The one-to-many model of healthcare is the way of the future, and running evergreen programs can enhance your in-person practice. You might typically think of programs as a way to earn recurring revenue, and they can be very good for that purpose. But on top of that, evergreen programs can enhance your clinical efficacy a.k.a. improve outcomes.
An evergreen program increases accessibility, accountability, and enhances the care you can provide to your clients and patients one-on-one. It also provides more ways for potential clients to access your care. When used correctly, an evergreen program is an invaluable tool for your practice that benefits your bottom line, but most importantly your clients and patients. This blog outlines ways you can incorporate an evergreen program into your care, even if you think you can't.
Unlike other styles of programs that center around a defined start date, an evergreen program has a flexible start date, which enables modules to unlock based on your clients’ individual enrollment dates. With evergreen programs, you can schedule and automate your content delivery, including a wide variety of content to suit your practice style, such as:
Curious about how to build your best program? Get the Practice Better's Guide to Profitable Programs to learn how the top practitioners structure their online courses.
While evergreen programs can be a fantastic way to reach a larger audience, they can also streamline your process for your one-on-one clients and group sessions.
With the rise of remote monitoring and digital apps and programs (have you ever heard of Noom?), the evidence is steadily climbing for the use of one-to-many programs in medicine. For example, patients have seen significant improvements in body weight and A1c levels after participating in a group-formatted, app-assisted Diabetes Prevention Program. So, if you think an active, managed, one-to-one model is the pinnacle of healthcare, think again. Times are changing, and that news is great for you.
But if you're afraid of putting your client care on auto-pilot with an evergreen program, you can use programs as part of a client's journey throughout your care.
In fact, there are many flexible ways to use programs to benefit your practice.
If you find yourself constantly sharing the same information with client after client or you want to easily share important information with all of your existing clients, consider developing an evergreen program. Creating a complementary resource that supports the work you do with your 1:1 sessions in a hands-off way can be a force multiplier for your practice. Always providing the same mindfulness advice and resources to your clients? Sounds like a great case for an evergreen program to automate that care delivery.
An evergreen program gives you the ability to house all of the educational resources you typically share with clients in an organized and streamlined fashion. Modules can act as folders to organize your content into themes.
Automating this piece of your practice can save you time, leaving you more energy to spend making your 1:1 sessions more productive and meaningful. Your clients will love the fact that they always know where to find the information provided in each module, and can come back to it any time.
When building your evergreen program, you can also automate your module release dates based on your client’s enrollment date, so content drips out at the pace you want. Once registered, the entire program delivery is taken care of. You can structure the pace of your content delivery to support the typical appointment frequency you recommend to your clients.
Many Practice Better customers include programs as a part of a package, usually as a maintenance program once they're done their client sessions. However, you can combine programs and sessions in as many ways as you like. Many practitioners also use a subscription-based model to ensure they know how much money they'll be making month over month. Whatever your pricing model, once you invest the initial work, you can focus more on patient care and building your practice on your terms.
Nutritionist Katie Barberi says that she's used evergreen programs to grow her practice massively.
“Practice Better allowed me to formalize my process and make it significantly more professional. I have tripled my income in the last year with the help of Practice Better and I hope to continue to grow.”
Katie Barberi, CHN
Some licensed health professionals steer clear of programs altogether because they're afraid that it's against their regulations. If you're in this boat, speak to a lawyer knowledgeable on the topic. In some cases, it may be true that you can't provide treatment to people in a group setting, or without any physical assessment. However, you can creatively use programs to benefit your practice and stay well within the boundaries of your regulator. Some of those creative ways are outlined next.
Delivering patient protocols or treatment isn't the only use for evergreen programs. You can save time and keep your care plans organized with the following uses.
Using the evergreen program as a resource library can keep things organized on both your end and the client’s end. Are you a dietitian? You’ll likely want to share your favorite recipes, and a program with built-in nutrition plans can save you time. Love yoga and meditation? Provide a meditation library to your clients in program format easily accessible in their client portal—it's tidier, more secure and easier to find than email.
You can use an email-only evergreen program to deliver a lead magnet and send an automated sequence of emails, helping you nurture your leads right from the platform itself. Giving out freebies? Clients can sign up for them at any point and receive the content in real-time versus having it start and end on a specific calendar date.
Set the tone for your client relationship moving forward. You can use Evergreen Programs to automatically send your new clients onboarding emails welcoming them aboard and sending out regular emails with helpful resources to keep them engaged.
Sending recipes and prep tips on a regular basis can also help if you have a subscription service. With the evergreen program, you can set it up so clients get charged a membership fee while you provide them with constant healthy content. An integration with nutrition planning software makes program creation quick and painless.
If you’ve ever ordered labs for a client, you know that the instructions can be confusing. To prevent this potential mix-up, create an evergreen program for lab packages that includes various instructional modules for each lab. You’ll be able to include links for clients to order lab kits, complete lab requisitions, get samples, and mail back the samples, making the whole process go more smoothly.
Watch our Deep Dive class where Shelley and Brittany of Practice Better chat all about Practice Better's Evergreen Programs.
https://youtu.be/FItcSgLHAUk
If you haven’t worked with Practice Better programs before, you'll be able to share your resources with clients in multiple ways. To fully support clients, you can customize your program by adding recorded lessons, videos, written material, and attachments such as educational handouts, worksheets, and images.
In addition to automating education on commonly tackled topics, you can further support clients by assigning tasks to modules. These tasks could be reminders to fill out a progress form or eat an apple a day, but they're designed to keep clients on track. Plus, all forms, reminders, and course content are always accessed from the client portal.
There is huge value to be had when you have all of your educational resources and content ready to go to keep your clients engaged in the coaching process. Your information is all organized in one place and automatically delivered to your client in a customized cadence that fits your style of practice.
Bundling your an evergreen program into your services has massive benefits. Your clients will love it, and you'll be able to offer more value and increase your earning potential. Plus, it never hurts to streamline your processes to attract more business.
Whether you're a course creation veteran or looking to launch your first program, the Practice Better's Guide to Profitable Programs is a useful resource for program length, content, pricing, and more.
[Editor's note: this post was originally posted on August 20, 2022. It has been updated for comprehensiveness and accuracy.]
