Safer Options

Marketing Consultancy Branding Web Design Graphic Design Product Photography Copywriting

Creation of sub-brands and an eCommerce website to establish a good reputation in the market, increase product offering and sales, and enable the business to diversify into new sectors.

The Client

Safer Options produces and supplies controlled drug denature kits for home use and to the NHS, private pharmacy service providers, opticians, vets, and dentists.

The kits help guard against the misuse of controlled drugs, reduce harm to the environment and people, and prevent the supply of easily retrievable controlled goods.

Safer Options Logo

The Challenge

Safer Options first approached us in its infancy. The stakeholders had previous proven experience in the market and product sector, and this was a new venture to launch the drug denature kits.

Initially, they required our help getting the products to market. With only one dominant, established competitor in the UK, the opportunities for the business, if managed correctly, were remarkable.

Since its conception with the original brand and website development, many things have changed for both the business and Safer Options’ customers. While the business has developed year on year with internal processes and customer services to match the increase in sales, the tools used to engage and sell Safer Options’ specific products hadn’t.

We have worked with Safer Options for over a decade and have continuously brought the business up to date. Our objective has always been to increase opportunities for our client to grow their customer base and increase revenue, by making Safer Options responsive to the purchaser’s evolving needs.

Our Solution

Marketing & Business Consultancy

Through ongoing marketing consultations, we have regularly looked at where Safer Options wants to be and enabled them to extend their offering to existing customers, whilst targeting new sectors.

With the uptake of tablets and other mobile devices across all departments within the NHS, independent pharmacies, and other client types that purchase products and services online i.e. vets, opticians, dentists, the initial Safer Options website needed realigning to match advances in technology.

In the business consultations, we discussed potential barriers to purchase and how best to remove them. It was essential that we redeveloped the site to become responsive, to provide visitors with the online experience they expect from suppliers and providers.

In addition to creating a user-friendly and professional online presence, enabling buy online functionality would increase the potential to buy at the point of interest, by reducing the steps to purchase.

An eCommerce site would also reduce administration time and paperwork, with upfront payment through online payments reducing credit control.

Branding

From all outputs of the previous marketing consultations, research, and conversations, we developed a brand that would present the business effectively in the marketplace.

Safer Options Logo designed by The Marketing People

Sub-brands of Safer Options, designed and developed by The Marketing People

This enabled a pragmatic and organic development of products and services as the business grew, without having to rebrand and incur additional costs or create confusion.

As Safer Options expanded their offering, we then created sub-brands for the various sectors that they supply to.

This work was crucial to allow us to formulate the best strategy to get our client to market to these sectors with an eCommerce solution.

Website Design

Website

As part of Safer Options’ commercial development, we designed and developed a new website to effectively present the extended offering with eCommerce functionality and payment gateway.

During the website scoping, we confirmed the website should provide visibility of Safer Options’ product range both directly on the site or via the NHS supply chain.

We, therefore, planned a functional website navigation that simplifies the purchasing process, with the various sectors clearly segmented.

Whilst the new website simplified the purchasing process of Safer Options’ products, for those that are unable to buy online, we still promoted the facility to order via e-mail or phone, to ensure all customers could access Safer Options’ products.

We implemented several calls to action throughout the site, to send visitors to the online shop. The calls to action were all specific to each sector, giving the benefit to that client, alongside an image of the relevant product.

Safer Options new and responsive website. Mobile and tablet ready, built by The Marketing People

The buy online functionality includes an account creation and login feature, and a search option and sorting option, to improve the user journey. The platform we used enables functional elements and additional add-ons to be built into the site as Safer Options progresses, such as the abandoned basket function.

For each product page we ensured there was high-quality photography, a product description, a downloadable Material Safety Data Sheet, additional information, and a review section to encourage visitors’ purchasing decisions.

Once the website was ready to go live, we provided the client with training. This taught them how to work the admin side of the website to update any product codes, prices, or information, we also showed them how to publish blogs to provide insights into the controlled drug sector.

E-mails

As part of the website development, we provided e-mail set up support to the client.

From confirmed details, we set up e-mail accounts remotely on Safer Options’ internal machines, then configured e-mail forwarding on the server for the agreed existing and new accounts.

Product Photography

We used product photography extensively across the website, retouching the images and ensuring they were of the highest quality to present the business professionally.

Product photography for new website, taken by The Marketing People

Graphic Design

Paid Advertisements

Our client placed advertisements in local publications to promote the products they sell.

Using professional photography and graphic design, we created adverts that were attractive and engaging, clearly separating the vast amounts of information and displaying images of the kits in various sizes to showcase the product range.

Advertisements for Safer Options designed in-house by The Marketing People

Labels

Following the creation of the sub-brands, we applied these to label designs for the pharma, vet, dental and optical sectors. We also created a label for our client’s new Drug Destroyer pot.

These labels include lots of information, such as safety warnings, instructions for use and contact details, so the design was extremely important to make all the information easy to read.

New product labels for Safer Options, designed in-house by The Marketing People

copywriting icon

Copywriting

The pre-marketing research gave us an in-depth understanding of Safer Options’ offerings, target audiences, value proposition and business rules. This understanding allowed us to create website copy that helped cement their position as a proven trusted supplier and improve search engine results.

We worked closely with the client to ensure the website copy was engaging for each target customer group to help generate leads and sales.

From the in-page content, we created key messaging and call-to-actions to encourage visitors to make a purchase online or get in contact.

The Result

Not only has our client successfully gone to market with their products, but they have also maintained their historic brand equity and position in their sector, whilst extending awareness of their products and their reach.

The brands and sub-brands cement Safer Options’ reputation as a professional and trustworthy provider of controlled drug denature kits. This will enable an organic development of products and sectors as the business expands.

The eCommerce site has increased opportunities for the client to sell to a diverse number of sectors and reduced administration and paperwork for order fulfilment.

Their new website showcases their expertise and that Safer Options are an approved supplier to the market, through recommended methods for the destruction of controlled drugs, and accreditations included across the site.