You did it. After months of planning and research, you’ve made the leap to Direct Care. You’ve got your software stack in place, your launch date is set and you’ve notified all of your patients of this amazing new world of membership based medicine.

Every new Direct Care physician dreams of having a full patient panel when their doors open on that first day of service. However, Direct Care trends suggest it can take new Direct Care practices 12 to 24 months on average to build their patient panel. Which begs the question, how can you beat the curve? What are successfully practices doing to encourage enrollment in the first few months after launching?

Loss aversion theory suggests individuals are twice as likely to avoid loss than they are to acquire gains of equal value. We’ve all experienced this first-hand when we book travel online. You’ve selected your flight options and begin to checkout when suddenly a pop up appears offering you a discount on your hotel accommodations. A ticker begins to countdown and the pressure is on. Adding time constraints to a discount creates what is called the scarcity effect. This effect creates a bias in the consumer’s mind where they place a higher value on the item due to the scarcity of time in which it is available. Do you take advantage of the discount if you pair a hotel with your flight or do you leave yourself filled with regret? As the time rapidly counts down, you feel the overwhelming urge to book the hotel for the fear of missing out on this exclusive offer.

All dramatization aside, it works. You book the flight, hotel and a rental car and find yourself blissfully pleased by the additional value you received. This is an age-old marketing trick that's been used for decades with great success. But how can this be applied to your practice? Can you conjure up the same FOMO (fear of missing out) in your patients who are deciding if they should enroll in your membership offerings?

Hint’s platform includes a number of features specifically designed to help you during the pre-launch and growth phase to ensure you are capturing as many enrollments as possible. Specifically, coupons can be used in a variety of ways, so lets cover the basics and give you some key insights into how other new practices are using coupons.

How do they work?

Coupons on Hint are used to discount a membership by either a dollar or a percentage amount. You can configure the amount, duration the coupon applies to the patient’s membership, and time period for which the coupon is eligible for use. Once a coupon is configured on Hint, we automatically generate a unique online signup link with the discount pre-poulated so you can use this link in marketing campaigns.

We’ve seen particularly high success rates for practices that use coupons during the pre-launch phase to encourage pre-enrollments. Following your announcement to transition your practice, you can send out a marketing email blast to your existing patient panel, friends, family and community centers with the coupon signup link.

What is the average saving a patient receives?

Based on our customer data, each patient enrolling with a coupon receives a discount of about $15 per month or roughly $179 per year, on average.

What is the average duration of the coupon on Hint?

The most common coupon duration is a one month discount which accounts for a little over 50% of the coupons on the Hint platform. The second most common coupon duration is a 12 month discount accounting for 24% of coupons being consumed by patients in our system.

Uncertainty when entering a new business venture is normal. The good news is you don’t need a business degree to leverage the marketing principles discussed here. What matters most is that you have a plan and the right tools in place to make your memberships offerings attractive and valuable in your market. As you develop your growth strategy, consider incorporating some coupon marketing campaigns as an easy way to encourage enrollments.

Have specific questions on how coupons can be incorporated in your practice? Join the conversation on our community forum.