When IBCLC, birth doula and childbirth educator Micky Jones offered to send me her a copy of her recently published book, “Keep the Fires Burning: Conquering stress and burnout as a Mother-Baby Professional”, I admit I was under a bit of stress in my own life and unsure how I would add a book into the mix of internal drama I was facing. As it turned out, Micky’s book was exactly what I needed.

Micky has written a very valuable book for Mother-Baby Professionals in all stages of their career. It is also an important book for those who are considering entering this field, because it provides what many other resources do not – it discusses the reality of the work and the challenges that many birth professionals face.

“Keep the Fires Burning” is broken down into three parts:

Part I – A discussion of stress and how it is experienced by many Mother-Baby Professionals (MBP)

A brief history of birth politics is described, and the reader gets a glimpse of a MBP’s role within system and gains an understanding of the strain that can be felt while working within the medical paradigm of birth. Further in the chapter, Western cultural expectations and beliefs are explored, pointing to another source of potential stress in an MBP’s life. Finally, Micky sums up the chapter by providing a succinct list of characteristics that sum up what it’s like to be a Mother-Baby Professional. This list alone would be of great value to a new MBP or anyone considering entering this field.

Part II – Forms of stress, or the “Six Flames That Can Destroy Your Passion”

The next segment covers several forms of stress – those that could affect anyone, and specific sources of stress for the MBP. Micky describes six forms of stress as intensifying levels of heat, or the “Six Flames That Can Destroy Your Passion”. The six flames are Stress, Secondary Stress, Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Depression. She continues by scrutinizing empathy and how it plays a part in stress in the Mother-Baby Professional. Then, she considers personal experiences of an MBP and explains how one’s personal history could affect stress levels. A discussion of the stressors unique to MBP’s follows which includes more information about the work that they do and the environments in which they work.

Part III – Eliminating Stress and the Mother-Baby Professional’s Self-Care Plan

After discussing the Six Flames of Stress, the second half of the book is dedicated to “The Six Burn Busters” to eliminate it, along with a variety of specific suggestions, tips and methods that can form the basis of a self-care plan. The Burn Busters are broken down to address two primary areas – Who You Are and What You Do. The six Burn Busters include:

Who You Are:

• Spirit
• Mind
• Body

What You Do:

• Time
• Treasure
• Talent

Each Burn Buster is explored in depth and includes a description of each type of self-care, why it’s important to nurture, specific strategies, and the benefits that can be reaped from these suggestions. The final chapter includes a life inventory and personal self-care plan that you can create for yourself. The life inventory includes a list of questions that can help provide you with a more accurate picture of your home and work life. Once you know where you stand, you can create your self-plan using the prompts given in the book.

The end of the book includes Micky’s story – her struggle with stress and burnout, and what she did to overcome it and redesign her life. It’s inspirational and a powerful ending to an information-packed toolkit.

As a mom, life coach and business owner, my own personal development path was not unlike Micky’s. I’ve been on my own journey of self-discovery and healing for almost 10 years now. While I have practiced much of the self-care strategies that Micky teaches, what was most valuable to me was the validation I felt from reading about the Six Flames of stress and the section on empathy. I have experienced all six flames and let my empathic side get the best of me, and I can see how this led to my experience of burnout and depression. It also led me to realize that I was heading into that downward spiral again and needed to reprioritize and step up the self-care. Note: If you’ve noticed I haven’t been around very much, it was due to the much needed break I over the past six weeks!

If you work with expectant and new moms and babies, “Keep the Fires Burning” should be at the top of your Amazon list of books to buy! Seriously. Even if you’re not experiencing stress, the self-care tips and strategies are helpful. If you are experiencing stress, from mild stress to burnout, read it from cover to cover so you can create a self-care plan and regain control of your emotions, health and life.

Hale Publishing has published an excerpt of the book online, so go and check it out now. Then by all means, buy the book! If you purchase it in the month of September from Hale Publishing, you’ll receive a $3.00 discount. You’ll help not only yourself, but you’ll be helping your loved ones and the families you work with. You’re worth it, and I want you to be inspired to continue serving others in this profession.

