The pharmaceutical or broader health care industry is one of the more prosperous industries. It specializes in medical devices, supplements and pharmaceuticals of all kinds. The company we supported in online marketing and e-commerce is both a manufacturer and distributor of the products mentioned.
There is a noticeable increase in customer interest in our partner’s products, and consequently competition among manufacturers and suppliers is also increasing. That is why the object of our cooperation was to achieve long-term branding results along with an upward sales trend.
Objectives:
● Increase brand recognition on Instagram,
● building a community on Instagram,
● educating the community on Instagram,
● raising ROAS, or return on expenses that were incurred for advertising,
● optimizing the advertising budget.
In our client’s case study, we outline ways to increase brand recognition, build a community and ultimately what impact these activities had on customer conversions and product sales. We describe this particular case using the example of campaigns run on Instagram
Regulations
Are you wondering why we are starting with this topic? Because due to the nature of the industry, the legal regulations contained in the Pharmaceutical Law, define a rather restrictive approach to advertising. This law defines the concept of advertising as an activity
consisting of “informing or encouraging the use of a medicinal product with the aim of increasing: the number of prescriptions, supply, sales or consumption of medicinal products.” [1]. The advertising rules described in detail give us, so to speak, instructions on how we can advertise pharmaceutical products. You will find detailed information on this subject in the Law of September 6, 2001. Pharmaceutical Law.
It is worthwhile before launching a sales campaign for a given product, to study its specifications and juxtapose this with legal restrictions.
In addition to the aforementioned law, before planning marketing communications on Instagram (or other social media platforms), it is important to check whether marketing communications can be launched for a given product, there are content dedicated to this in the regulations. When planning the image side of the campaign, it is also worth checking whether the materials, graphics, videos, meet the standards of regulations on advertising messages for pharmaceuticals.
What is worth keeping in mind?
● Advertising must not target children and contain elements aimed at a young audience, including associations with children’s stories;
● The message of the advertisement should be objective and regardless of its form, it must not mislead the customer;
● The manufacturer or seller is obliged to inform the user about the side effects of a drug or supplement and that the product guarantees the desired effect.
Increase brand awareness and building an engaged community on Instagram
Taking into account these legal aspects, the campaign plan included:
- Cyclically feed the customer’s IG with engaging content. On a monthly basis between 20 – 25 posts and testimonials;
- High-quality educational posts, both substantively, but also tailored to the SEO requirements for this channel and using appropriate keywords and hashtags;
- The subject matter of the texts, related to physical as well as mental health support;
- Engage with brand ambassadors who have a certain amount of reach;
- Campaigns to gain brand IG likes;
- Campaigns for user activity;
- Product campaigns with the company’s product assortment, with a properly selected target audience;
- Separate campaigns for the best converting product-related keywords;
- Manage the budget with an extensive and long-term strategy, while maintaining the highest quality. It was important to maintain a ROAS of 700%.
The result of the above activities are active and converting users and target customers of the products. High conversions from sales campaigns on Instagram directing to the brand’s store led to an increase in product sales (12.9%). Remarketing was also launched for undecided users (18.3% of completed transactions).
All of these activities resulted in our partner significantly increasing the profitability of its business Y/Y by 23% with the introduction of new products to its portfolio and the launch of a new distribution and advertising channel. This further translated into increased brand recognition in the segment of new customers (up 72%), who were not previously in the distribution portfolio.
[1] https://sip.lex.pl/ Pharmaceutical Law of September 6, 2001.
(i.e., Journal of Laws of 2020, item 944, as amended).
If you are interested in additional information
Or to establish online advertising cooperation, contact us.
Jakub Robaczyński
Head of Marketing
phone: +48 503 439 653
email: jakub.robaczynski@nettle.pl
