Attracting new patients can be a challenge when you're up against large chain pharmacies. It's hard to compete with the big guys when it comes to marketing and resources, but creating fantastic eye-catching posters can be an inexpensive and easy way to grow your business. Putting these up within your own business, nearby clinics or residential areas - all help you reach out and meet new patients.

Here are some tips to help you design a poster that will help build your brand:

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1. Determine the Purpose of your Poster

You should always be promoting your pharmacy. Having a few posters for times you don’t have anything new to promote will still help you grow your brand and establish yourself within your community. Make sure you update and replace your posters. Outdated posters can make your pharmacy seem disorganized. Current and timely posters, on the other hand, make you look up-to-date and open for business!

Some example poster ideas:

• Promote your health promotion, public awareness, or front shop campaigns.
• Encourage patients to fill their prescriptions with you online so they don’t have to wait for their next refill.
• Promote the availability of services such as blister packaging, medication and sharps disposal, medication reviews, etc…
• Promote your pharmacy newsletter so that you can stay in contact with them.

After you have a purpose, make it easy for your audience to take action towards that purpose. Your call to action can be something like a website link, QR code, phone number, or instructions to talk to the pharmacy team.

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2. Decide on the Size of your Poster

Smaller posters (8.5×11in) are great for handing out flyers or sticking on countertops at drop-off and pick-up. Medium-sized posters (18×24in) are great for putting up indoors of small businesses for health promotion campaigns. Large posters (24×36in) are best for displaying outdoors or on storefronts to capture foot-traffic. Important information on larger posters should be legible from 10 ft away.

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3. Choose a Graphic Design Software

There are many free-to-use templates from websites that have free templates to help make eye-catching and professional-looking posters. They are user friendly and do not require specialized training. Here are some examples:

• Canva (embed https://www.canva.com/)
• PosterMyWall (embed https://www.postermywall.com/)
• Adobe Creative Cloud Express (embed https://www.adobe.com/express/)
• Piktochart (embed https://piktochart.com/)
• Venngage (embed https://venngage.com/)

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4. Nailing down the content

Make sure you are using clear and concise language, and avoid using jargon. You don’t want to overwhelm or bore potential patients with information-overload. Be intentional with these three essential text components: the headline, the body, and the signature.

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5. Designing your poster

A good-looking and engaging poster makes it easier for customers to recognize and remember your brand long after they have seen it.

• Logo: Keep the design simple and unique. The goal of a pharmacy logo is to be instantly recognizable. It does not need to be groundbreaking in design.

• Colours: If you have not already selected your brand colours, Canva has useful guides on colour symbolism and colour theory to help you choose complementary colours.
• Graphics: Use simple, clean graphics. Your design should be easily identifiable from afar.
• Layout: Your poster should be 20% text, 40% graphics, and 40% empty space for a consistent and clean layout.

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6. Otherwise, Use MedEssist!

Creating pharmacy posters can be fun and a nice break from your pharmacy routine. However, if you don't have the time and just want a professional service to take care of all your poster design and other business needs. Consider MedEssist as your marketing and clinical partner. MedEssist has a one-click marketing solution to generate countertop or large size posters with your brand and QR code embedded.

Feel free to chat with us at the bottom right to learn more!

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