How to attract uninsured patients to join your dental membership program
Millions of Americans lack dental insurance. If many people lack dental insurance, the potential to grow your dental practice and make additional revenue is quite high. Why do so many dental offices choose to contract with too many PPOs when the uninsured market is plentiful and lucrative for dental offices? I believe it boils down to one thing—marketing! Here I want to educate you on how to attract more cash paying uninsured patients and encourage them to join your in-office dental membership program.
What is a dental membership program?
If you are new to the concept of a dental membership program, it’s like an Amazon Prime or a Costco membership but built for your practice and your patients’ smiles. Patients pay a monthly or yearly fee to gain access to certain benefits and savings to your practice. Here is an example.
Say you charge $30 a month or $300 per year. The benefits that you include could be:
- Two cleanings
- Two exams
- X-rays as needed
- Emergency exams
- Cancer screenings
- 15% off any additional treatment (crowns, bridges, dentures, etc.)
- $300 off teeth whitening
- $500 off Invisalign
What are the benefits of a dental membership program?
The benefits of creating a dental membership program can be tremendous if your practice focuses on growing and signing up patients each day. Your entire team needs to be on board and understand how it benefits both the practice and patients. Here is an example of a successful dental membership program (figure 1).
This image shows a practice that has 1,496 patients in its dental membership program. It is automatically collecting over $30,000 per month in predictable recurring revenue, or over $369,000 per year. How would this help your practice? Would you sleep better knowing that your practice had this revenue automatically coming in? Automatic predictable recurring revenue is one of the biggest benefits of creating and growing a dental membership program. I have studied the numbers, and my team and I have found that patients who become members spend two- to three-and-half times more with the practice when they become members!
Another benefit is that your members become more loyal. There is a reason why Costco, Amazon, and other businesses offer membership programs: members simple buy more! If you want to learn more about creating a dental membership program, you can download my free “Ultimate starter guide for dental membership programs.” You will receive two e-books about creating and growing a membership program, two webinars about best practices, and an entire course that educates your team on this business strategy.
Creating an offer to attract the uninsured
Now that you understand what a dental membership program is and its benefits, let’s talk about who the best members are and how to attract them. Retirees, small business owners, and young families without dental insurance are the best demographic. How can you attract them? You first need to create a free and valuable offer. I recommend giving away a free whitening kit to new uninsured patients. You can get these from Amazon at an affordable price. Create an offer something like this:
Share this offer on social media, Facebook ads, email lists, and direct mail that encourages new uninsured patients to visit your office. Once they visit to receive their free whitening kit, you can educate them about your dental membership program. Often patients will sign up during this visit with you and your team. Make sure to treat them right, introduce your team, and give a quick tour of your practice.
Using media to grow your program
One way to attract new uninsured patients is to create radio ads that educate the local market about your membership program. You can educate people about why they don’t need dental insurance to visit your practice, or you can book an interview with a radio station to educate listeners about their oral health and why they don’t need insurance for your office.
Another great way is to be interviewed on news websites and local TV news stations. There’s no better way to gain credibility and awareness of your practice than by offering valuable educational content and talking about your dental membership program.
Using direct mail to grow your program
Direct mail is still a valuable marketing channel if done correctly. You can target small business owners or 55-plus communities. I recommend something such as, “Don’t have dental insurance? We can help!” Then explain the benefits of your program.
There are so many ways to attract uninsured patients to your practice, such as social media, Google search ads, email marketing, and local media channels. I hope that you are inspired to create a dental membership program. I recommend that you download my free e-books, resources, courses, and webinars to help you create a program. You can download everything for free at boomcloudapps.com/starter/.
Jordon Comstock is the founder of BoomCloud Apps, a software company that allows dental offices to easily create, organize, track, and automate an in-house membership program. You can download a free e-book about membership programs or watch a free demo. Contact him at (801) 753-8586 or [email protected].
