E-marketing in UK Private Hospitals Dissertation

E-marketing in UK Private Hospitals - Dissertation Example This research will aim on providing an insight about application of e-marketing in the healthcare sector of UK. In present days, internet has become one of the major trends in business and is being used widely in several sectors. Internet not only offers free exchange of information, but is also emerging as one of the dominant networks for business marketing. In the current era, internet facilities are observed to deliver various new opportunities for businesses, especially in terms of marketing communication. The online consumers can enjoy ranges of products or services in more reasonable prices and in more convenient manner. Today, E-marketing gives consumers an opportunity to gather information and choose the right product or services at the right time. Therefore, several new entrepreneurs as well as existing small and medium size enterprises are nowadays exploring the e-marketing services in order to improve their business operations and discover the new business opportunities. I n service sector such as health care industry, financial establishments, hospitality and tourism industry are now using the e-marking extensively. The use of internet for collecting information has already become much significant in healthcare sector and will probably become more vital in upcoming days. The extensive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) movement reveals changing demands on the healthcare industry with societal transformation, with rising life anticipation, with shifting form of illness, and with altering scientific competencies (Marrow, n.d.). In present days, the e-marketing, in hospitals of UK had observed impressive growth. Several hospitals in the UK have initiated ICT in order to cope up with other businesses. The consumers are becoming ever more comfortable with uses of internet technology and are also purchasing ranges of products and services through it. Likewise, huge numbers of consumers are using internet in order to gain information about medic al and health (Sanchez, 2000). In contrast with other organisations, hospitals in UK are experiencing a rapid knowledge about using ICT. Traditionally, the use of internet as marketing in the healthcare industry was limited due to lack of knowledge about its advantages. Though these limitations have not ended yet, but hospitals in UK are now becoming more open-minded and conscious about the possible paybacks they can gain by using internet as marketing tool. Besides, implementation of internet as marketing in other industry had also contributed to this trend in hospital organisations. Even though for small organisations are unable to bear the expense of using E-marketing, but several large hospitals in the UK have recognised that the benefit for this expense are great once made-up. Similarly, several private hospitals are developing good websites which can increase brand awareness, raise productivities and also to some extent save cost in other extents of business (Sanchez, 2000). 1 .2. Problem Statement Presently, the healthcare industry is witnessing enormous challenges because of continuous increase in public demands. Private hospitals are under great stress of continuous improvement of services to the rising patients, habitually with insufficient funds. The hospitals are much cognisant about using e-marketing compared to other industries. However, the enormous challenges of hospitals relate to better productivity to exploit inadequate funds and