The 7 Essential Marketing Strategies to get more Birth Doula Clients
As a birth doula or photographer, you know that the most important thing is providing your clients with the best possible care. You want to give them unparalleled support through one of the most intense and vulnerable times in their lives. You are ready to be on-call, have long days, and sacrifice your normal routine to be a birth worker.
But after all that, it’s often finding new clients that can be one of the hardest. So I wanted to share with you 7 essential marketing strategies to get more interested families in your inbox, ready to book!
Attract the Right Doula Clients by Trying these Seven Strategies
Social Media
So let’s tackle this whale of a strategy first! Social media is a great way to connect with potential clients and build relationships. You’ve got a long list of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok etc. I think for most of us it’s either your favorite thing or your worst nightmare! But as a birth doula, it can be a really great way to show your personality, and expertise and connect with people who resonate with your beliefs about birth. It’s probably the easiest way to build trust with people beyond word of mouth because you can connect on so many levels. But I’m not crazy and I know the constant sharing can be overwhelming for many of us (me included)
So my advice is to only make social media your number 1 strategy if you really find a lot of joy in sharing and want to be strategic about it as a marketing platform. Then only pick one or two platforms. When it comes to social media you DO NOT have to be everywhere. Social media is often a great secondary strategy but I have seen many find success without much social media presence at all as long as they were willing to put in the work elsewhere!
Email Marketing
The great part about email marketing is that those who have signed up are already warm to you. They like who you are, and your services, and they want to stay in touch. thats a huge deal and one that can be hard to define over more passive strategies like social media. It takes some time to get started but could be incredibly beneficial in the long run. Email marketing is an evergreen marketing strategy that offers you a lot of control and connection with potential birth clients.
Networking
Getting to know other birth professionals, such as midwives, doctors, and lactation consultants is a great way to grow as a doula birth business. They may be able to refer clients to you, hand out your print material to expecting families, and be your biggest cheerleader if you do an awesome job working alongside them at a birth. You can also attend industry events and join professional organizations to continue growing your connections in person. This strategy will pretty much always be apart of a thriving doula business but staying active in this strategy takes work.
Website
This should be a part of every business. It’s just so important and truly the most professional way to show up and get clients. But if it’s not something you can invest a lot of time and money into at the beginning, I recommend simple, personable, and clear. Use it as a base landing place for clients to reach out and meet you NOT a place to fill with every detail about your business. You can start from scratch in a DIY way or grab one of my awesome doula business templates!
Blogging
One of the best parts of blogging is that your content is 100% yours as opposed to social media which in many ways is out of your control. You can discuss education, and community connection, or use it as a way to share the many sides of who you are and how you serve the birthing community. While it can be overwhelming to know ‘What’ to write about, it’s usually best to start with the knowledge you already have. Blogging is one of the best ways for you to build SEO on your website, gain traffic, and create a library of content that can be re-used in other places like social media or potential teaching opportunities.
Birth Community
You’ll hear a lot from marketing experts that you need to go where your ideal client ‘hangs out’ This is particularly true about the birth community. All over the world, but has brought people together in pocket communities. You may not resonate with all of them but it can be really helpful to be actively apart of the ones you do resonate with. In-person this can look like attending local events or joining like-minded parenting groups or you can also volunteer your time at local birth centers. Online there are so many local groups you can join and become a helpful source of knowledge in.
Teaching
If you love sharing knowledge and teaching then creating in-person and online courses can be a great way to grow in your business. Whether it’s used simply as a way to meet expecting families by running a Saturday birth prep class or long-term as a way to generate passive income, teaching is a wonderful way to stay connected in your community and find people very likely curious about having support for their birth. It can also be a great way to connect with fellow birth workers by hosting events yourself and teaching alongside others in the industry.
Now before you go I want to share a quick and important caveat. Marketing for your business may not always be fun but it also doesn’t have to include you saying, “I hate doing___” over and over but feeling like you have to push through. If one of these strategies gives you anxiety just thinking about it, then it’s probably not going to be the best strategy for you anyway. And in the long run, doing something you hate will likely lead to burnout and a lack of motivation in your business as a whole. I am of the belief that a few active strategies are better than doing a little of everything without any joy or strategy behind it.
So this is what I’m going to ask of you as ‘homework’ of sorts if you really want to put Marketing strategies into place to grow or establish a doula business.
Homework to Get Started…
Read the basic descriptions of each and choose 1-3 that actually resonate with your strengths
Comment below those 3 strategies in order of primary focus to least focus.
Also, consider which ones you may want to outsource one day if you had the budget. They can be one of your three or an additional strategy.
Dive deep into 1 of these strategies with the other options becoming complementary strategies. [ not sure what that means? check out the blog all about complimentary marketing strategies as son as you are done here]
Always be evaluating what’s working and what you are enjoying/hating. If you know you’ve given that particular strategy time but found it to be a real struggle then it’s always ok to try something new!
Web Designer, Brand Curator, Social Media Supporter, Boy Mom, and lover of seeing other birth businesses flourish and succeed!
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