Stay tuned for an announcement of an Inspired Birth Pro Twitter Party, where I’ll be gifting a copy of “Keep the Fires Burning” to a lucky participant.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Stress + Six Weeks + One Book + One Fire = Gifts of Perspective
2. What’s Working and Not Working For You?
3. Baby Fair Success Tips for Birth Pros

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Have you taken the time to consider what your hourly rate would be for the time you’re dedicating to your birth doula clients? In a recent Facebook Group post for students of Birth Arts International, founder Demetria Clark offered the following example:

If you charge $400 per birth, this is a simple breakdown to consider:

Time with parents – 5 hours (prenatals and phone calls)
Time at birth – 10 hours (sometimes much longer, sometimes much shorter, but 10 is a midline average).
Time in postpartum – 3 hours
Postpartum visits if you offer 2 – 3 hours
Driving time – 3 hours average.
Prep and research time – 2 hours

At 26 hours, you’re rate is approximately $15.38 an hour.

The above example only takes the amount of time you’re spending into account. Other costs you might want to factor in include:

• Gas and parking
• Childcare for your own children
• Meals and snacks for yourself while you are at the birth

Two other costs to consider are the time and expenses that may be incurred while you recuperate after attending a birth. Self care is critical for you, especially if you attend a particularly long birth. Do you need someone to care for your kids so you can catch up on your sleep? Does it help for you to get some body work done? Do you need to talk to someone if the birth you’ve attended was rough? What helps you rejuvenate yourself after a birth?

For Doulas-in-Training/Student Doulas

As a new doula, it is reasonable to charge an amount that will help to cover your basic expenses such as gas, childcare and meals. This is especially important if it would otherwise cause hardship for your family if you did not charge anything. It will be much easier for you to dedicate yourself wholeheartedly to your clients when your basic needs are being met. In addition, clients may place more value and take you seriously when there is an exchange of money for services, even if it is a minimal amount.

There’s No One Right Way To Charge

There are an infinite number of ways you can structure your pricing at different stages of your business. Your philosophy, current financial situation, business goals, and even your personality will play a role in helping you determine the best way to set up your rates.

Your rates play a part in reflecting your self-worth. Know that you bring tremendous value to a woman and her partner at a birth, no matter how much experience you have.

I’d love to know how if you’ve broken down your rates, what you discovered in doing so, and whether you intend to make any changes.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. 5 Steps to Summer Sanity: Breaking It Down (Part 5)
2. 7 Pricing Strategies for Birth Doulas
3. How To Be Taken Seriously In Your Doula Business – 5 Tips

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New subscribers to the Inspired Birth Pro updates receive an email requesting their burning business questions. I’ve compiled the list of questions over the years, and I’ve started posting them on Facebook, because honestly, I don’t have all the answers! I also learn from other birth pros, so I really appreciate it when fans take the time to share their wisdom.

If you have not liked the IBP Facebook page yet (why haven’t you?), I’m going to start compiling the questions and responses into a blog post, along with the link to the question, in case you want to add to the conversation. I also imagine that at some point the Facebook updates may disappear, or at least get lost and buried, so it would be nice to archive them in some way. If you notice that your comment was not included, please contact me to let me know.

If you want to add a comment to one of these questions, just click on the word “question” preceding it to go to its respective page on Facebook.

Okay, here we go!

Question 1: Name one important step you took to ramp up your part-time birth business to a full-time practice?

• Jessica Bejot – Networking with everyone all the time!
• Jen Davis – Business school…crash course

Question 2: What are your budget-friendly ways to advertise your birth business?

• Smooth Transitions – Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) is great for creating awareness but referrals are the best way for us to get new clients.
• Rachel Mueller -  www.doulamatch.net, very affordable!
• Desirre Andrews – No advertising. Marketing with fliers, referrals, website, car magnet, tshirts, etc.

Question 3: Is your birth business an LLC? What tips would you give other birth pros who would like to form an LLC?

• Desirre Andrews – Yes it is. I believe it adds professionalism and protection while still allowing for simple tax accounting.

Question 4: Please share one creative marketing technique you’ve used successfully.

• Motherjoyca – I donate a small amount of my time for silent auctions and end up getting contracts for more.
• Krystal Bartz – I got $100 for Google Adwords and actually used it. I developed amazing key words and actually got 3 clients.

Question 5: (for Birth Doulas): How do you find paying clients?

