Good communication is essential for business progress. Healthcare organizations use various promotional strategies beyond newspapers and billboards to communicate messages. The four main communication components are: advertising to promote new products; personal selling for direct feedback; publicity through social media coordinated by public relations; and sales promotions like coupons to temporarily induce purchases. While sales promotions see limited healthcare use due to potential overuse, the ultimate goal is effective market communication through a progressive approach applying the communication process.

1. Good communication, is a very essential attribute in all aspects of life, especially in business, as
a major tool that enhance its progress.
Healthcare, just as other businesses have embarked other promotional strategies for its
campaigns, rather than local newspapers and billboards. The four basic components that
organizations use to communicate their messages are:
 Advertising: It is the first major tool of the promotional mix. It emphasizes the
difference between products and convinces the consumer that the product or service
exists. It is more effective when the product or service is new, to enable consumers to
give it a try.
 Personal Selling: As the second tool of the promotional mix, is a personal form of
communication. It is different from advertising, because it has a major strength of
allowing a direct feedback from the receiver. A message can be refined or explained in
greater detail to correct any misunderstanding or difficulties in interpretation by the
receiver. It also provides control over who receives the message. Although it is costly
and time-consuming, it increases the organization’s marketing approach with greater
customer focus.
 Publicity, is the third promotional tool, and is most common in healthcare
organizations. It is an indirectly paid form of presentation of goods, ideas or services,
coordinated through the public relations department. This is by the use of the social
media, as the department encourages them to print or broadcast stories or
accomplishments of the organization. It has a great advantage of its credibility.
 Sales Promotion: It is the fourth tool of the promotional mix, that temporally induces
the consumer to buy or utilize a service. The effort directs the end users or the
intermediary who carries the products or services. Such examples are: Coupons,
Sweepstakes, Premiums, Cash rebates, Contest and Samples. This has limited
implementation in healthcare, as it might lead to unnecessary utilization of health care
services. But it encourages the trial of the products, by the consumers, as they buy
more than one unit of the product.
To communicate to the market, is however, the ultimate goal of any promotional strategy, for
which the application of the communication process is very necessary, as a progressive
approach.
Reference.
Berkowitz, Eric. N.; (2011), Essential of Health Marketing. 3rd. ed. p.345-373.