New Communication Channels: Changing the Nature of Customer Engagement

Abstract

Health communication and marketing professionals represent an exceptionally diverse field in their backgrounds and professional interests. A common factor among those who develop and implement health communication and marketing programs is the tactic of customer engagement. The widespread growth of new communication channels, however, has made it critical that health marketing professionals consider both new and traditional channels in developing health marketing programs to engage customers and deliver health information. Whereas there has been substantial progress in efforts to engage customers through these new channels, future work is needed to examine how these new channels can be integrated with traditional channels in health programs and to incorporate existing marketing knowledge into health promotion and disease prevention efforts.