Online pharmacy advertising can be a bit more difficult than marketing for typical e-commerce websites. E-pharmacies can promote their activities and assortment, but under certain conditions and excluding certain forms of advertising.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most important sectors of the global economy, but the market is volatile. The main factors influencing changes in the industry include the health of societies (e.g. chronic diseases), methods of treatment and prevention of diseases, and even politics. Producers and distributors who want to stay in the market must take these dynamics into account in their activities, including marketing.
Public pharmacies and pharmacy outlets sell medicines (reimbursed and fully paid), which include mainly prescription and over-the-counter drugs, prescription and pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices, dietary supplements and cosmetics.
As advertising of online pharmacies is forbidden, and the law regulates this issue very precisely, we have decided to prepare a list of acceptable forms of advertising pharmacies and pharmaceuticals in Poland.
Table of Contents
- Pharmacy advertising and the law
- How to position an online pharmacy?
- Marketing and the pharmacy
- Pharmacy advertising forbidden
Pharmacy advertising and the law
Advertising of pharmacies, pharmacy outlets and medicines is regulated by the pharmaceutical law. Advertising of pharmacies is prohibited in Poland. It is also not allowed to advertise online pharmacies and pharmacy outlets and their activities. The owner of the e-pharmacy can only inform about the location and opening hours.
The main purpose of advertising drugs is to inform and encourage their use. Medicines may only be advertised by one entity or, at its request, another. Advertising must present the product objectively and the only thing that may contain a proper and well-known name, trademark, pharmaceutical form, slogan and advertising content.
Advertising suggesting, for example, healing properties, health improvement, avoiding a doctor’s visit or greater effectiveness than in the case of treatment with another product is prohibited.
Drugs that cannot be advertised are prescription drugs, drugs containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic drugs, drugs included in the list of reimbursed drugs, or drugs without a prescription or with the same name as the reimbursed drugs.
The advertised products must be admitted to trading in Poland and cannot be imported as a targeted import. The ban on advertising of pharmacies also includes the use of the image of famous people in the promotional message, including doctors, scientists and actors playing their roles.
As you can see, the restrictions on advertising are so large that the very fact of promoting an e-pharmacy is questionable. How to reach consumers with the offer, then? There are several possibilities.
An important issue is that online pharmacies can only operate if they have their stationary “counterpart”. Moreover, you cannot buy prescription products online, you can only order them and pick them up at a pharmacy.
How to position an online pharmacy?
Bearing in mind the above, it is worth considering what is not advertising and what we can do to effectively promote services and products in the pharmaceutical industry.
It will certainly not be possible to run advertising campaigns. Google makes sure that the rules on banning pharmacy advertising are respected. As part of Google Ads, it is prohibited to advertise prescription drugs in Poland. However, you can promote over-the-counter drugs, but for this to be possible, manufacturers must be certified by Google.
When you want to advertise products or an online pharmacy, your ad may be rejected by Google for several reasons, including the ad, website or application promotes prescription drugs and is not certified or has, but is targeted at a prohibited country, or the ad does not have the required license number necessary for the sale of over-the-counter drugs.
How, then, to influence the visibility of the pharmacy on the web without advertising in the search engine and Google services?
The first way to promote an online pharmacy are activities in the field of positioning, which include creating valuable, useful content. An online pharmacy can be an informative, educational, and healthy lifestyle website. Content should respond to the needs of consumers and solve their problems.
Examples of topics discussed on the blog may be, for example, advice or content informing: natural coughs, chamomile properties and use, cold prevention methods, etc.
You should remember not only about the value of the content for the reader but also about SEO. Including the most searched phrases in the content on Google and placing internal and external links will positively affect the positioning of the website.
In terms of SEO, an online pharmacy may publish information about medicines from manufacturers on the website. Due to the similar properties of the products sold, it is important to ensure that the content is not repeated.
The phenomenon of duplicate content, i.e. duplicating content within the site, negatively affects the reception of the website by Google. As part of content marketing, pharmacies can provide free e-books and prepare infographics related to health.
The result of promoting the pharmacy using SEO tools, including content marketing activities, is:
- Brand recognition.
- Increase in sales.
- Building a base of loyal customers.
Before adding content to the website or updating it, it is worth carrying out an SEO audit of the website and analyzing the website in terms of usability. In the case of e-commerce sites, such as an online pharmacy, it is important to generate traffic to the site, which in turn is reflected in sales.
Based on the behaviour of users, we will learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the website and thus we will be able to adjust the usability of the website to the expectations of Internet users.
It is a good idea to put information on the website about shipping, delivery costs, the possibility of collecting prescription drugs, etc. It is also important to update the offer and product descriptions regularly.