• Andrea Donaldson Lythgoe – My web site, hands down. I don’t even do any other marketing. A *good* website will get you farther than anything else you do.
• Jessica Bejot – I agree with the website. Networking for referrals is also profitable. Attending everything birth related in your community. Most of all be professional and value yourself with confidence. Set your price stick to it, then earn it, you’ll get referrals from clients that way too! It snowballs after that.
• Danielle Rylander – I have a top notch website, but I live in a tiny town so I’m not seeing much from the website. My clients all look at it after they’ve heard about me while they’re trying to decide if they want to hire me. Definitely crucial, but not much traffic from this small town. I think the way I get paying clients is through birth classes or through referrals.
• Desirre Andrews – Website, word of mouth, referrals, marketing materials, magnetic sign on car, office sign, about in that order.
• Gentle Balance Birth – There are many people in my region that attend births for very low cost or even for free. I believe over time though I have turned down a few births here and there, I get paying clients by continuing to act and treat myself as a professional. Like all professionals I do volunteer my services and time in certain specific arenas, but I do not volunteer my services for people who are just looking to save a little money. When I was a younger, newer doula it was more challenging for me to stick to my price and let some births go, but I realized I didn’t want my reputation to be as the doula who was willing to work for almost nothing. I wanted my reputation to be the doula who was so hard working, professional and dedicated to her clients that she was worth every penny. And guess what? That’s what it is!

Question 6: (for CBEs): How do you attract students for out-of-hospital childbirth classes?

• Desirre Andrews – Word of mouth, provider/birth pro referrals, website, SM, marketing fliers, networking, schedule,reputation.

Question 7: What elements do you think make up an attractive website home page that draws people in to find out more?

• Donna Schulz Rubens – I like simple front pages that are easy to navigate. Too much stuff on the front page looks messy to me. It should be brief with one or two pictures. I don’t like harsh colors or the use of different fonts. I don’t like waiting for flashy “flash” things to load and will not wait and move on to another page. I think with front pages, less is best.
• Andrea Donaldson Lythgoe – Make it personal, include your name and photo. Make it simple, no flashing, not crammed with stuff. NO MUSIC! Easy to navigate. No spelling mistakes.
• Donna Schulz Rubens – I have to add, if your website is about cakes, don’t put up a picture of a rabbit, lol. I have seem websites with pictures that have nothing to do with what the website is about. ; )
• Krystal Bartz – My home page is what’s current in my business life. It’s simple, clean and easy to navigate. My menu is always on top. I think your webpage is a reflection of you and your business. I have been to sites where they look like they have been slapped together with banners and free ads flashing “webpages in 5 minutes” (not for doulas, for other professions) and I exit as quickly as I entered.
• Krystal Bartz – Does everyone have a website to share? I’d love to see how you set yourselves up on the web. Mine is:
  www.ninemonthsdoula.com.
• Donna Schulz Rubens -  www.VCBN.Homestead.com is mine for the birth network I started and I have done several doula sites for friends.
• Donna Schulz Rubens – Here are some I have done. I do them and the client has control over going in and changing things once I set it up. Not always what I would recommend but I think the client should have control and do what they want with their own site. www.donnascreativewebdesigns.com/Portfolio.html.
• Krystal Bartz – My husband is a web and graphic designer. For birthy sites he had only done mine but does lots of freelance stuff.
• Andrea Donaldson Lythgoe – Mine is www.pamperedbirth.com.

Here are a couple questions that haven’t received attention yet, so please chime in if you want to share your view:

Question 8: Do you live in a small community? How do you successfully promote your birth business?

Question 9: (for CBEs): How much do you charge for out-of-hospital childbirth classes and what part of the world are you at?

If you don’t do Facebook but want to chime in, feel free to add to the comments at the end of the post. In addition, if you have a burning question you want answered, either email me or post to the comments or on Facebook and ask away!

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Ask Inspired Birth Pro: Is it Worth Doing Email Newsletters? It Depends.
2. Ask Inspired Birth Pro: Getting Paid for Birth Doula Services
3. Should You Include Your Prices On Your Marketing Materials and Website?

In the previous article, we went over how to set up, target and create your ads – in this last part of the series, we’ll go over the basic metrics and stats and cover the concepts of splitting out groups based on your campaign’s metrics to get the best people for your Page at the lowest price.

In terms of longterm advertising costs, generally a very local ad campaign for something as specific as a birthing professional isn’t going to get millions of impressions, so CPM is my eventual preferred method as it ends up being the cheapest once you figure out exactly what works for you.

