Introduction
Everyone would probably agree that health is a priceless gift to humans. However, in the modern world, even the notion of health has a commercial background. Indeed, the health care system cannot function without selling and buying medicaments, which is an essential part of marketing. In addition, health care services are also a part of this system. The only question left is: what is the most effective mode of communication between the health care providers and consumers?
Emailing and its benefits
Modern technologies have brought communication to a new level, offering a multitude of communication modalities. All of them have their own benefits and disadvantages and are more or less suitable for different purposes. Obviously, communication through the Internet is the most popular and convenient nowadays. Due to this fact, it can be stated that e-mail as a communication modality is one of the most effective for health care marketing.
Indeed, emailing is well-known to everyone mode of communication. It gives both the health care providers and consumers a lot of opportunities. For instance, emailing is rather beneficial for consumers. The reason for this is the fact that as a rule consumers are the ones who look for health care services and their providers. In order to find the needed information, they spend hours searching for proper sites and links or consult others for advice. Emailing excludes the need to spend a lot of time and effort, as far as all the information is being automatically delivered to the consumers. In fact, emailing is irreplaceable for “increasing access to care, enhancing patient education, augmenting screening programs, and improving adherence to treatment plans” (Mandl, 1). The only thing the patients need to do is to subscribe for a certain program or inform them about their interest in some products or services.
Emailing as an effective mode of communication
In the case of consulting with health care providers on the Internet, emailing is also convenient. First of all, it allows the patients to preserve the information they get in secret, as they are the ones who have access to the email box. In addition, the email addresses do not require genuine information about their owners, which enables the patients to stay anonymous. One more advantage of emailing as a communication modality is its private character.
To compare, a medical forum is a public mode of communication, where visitors interact with professionals and with each other. This mode of communication is unsuitable for some people, who prefer to discuss their problems only with the doctor. That is where emailing is better to be used. It is based on the model of traditional mailing, where a letter is addressed to a certain person, which points to the private nature of the modality.
The mentioned benefits prove that emailing is an effective means of communication between health care consumers and providers. Indeed, a person in average checks his or her email at least once a day, which allows getting the updated information and replying in time. What is more, the health care providers also often prefer this communication modality. This is because emailing does not involve any additional costs, and guarantees a quick delivery of the information to the consumers. Thus, emailing proved to be an effective communication mode, especially in case when the consumers are interested in the information contained in the letter.
Comparison with other communication modalities
Obviously, the world of communication is not limited with emails only. The health care systems nowadays use all the available tools for proper organization of contact between the health care providers and patients. They include forums, videotapes, leaflets, and many others. Numerous studies have been held in order to define which communication modality is the most effective. Specifically, it was established that a “message processed in a more interesting colorful format transmits the message more efficiently” in comparison with the black and white format of the newspapers or leaflets (Leiner, 1).
In this aspect, emailing can substitute the mentioned modalities, as it supports the pictures of different formats, animations, and other visual tools. However, it differs from the mentioned modalities with its private character, which was discussed earlier in this paper. Indeed, while the leaflets or video advertisements are aimed at a casual consumer, an email letter is usually addressed to a concrete person.
Emailing in media and social networking
In fact, all the existing communication modalities contribute to the development of interaction between the patients and health care providers. Media, as one of the most spread communication modes, has an enormous impact on this process. Because of the media, the communication in health care gradually changes from interaction to perception, where the consumers perceive the information offered. The products and services advertised by media are the most popular. Thus, this communication mode can be used for promotion of healthy way of life, as far as the information presented by media is highly trusted. It is needless to say that emails belong to the tools of communication used by media.
Another tool of communication between health care providers and consumers is social networking. It involves paying attention to the community as a whole and to every individual in specific (Maibach, 1). It plays a great role in health care, and can hardly be substituted by any other communication tools. Social networking is realized through a number of ways, and emailing is one of the options for this communication modality.
Promotion through emailing
Besides the mentioned applications, emailing is widely used in health care marketing. Being an effective communication tool, it is also a good way to promote health care products. The scheme of advertising is simple and cheap for both the sellers and consumers. A specialist designs an email letter, containing the most important information about the product or service. To be effective, this letter needs to have qualitative visual materials, as mentioned earlier. Then the letter is sent to a number of email addresses, which belong to the potential consumers. The letters are delivered immediately to the addressors, and then are to be opened by the consumers. An important detail in this process is the will of the consumer to open the letter. It can be enhanced by their trustful attitude to the company that sends the letters, or by their personal interest in the product or service promoted. That is why, the letters are usually sent to the part of community that corresponds to these criteria.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be said that emailing is one of the most effective communication modalities that can be used in health care systems. What is more, this is a multipurpose tool, which can be applied in social network, media promotion, and advertising companies. In addition, emailing proved to be beneficial for health care providers and consumers, which serves as a guarantee for proper interaction between the parties.
Reference List
Leiner, M, Handal, G, Williams, D. (2003). Patient communication: a multidisciplinary approach using animated cartoons. Health Education Research 19(5): 591-595.
Maibach, E, Abroms, L, Marosits, M. (2007). Communication and marketing as tools to cultivate the public’s health: a proposed “people and places” framework. BMC Public Health 7: 88.
Mandl, K, Kohane, I, Brandt, A. (1998). Electronic Patient-Physician Communication: Problems and Promise. Annals of Internal Medicine 129(6): 495-500.