single page on the staff room wall covering each service, will do more than most advertising budgets.
5. Bring your local GPs and practice nurses into it
Barometer respondents specifically nominated support from other healthcare practitioners as something they wanted more of. A short introduction to nearby practices explaining what you can now handle, when you refer back, and how you communicate outcomes positions your pharmacy as a pressure valve for an overloaded clinic rather than a competitor for their patients.
6. Say it more than once
One social media post about your UTI service is not a campaign. Awareness is built through repetition across a long period, and the audience you are trying to reach only becomes interested at the moment they develop symptoms. That could be any week of the year, which is exactly why the message has to be visible every week of the year.
Three notes of caution
The first is that marketing tends to outlive the authorisation behind it. Signage stays up, a service page lingers on the website, a Google profile keeps listing something after a pilot has ended or after the trained pharmacist has moved on. A short annual review of every place your services are advertised, checked against what you are authorised to deliver today, takes an hour and removes the problem entirely.
The second is that advertising a regulated health service is not the same as advertising retail stock. It is governed by the National Law and the AHPRA advertising guidelines, and testimonials about clinical services are not permitted, no matter how genuine or how glowing. Claims that could create an unreasonable expectation of benefit are also out. This does not stop patients leaving reviews of their own accord, but be aware that where a review appears somewhere you control, such as your own social media page, responsibility for its compliance sits with you.
The third is that many of these services involve prescription-only medicines, which brings the Therapeutic Goods Act into play alongside the National Law. The TGA treats the promotion of a health service as a means to obtain a prescription-only medicine as advertising that medicine, which is prohibited. Its guidance is to refer only to the type of consultation you offer. So promote the consultation rather than the treatment, and take particular care with price, because the TGA treats price information for a prescription-only medicine as an advertisement for that medicine.
None of this is as limiting as it sounds. Plain, factual description of the consultation you offer, who is eligible and how long it takes will generally be fine, provided any price you publish is clearly attached to the consultation rather than to the treatment. It also happens to be the most useful thing you could possibly publish for someone deciding whether to walk in.
You do not have to work this out alone. The Guild maintains an advertising guidance page and compliance checklist for members, dealing with therapeutic goods and health services separately, and it is the quickest way to sanity check a campaign before it goes live. One point from it is worth flagging. If you do name a pharmacist and their credentials, vague claims such as “postgraduate qualifications” are specifically discouraged, so name the training they have actually completed.
The opportunity
There is a version of the next few years where community pharmacy quietly becomes the first place Australians think of for a long list of everyday health problems. That shift will not be delivered by legislation alone. It will be delivered one pharmacy at a time, by owners who take the trouble to tell their own community what they are now able to do.
The most under-used marketing asset in Australian community pharmacy today is not a new service. It is the one you are already delivering, and almost nobody knows about.
Sources and further reading
UTS Community Pharmacy Barometer, University of Technology Sydney (360 pharmacists surveyed, data collected late 2025)
Coverage of the barometer findings, Medical Republic, April 2026
PATH-UTI findings and pharmacist prescribing evidence, Pharmacy Guild of Australia
Pharmacist Capability Framework, Pharmacy Board of Australia, April 2026
Expanded Scope of Practice training and state requirements, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service, AHPRA
Advertising a health service, Therapeutic Goods Administration
Scope of Practice hub and state resources, Pharmacy Guild of Australia
Check your own state or territory
Authorised services, approved training and eligibility criteria differ in every jurisdiction and are revised regularly.
This article is general information for pharmacy owners and is not legal advice.
Advertising and scope of practice requirements change and differ by jurisdiction. Confirm your obligations with your state or territory health department and your own adviser before promoting any service.
AP Group are Australia’s leading pharmacy brokers, supporting pharmacy owners through every stage of ownership.
Written by Dee McNamara, Marketing Manager – AP Group
AP Group are the leading pharmacy experts in Australia, helping hundreds of pharmacists into ownership every year – our team can help with sourcing finance for your purchase, as well as providing the right legal advice to help you navigate the process.
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About the Author:
A national level surfboat rower (you’ll want to Google what that is), Dee has an adventurous spirit and zest for life that’s contagious to those around her. When she’s not rowing a boat into 6 foot swells, she’s riding the brand and marketing wave, successfully implementing marketing strategies for more than 15 years.
To put it simply, Dee knows marketing. She takes a one-size-does-not-fit-all approach, having learnt leading marketing practices from not just Australia, but around the world. Before joining AP Group, Dee worked as the creative director at a leading marketing agency, filling her marketing portfolio with a range of industries — from sports to tourism to fashion.
As for credibility, Dees got it. She’s been published in Marketing Magazine (2017) and graduated a Master of Marketing with Distinction.