HMDG’s Top 5 Tips for Pricing
Pricing is more than numbers – it sends a message about your value, experience, and outcomes. Too low or too high without context will cost patients and revenue. This article is part of our Complete Guide to Marketing for Clinics. Below are five rules we use at HMDG to price clinics strategically and profitably.
1. Price sends a signal
Your prices communicate more than you realise. Too cheap and patients assume you are low quality or inexperienced. Too expensive without justification and they assume you are ripping them off. Pricing is not just a number, it is a message. It needs to reflect your skills, your demand, and your outcomes. If you do not control that narrative, patients will fill in the blanks themselves — and usually in a way that hurts you.
2. Do not race to the bottom
Competing on price alone is a mug’s game. Someone can always go cheaper, and patients who come because you are the cheapest will leave as soon as someone else undercuts you. These are not loyal patients. Build your business on outcomes, service, and experience instead. That is what creates stickiness and loyalty. Trying to win by being the cheapest only guarantees you thinner margins and a tarnished reputation.
3. Package where possible
Selling treatment plans or block bookings is not about squeezing money out of people, it is about commitment. Patients who pay upfront are more likely to attend, complete their care, and actually get better. That improves outcomes, stabilises your cash flow, and reduces cancellations. Packaging is good for both the patient and the clinic. Done properly, it is alignment, not manipulation.
4. Be transparent
“Call us for pricing” is one of the fastest ways to lose a potential patient. It looks evasive and makes people suspicious. Publish your fees clearly and if you are more expensive than competitors, explain why. Transparency builds trust. Hiding prices silently kills bookings and gives patients a reason to go elsewhere before you even get a chance to speak to them.
5. Review regularly
If you have not raised your prices in years, you have essentially given yourself a pay cut. Costs rise, your experience grows, and demand shifts. Busy clinics should be raising fees in meaningful amounts – £10 or £15, not token £2 tweaks. If your diary is empty, the issue is not pricing, it is marketing. Pricing strategy is dynamic, not set and forget. Review it regularly
Pricing only works if it reflects value, is transparent, packaged where possible, and reviewed regularly. Anything else erodes trust and margins. For the full marketing framework, return to our Complete Guide to Marketing for Clinics. Or move on to the next chapter: Websites for Clinics.
