Overcome The Biggest Objection Patients Have: Cost
Nearly half of all adults skip dental visits because they don’t have insurance coverage. And cost is the main reason they don’t go. That’s where a dental membership plan will draw more new patients to you.
Even better, plan members are proven to contribute more revenue to your practice than non-insured, and in some cases, more than your average active patients for a significant increase in practice production.
But to get and keep members, dentists must spread the word. In most cases, that’s left to manual follow-up and messaging, or worse, cherry-picking which patients to tell about your plan! Now you can have a simple, automated solution: Dental Membership Plan (DMP) Booster.
Dr. R. doubled her membership plan patients in just 7 weeks using DMP Booster! Fantastic BECAUSE her non-insured patient value was $452 versus membership plan patient value of $2513!
If your practice has an in-house membership plan – YOU NEED DMP BOOSTER!
Drive patients directly to your membership web page. In the email to patients, you can also include a link to your plan’s landing page with further details – or drive patients to call your practice.
It all starts with the DMP Booster eNewsletter. Patients who are not yet enrolled in your plan and who do not have dental insurance will receive this email which includes your practice information along with clearly outlined benefits to explain why your plan is so great and why they should join right away. A visible call-to-action button immediately takes them to your website’s DMP page.
Important FYI: If you send out a monthly eNewsletter, appointment reminders, or other communications, we can embed a message about your dental membership plan in it, targeted to your non-insured patients. Just let us know if it’s something you’d like to do! We’ll activate it.
When non-insured patients and those who aren’t enrolled in your plan have an upcoming appointment, they’ll receive a reminder that you offer a dental savings plan, to show you care, and elevate your practice reputation with non-insured patients.
DMP Booster is helpful, highlights the key features, and lets the patient know they can take advantage of the savings RIGHT AWAY. This communication also includes a button that links out to your plan’s page on your website which will increase signups.
We know that dental savings plans work. The challenge with them that practices face is promoting them. When left to a manual process in the office, practices lose out on revenue because there’s no time to explain, people forget to mention your DMP, they cherry-pick who should know, or patients are in a hurry and don’t want to take the time to listen.
A personalized communication plan is a foolproof way to build momentum, grow enrollment in your program, and increase renewals year after year. And just as necessary, you’ll improve the overall patient experience at your practice – the fourth phase of the patient journey.
With Practice ZEBRA, you’ll see the value of your patients from different “coverage sources.” This means that if you have a dental care plan, our practice intelligence tool will show just how much of the average yearly patient value is attributed to your plan in comparison to insurance providers.
Several household names offer their customers membership plans. Just think about the crowds that line up at Costco and Sam’s Club. And why do they do it? Perceived savings!
This is also the big reason subscription dental care is appealing to so many. The patient pays a flat plan fee for a year’s worth of dental treatments at a reduced rate. It opens the doorway to the affordable, quality care they want.
You’ll need to design your plan components based on your market value, considering what the average dental insurance plan costs area residents, what your fees need to be, and what you want to accomplish. One thing we can tell you is that our research has revealed that the simpler the dental membership plan, the more effective. And the simpler, the higher the membership patient value.
Try Patient NEWS’ Dental Membership Plan Booster today and get ready to welcome more patients to your practice! It works with ALL dental membership plans, even homegrown. It’s your key to increasing treatment acceptance, strengthening patient loyalty, and gaining new patients by removing barriers to care.
Oh, one more thing… Don’t forget to spread the word to active patients in your print patient newsletters in addition to the automated cadences in Practice ZEBRA.
Or better yet, call us at
888-377-2404 & talk to a real person!
Can I purchase DMP Booster on its own instead of getting it as part of Practice ZEBRA?
Yes! Absolutely. Some dental offices simply want to promote their dental savings plan without tracking other marketing activities or using the practice intelligence portion of Practice ZEBRA. We encourage you to have a FREE DEMO to review all benefits in ZEBRA, and if all you want is the automated Dental Membership Plan BOOSTER, that’s all you need to subscribe for.
Can I offer a dental membership plan in Canada?
At this time in-house membership plans are not available for our Canadian clients. With Practice ZEBRA, we can still help you understand the value of your patients, your new patients, whether non-insured or not, and by insurance. Ask your Account Manager to help you determine which patients contribute the most production to your practice, and they can assist you in targeting your marketing to attract more like them and help you launch a referral campaign to those targeted lists.
Can I create a predictable revenue stream with a dental membership plan?
Absolutely. If your practice offers patients a plan for, let’s say, $35 a month and you manage to get 500 subscribers, that amounts to $17,500 per month in steady recurring revenue. This production can keep help your practice power through the tough times – like pandemics and economic slowdowns. And, as we’ve seen, on average dental membership plan patient value is often at least 2X that of a non-insured patient – and we have cases where the plan patient is 3X-5X! If you have a large percentage of non-insured patients in your active base, consider an in-house dental savings plan. BUT, the plan won’t do anything if you don’t convert patients to it – and that’s where DMP BOOSTER can really assist your office.
