Inside: Don’t ignore the annual pharmacy days and holidays. Celebrating the days dedicated to pharmacy will help promote your business and engage your community.
Celebrations serve up a plateful of opportunities.
Not only do they give you an excuse to throw a party, but they also present the perfect opportunity to market your pharmacy and engage your community.
Several annual holidays celebrate pharmacy and independent community pharmacy in particular.
Keeping track of every pharmacy-related holiday will help you make the most of each.
When the pharmacy holidays arrive, you’ll be ready to impress your patients.
How to Make the Most of All of the Pharmacy Days, Holidays, and Events
Do you take advantage of the pharmacy holidays? Or do you let them come and go without a care?
Don’t make the mistake of ignoring or belittling the days dedicated to pharmacy.
First and foremost, celebrate. Pharmacy days were created to commend the pharmacy profession or pharmacy business for all the crucial work it does for the community year in and year out.
So, relax, crack open a beverage, stuff your face, and have fun.
But don’t forget that you can get more out of the celebration than a good time.
Use pharmacy days to tell people about what you can do for them. And, use the holidays to engage current patients and drive new patients to your pharmacy.
Promotional ideas guaranteed to create a great celebration:
- Advertise the day with signs and social media posts
- Hold a one-day sale
- Host a celebratory event, such as a party or a sidewalk sale
- Contribute to the day’s social media hashtag
- Ask patients to share posts about your pharmacy on social media
- Ask patents to take a survey
- Thank your patients with coupons, thank you notes, or giveaways
- Place brochures or flyers about the day in patients’ prescription bags
- Invite local leaders to your pharmacy
- Host an educational event
Giveaways work with any pharmacy day, holiday or event. Do giveaways to promote your pharmacy, a certain product, or the holiday.
Items to giveaway include:
- Local products
- Samples of over-the-counter (OTC) products
- Various branded items like hats, keychains, T-shirts, and pens
Whatever you choose to do, make sure you don’t ignore the annual pharmacy days.
Here Is Every Pharmacy Holiday Your Independent Pharmacy Needs to Know
Get ready to mark your calendar. (Or, put these dates in your phone.)
Pharmacy days, holidays and events include:
- National Pharmacist Day (January 12)
- National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day (March 29)
- World Pharmacist Day (September 25)
- American Pharmacists Month (October)
- National Pharmacy Technician Day (Third Tuesday in October)
- Small Business Saturday (First Saturday after Thanksgiving)
National Pharmacist Day
Celebrated January 12, National Pharmacist Day is dedicated to celebrating the contributions of pharmacists in patient care.
The day typically focuses on raising awareness.
Perpetually undervalued, pharmacists should use the day to educate health professionals, the public, and congressional leaders about the depth of services pharmacists provide beyond dispensing.
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) encourages pharmacists to share how they celebrate the day. Use the hashtag #APharmacistIs and tag Specialty Pharmacy Times and Pharmacy Times on social media.
National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day
Celebrated March 29, National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day recognizes the small businesses that contribute to our economy in big ways.
That includes your independent community pharmacy.
Learn why you should celebrate the day and how to use it to promote your pharmacy.
World Pharmacists Day
Celebrated on September 25, World Pharmacists Day highlights the value of the pharmacy profession for improving health.
Each year brings a different theme determined by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). The 2017 theme was “From research to health care: Your pharmacist is at your service.” This year’s theme is “Pharmacists: Your medicines experts.”
FIP encourages pharmacists to use this day to “organize activities that promote and advocate for the role of the pharmacist in improving health in every corner of the world.”
Because each year has a new theme, tailor your promotions and celebrations to that theme.
FIP suggests pharmacies create profile pictures for their social media accounts using the official FIP Twibbon or the official logo.
Find more World Pharmacists Day resources on the FIP website.
American Pharmacists Month
Celebrated in October, American Pharmacists Month (APhM) is essentially National Pharmacist Day expanded throughout an entire month. It’s dedicated to promoting pharmacists’ contributions to improving medication use and advancing patient care in all practice settings.
During the month-long celebration, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) encourages pharmacies to host activities and events to raise awareness about the important role pharmacists play in health care today.
APhA released a guide to help pharmacies increase community consciousness about the care provided by pharmacists.
The guide includes:
- Ideas for special activities
- Tips for hosting health events
- Real-life examples of successful activities for every practice setting
The theme of APhM changes every year.
National Pharmacy Technician Day
Celebrated on the third Tuesday in October, Pharmacy Technician Day recognizes the contributions pharmacy technicians make to pharmacy practice and patient care.
Pull out all the stops this day to honor your pharmacy technicians. Doing so will show your appreciation and cultivate gratitude and loyalty.
The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) recommends celebrating pharmacy technicians on social media with the hashtag #RxTechDay.
The PTCB also recommends celebrating in the following ways:
- Post pictures of your pharmacy technicians in your pharmacy with their names and some fun information about them
- Host a special lunch event for pharmacy technicians
- Publicly recognize to your staff by announcing your pharmacy technicians’ achievements on your speaker system
- Change your automated voicemail greeting to acknowledge the day
- Set up displays highlighting some key roles of pharmacy technicians and how patients can better utilize their knowledge
Small Business Saturday
Although the holiday isn’t specifically focused on pharmacy, Small Business Saturday recognizes independent community pharmacies because they’re small businesses.
Set smack dab between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s a day meant for community members to get out, shop, and show their support for their local small businesses.
The day can create extra publicity for your pharmacy during the biggest shopping weekend of the year.
There aren’t any stipulations to take part. You just need to be a small business and open for business on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Because the day is specifically designed for one-day mass shopping at local businesses, focus on making your front end exciting.
Attract customers by making your own promotional signage to hang in your pharmacy.
Use Shop Small® Studio to create customizable marketing materials. Or, download ready-to-use materials right away.
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