Science shows how critical email marketing is to healthcare

Recent studies show how emails can enhance patient engagement, build relationships, and improve healthcare delivery. HIPAA compliant emails directly address privacy concerns, improving email marketing strategies and empowering patients.

What is email marketing?

According to Improving Digital Marketing for Attracting the Target Customer Segments, "Email marketing is the most powerful marketing strategy that connects on to the customer either digital or marketing in promoting company services."

Healthcare organizations can "generate leads, increase brand awareness, build relationships with the purchasers, and have interaction through differing types of email marketing. Increasing brand awareness by sharing or forwarding emails to friends and clicking on the link from emails will help the corporation encourage target customers to go to the website."

The broad reach of email marketing

The reach of email marketing is vast and continually expanding; as Campaign Monitor points out, there are over four billion daily email users worldwide, and the number is expected to rise to 4.6 billion by 2025.

Its extensive reach helps healthcare providers to connect with a large audience, including "younger generations [who] also started using email during the COVID-19 pandemic," described in a doctoral thesis on empowering email marketing.

The power of personalization

"Personally tailored marketing campaigns are already becoming popular," according to a study on digital marketing techniques in healthcare, "and they are proving to be popular with customers as well—transaction rates for customized emails are six times greater than those for generic emails." 

Email marketing is inherently data-driven. It uses databases for precise targeting with mechanisms to evaluate performance metrics. "In customer-decided tailoring, or customization, preferences and information related to, for example, interests, beliefs, values, and other lifestyle characteristics are voluntarily collected from consumers," explains research on direct and interactive marketing.

"The focus of the personalization process is on customer data that is collected during customer interactions," states the doctoral thesis mentioned earlier.

It involves collecting and analyzing customer information, tailoring marketing communication based on customer profiles, and targeting marketing activities accordingly. 

Personalization offers patients information tailored to their needs, increasing engagement and satisfaction. "A customer-driven process shifts the power to the consumer and evolves marketing communication in a more participatory and engaging direction," supports research on future directions in interactive marketing. 

Cost-effectiveness and engagement

Email marketing is not only effective but also cost-efficient. "Email marketing is yet another low-cost method to keep in contact with your audiences, offer a customized service, build a connection, and keep on your patients' thoughts," according to a study on the impact of digital marketing in healthcare states.

Healthcare organizations can segment their email subscribers based on age, interests, and health problems to create targeted campaigns that resonate with their audience.

For example, providers can use personalized emails to promote preventive care among millennials, who expect technology-forward communications.

Read also: Engaging millennials with HIPAA compliant emails and texts

Building relationships

"To keep a healthy, close relationship with patients, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective methods to do it," explains the first study.

Another study on the influence of email campaigns in healthcare services suggests using email marketing to inform patients "about the services and treatments offered regularly," to help establish reliable communication between healthcare providers and patients.

Increasing awareness and participation

Email marketing also increases awareness and participation in healthcare services. More specifically, a narrative review on marketing techniques in healthcare services suggests email marketing to "inform people about upcoming events, new services, and health advice."

For example, "Tertiary care hospitals can benefit significantly from email marketing to maintain patient contact, disseminate pertinent health information, advertise services, and foster partnerships." 

Enhancing personalization with AI

AI provides further opportunities, like "predictive marketing analytics and machine learning to predict future behavior," explained in a literature-based study on AI applications for marketing. So, healthcare organizations can deliver highly personalized content to their patients in real-time.

Measuring email marketing effectiveness

"In email marketing… purchasing [and] other behaviors can be measured with clickstream data," states the doctoral thesis. This data provides objective, standardized insights into consumer behavior to evaluate the effectiveness of email campaigns.

Furthermore, email marketing continues to deliver high returns on investment. "In 2021, email was the most-used interactive media channel among marketers, providing an average ROI of 93%, compared to 102% for mobile marketing, 88% for paid search, 81% for social media, and 79% for digital display ads," according to ANA response rate report. 

Read also: Streamlining healthcare KPI management with HIPAA compliant forms

Addressing limitations of email marketing

"The limitations of email marketing are due to intrusiveness and customer privacy," states the earlier mentioned research on direct and interactive marketing.

HIPAA compliant emails can help healthcare organizations address these limitations and improve email marketing strategies.

How HIPAA compliant marketing emails can help

Explicit consent

HIPAA requires healthcare providers to obtain explicit patient consent before sending marketing emails, reducing intrusiveness and building trust. 

Furthermore, asking patients to opt in ensures recipients are interested in receiving the information and can help increase patient engagement.

Ensuring privacy and security

HIPAA mandates health organizations to safeguard patients' protected health information (PHI). HIPAA compliant emailing platforms, like Paubox, automatically encrypt outgoing emails, protecting PHI. 

Additionally, Paubox offers advanced security measures, including access controls and two-factor authentication, to prevent unauthorized access or potential data breaches.

Transparency and trust

Healthcare organizations must clearly explain how patient PHI will be used and how the data will be protected. These organizations should also offer patients the option to opt out of sharing their PHI for certain purposes, like marketing or research studies.

Ultimately, transparency and informed consent improves patient trust and ensures HIPAA compliance.

Personalized HIPAA compliant emails

HIPAA compliant emails can be personalized based on patient preferences and medical history, within the bounds of HIPAA regulations. 

"Relevant content directly addresses an individual's interests and concerns, making the information more personally meaningful and therefore more engaging," explains a study on drivers and barriers of permission-based marketing. 

Reducing spam 

HIPAA's emphasis on consent and secure communication helps reduce the incidence of spam. Patients are less likely to view personalized HIPAA compliant emails as spam because they have explicitly opted in and trust that their privacy is safeguarded. 

Empowering patients

HIPAA compliant emails empower patients by giving them control over their communication preferences. 

As the doctoral thesis notes, "Asking for an informed opt-in creates trust and paves the way for commitment. In other words, increasing empowerment creates trust, and consumers become more actively engaged."

FAQs

Can HIPAA compliant emails include marketing content?

Yes, as long as the content is relevant and personalized and the patient has given explicit consent to receive these emails.

Do HIPAA compliant emails require patient consent?

Yes, HIPAA requires that patients explicitly opt-in to receive marketing emails, ensuring that they are interested in the information and reducing the perception of intrusiveness.

How do secure email solutions ensure HIPAA compliance?

Paubox email adheres to the security standards and encryption protocols specified by HIPAA regulations to safeguard protected health information (PHI). 

Additionally, Paubox offers features such as secure message delivery and data loss prevention to further enhance compliance with HIPAA and other privacy regulations. These measures help ensure that sensitive information is secure during transmission and storage.  

Read also: Improving mental healthcare through HIPAA compliant email marketing