How can I grow my Dental Membership Plan?
There are many ways to promote your in-house dental membership program. Of course, we’ve discussed the “set it and forget it” automated solution with DMP Booster. But you can also include information in every patient newsletter you mail each quarter (and we can help write that for you). You can create social posts, add a landing page to your website, include information on your new patients’ page with a link to the landing page, and you can include it in your office brochures. If you’re doing any public speaking or posting video on Facebook Live, you can talk about your plan and how patients can get “quality dental care at affordable rates.” And make sure that your team is fully versed in your plan, can speak confidently to patients about its benefits, and are ready to ask patients to sign up. Each staff member who answers new patient calls should know how to overcome any fee concern or insurance objection with the benefits of your plan. That’s why it’s key to make it easy to understand with an attractive price point.
Can a dental membership plan help me get more new patients?
Yes! This is one of the best new patient offer strategies available today. You can even convert patients from insurance plans to your dental membership plan when set up effectively for your market area. To attract more new patients, a dental office must differentiate their practice from others. This means building awareness of your services in your target area, offering convenient appointment times, and offering special services like sedation or multi-treatments in one location. Whatever your combination is, you need to be a familiar face in area households to build trust, overcome patient fear –and a great way to do this is by sending monthly Neighborhood Newsletters. Often, you also have to help your team overcome the objection of “cost.” Patients perceive that all dentists essentially offer the same thing. If they can’t tell why you’re unique or different or doing something extra for them, then price is the only differentiator. A dental membership plan shows you care and that you want to offer quality dentistry at an attractive price – and this will help your dental office attract more high-value new patients to your dental office.
How many patients in my area would visit my office if I had an in-house dental savings plan?
Knowing the demographics of your area and your patients will allow you to make this determination. Take advantage of a FREE Market Analysis from Patient NEWS. First, we analyze the demographics of your draw area to determine age, income, and buying behaviors. Baby boomers are moving out of employer-paid insurance but still want to look and feel good. And they have the money and desire to maintain oral health. Career-focused younger adults may not have a plan that covers the services they want, so by including discounts on elective services with your plan, you can attract a good portion of this market. And we’ll also look at the makeup of your existing active patient base (i.e., percentage who are boomers, how many don’t have insurance, etc.). And you can gather information by talking to your front office team. How often are fee concerns, lack of insurance, or “want to think about it” the reasons new patients don’t book? All of these factors will help you determine if a dental membership plan might be right for your practice
What should I do if I feel overwhelmed with all the dental marketing options to choose from?
It can be overwhelming! That’s OK! You need a dental marketing company that is available to you in terms of support like this, one that sincerely listens to you and what you want for your dental practice, and who doesn’t overwhelm you with technical jargon and mixed messages. You’ll know when you’ve teamed up with experts who care.
At Patient NEWS, our start-up process is straightforward. We start with a discovery session to understand you and your current situation. We complete a full area analysis for you (free), and then we go through a solutions presentation to discuss where you’re at and which solutions would help you get where you want to go. We do all that with zero obligation by you. That’s what a great dental marketing company does.
Beyond that, you can trust in our proven processes that provide you with access to top-of-the-line technology to ensure your dental marketing campaigns get off to a smooth start and the results are measurable. Plus, when you choose a dental marketing agency with many years of experience working with thousands of dentists and dental groups just like you, you’ll know a team of professionals is working for you. They include marketing consultants, project managers, writers, graphic designers, tech experts, and passionate Account Success Managers. We make it easy, keep your campaigns on target, on time and on budget – leaving you more time to focus on what you enjoy: your business, your practice(s), your team(s), and your patients.
What’s the difference between a dental marketing agency and a dental website provider?
A dental marketing agency will help you grow your practice or DSO & group of practices. A dental marketing agency considers your current overall situation from area demographics and competition to business intelligence, market share, and practice trends. A dental marketing agency won’t move forward with a marketing strategy recommendation until these benchmarks are reviewed and the goals clearly defined so that they can help the dental office make the right choice for their practice.
A dental website provider will sell you a website and some paid online advertising. A dental marketing agency, once informed of the overall practice situation and goals, will recommend solutions that may or may not include a dental website. A dental marketing agency will focus on helping you achieve your goals. You’re never on your own, and you receive constant support along the way. A website provider is not likely to be able to offer everything you should have to run a successful website campaign. Be sure to do your research and select a reliable provider that offers excellent customer service. We’d like that to be Patient NEWS. Start with a free consultation today!
