There’s one aspect that all events, sales and promotions should have in common—anticipation.
It’s often overlooked, but in order to be successful, all of your pharmacy’s events and promotions need to build anticipation among patients. Getting patients excited about an upcoming event means they’ll be more likely to actually come, and it encourages them to tell others.
Use these anticipation techniques to promote the launch of your summer sale, a grand opening of your new location or a popular medication switching from prescription to over-the-counter.
Here are five steps for building anticipation in your pharmacy.
1. Set a schedule
Create a calendar for your pharmacy promotion. Schedule outreach to local media, social media posts, and finally, the big reveal.
Building anticipation requires repeated updates, teasers and reminders, and a calendar can help you stay on track. Get organized about what you’re going to share—and when—and the campaign will be more effective at building anticipation.
2. Release information a little at a time
Don’t give out all the information at once. Build anticipation for your event by releasing pieces of information a little bit at a time.
For example, you could start by publicizing an upcoming sale at your pharmacy. Next, tease the audience by revealing that the sale will apply to an entire product category. Then, tell them that the category will be skin care, and finally announce that the sale will be 10 percent off the whole category this weekend.
Spreading out the release of information can encourage patients to regularly check emails and Facebook posts from your pharmacy. Patients will keep coming back for more information, leading to a more engaged interaction between patients and your pharmacy.
3. Establish a reason for excitement
Building anticipation requires a reason to get excited. Maybe it’s a giveaway, or special offer, but every campaign needs a reason patients should care.
If you want to really build anticipation, select something that’s worth the hype. For example, if you frequently give out coupons for 10 percent off your front end, then you might not be able to build anticipation for those coupons.
But, if you’re promoting something special that has a significant benefit to patients, like hosting an event, or giving away a gift card, then people will be more likely to get excited.
4. Build advocates
Get patients and business partners to promote your pharmacy’s event to build anticipation. For example, incentivize patients to share Facebook posts about the promotion. Also, consider offering extra entries into a drawing for sharing your post, or offer a small giveaway to the first person to comment on your Facebook page’s post.
If the final prize is good enough and available to many people, then patients will be more likely to share the information with their friends. For example, if you’re giving away a free gift to the first 100 patients at a your pharmacy’s grand opening, then people will be more likely to share that information than if you’re giving away one $100 gift card.
5. Have a big reveal
The final key to building anticipation is a big reveal. Make the final announcement or event spectacular. Even if the final event is as simple as a new sale or as extravagant as opening a second location, make the reveal special.
Remember, the reveal is the end point, but you can’t just announce it once. Share the information on your social media channels, your website, email newsletters and in your pharmacy to maximize the campaign’s reach.
Use these tips to build anticipation for your pharmacy’s next promotion, sale or event.
