What the hell does the betting app like Draft Kings have to with Direct Primary Care? Well, we are starting an app called Draft Patients where you and other DPC doctors get to draft patients and compete depending on how bad their labs are, their BMI, number of visits per week, etc.

I’m kidding.

Let’s talk marketing. The Draft Kings company has a goal. They want lifetime customers and they have figured how much it costs to get people on board. The above image is for a February ad. They have one now for March Madness. Pick a team and bet $1 (no more) and get $100 back if they win.

How are they doing this? Well, you have to figure half the people will be wrong and so Draftkings is willing to spend $50 per person to get them to sign up on their app, put their personal information and bank data in the system, and maybe get hooked on betting. Of course, you would have to add the expense of advertising (online, TV, etc.) to this $50 but I don’t have that information so let’s work with what we have.

For $50, Draftings knows that they will MORE than make their money back over the lifetime of the customer. Most people, they hypothesize, will continue doing some other betting to “make it rain” as their commercials say. Yeah, right. They know that the odds always favor the house so the goal is to get them to keep playing and keep betting. They will make that $50 back in droves.

I bring this up because many DPC docs do not know how to market themselves. They also don’t want to spend any money on marketing because they figure “if they build it, they will come”.

I WANT TO WARN ALL OF YOU THAT THIS RARELY HAPPENS!!

I do have an updated marketing section in my book but I just wanted to get across a simple idea today. You have to think about the lifetime value of a patient. And you have to know how to market your practice to get them in the door.

Here are some questions to think about:

• How much is it worth to get and keep a customer (patient)for years?
• How much are you willing to pay to get these patients?
• Where are you going to put that money? Into paying a marketer? An ad on TV? SEO? Website development?

A lot of us experienced DPC docs have tried many methods and know which ones usually fail. Pick our brains. Personally, I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours reading marketing books, listening to marketing podcasts, and talking to other DPC docs about what has worked for them. I am actually even doing more of that research now as a retired DPC doctor because of this website. I can tell you that even though I don’t have a marketing degree (I was too busy trying to get into medical school) I do have a ton of DPC marketing knowledge. It turns out that it is a learnable skill.

The point of today’s post is that you DO have to pay some money to get patients. Is it $50 a customer like Draftkings? “That sounds absurd!” you say. I am not so sure. Think about it. That would be a total of $30,000 (600 x $50) to fill your panel. You would then be pretty much set in your practice. Hmmm. Of course, it is not that easy. You need to know where to put that $30K but it does make you think that Draft Kings may be onto something.

Or you could put that money into the Draft Patients app. Whose ready to invest?