Again, the key is recognizing what works, then splitting it down further and further until you have the very core group of people that tend to click on your ad and like your Page. So one successful ad group of 16 similar interests can potentially turn into 16 successful ad groups as you pare it down continually, thus forming the process I like to label the Eternal Whittling in my own odd internal monologue. Just keep splitting down, because it’s worth it!

Now for stats – you’ll see a cost breakdown on your main Ads page once you create your first ad with some metrics/performance data that probably looks very similar to this if this is your very first ad…

Your eyes will be glued to this page over the next few days – make sure to check the little question marks over each term to get a good description of what a particular metric is. The only thing you’ll really want to be concerned with right now with a new campaign is CTR, Reach and Clicks:

1. Reach is how many people saw your ad in total – this isn’t like Impressions/Views, it’s a count of how many people saw your ad – Impressions counts people who saw your ad at different times, so this is a more accurate view of people who’ve seen your ad.
2. Clicks is how many people clicked on your ad.
3. CTR is your clickthrough rate – this is the percentage of how many people saw your ad vs. how many people clicked on it. If 10 people saw your ad, and 1 clicked on it, that’d be a 10% CTR.

Generally, for Facebook ads targeting a passive lifestyle business with no real call to action or sales pitch, a 1% CTR would be phenomenal. Keep in mind that Facebook also tells you the Frequency of each ad – meaning you can see how many times people are, on average, seeing your ad while they’re on Facebook. This is an important metric to keep tabs on – if people have seen your ad a lot of times but haven’t clicked on it, they may be getting tired of seeing it and it may be time to try some new ad copy or a new picture to pique people’s interest, or to cut off that group entirely if another test yields similar results.

I try to let my ads run for around a week before I start messing around with them – this is a local business, so unless you have a massive budget, you’re not really going to be inundated with traffic that quickly. But remember – a trickle of followers who are sincerely interested in your business is a very valuable thing to have, so make sure you keep your Page updated with quality content or useful links. Use services like Ping.fm and others to connect your Twitter and Facebook Page together so you only have to update one if you’re not that into social media.

After the first week, I go through to prune and split my ads – a rule of thumb for me is that if they’ve had at least 1000 views with zero or very little clicks, they either get paused/deleted or split up into further subgroups to see if it’s a particular interest or age that’s bogging the rest of the keywords/ages down.

If ads perform well I try to split them up to see which half does better over the next week. I also use this time to set up any new ad copy or pictures to test with groups that are doing well and run them side-by-side existing ads to see what performs best in the same group.

Keep tabs on your age group, as well – just because one age group isn’t clicking or showing much response can mean that your ad copy isn’t appealing to them. Rewrite and retest with that in mind before slashing it from your campaign.

I also check my Page daily to see who Liked me – I visit new fan’s profiles, take note of their age if it’s available and try to isolate what ad group they came from by looking at the stats for around the time they Liked the Page. It pays to keep track of this – one ad group may be clicking on your ad but NOT Liking your Page. I use free tools like Google Spreadsheets to save and organize this data and come back to it when creating new ads.

When testing ads, I find the “Create A Similar” ad button very useful. I just change out the ad copy or picture, remove or add some interests, then push it through and voila, I’ve got a new ad type going out to a similar group.

That’s a basic walk-through for Facebook Ads and should be more than enough to get you started. There are lots of cool things we haven’t really touched on with this, but I implore you to experiment and explore the Ads Manager! You can never go over your daily budget once you set it and you can ALWAYS pause a campaign or schedule it to run on certain days/times. As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, I don’t spend more than $5 a day when I turn my ads on, and I’m happy as a clam with our traffic. Your needs may be different and the wonderful thing about the Facebook system is that it’s entirely scalable.

Again, these articles have just scratched the surface of Facebook Ads – there are other in-depth resources such as AllFacebook, SearchEngineLand, and various independent marketing guide sites. I encourage you to start out at your own pace and learn what works, then do your own research – start small, experiment, get confident and grow your business with quality, interested people!

Like what I write? Then Like Orlando Doula on Facebook! Or follow us on Twitter. Or visit our site for more useful articles: Doula Orlando. Or be a multitasking maven and do all three!

Phil is an SEO, social media and marketing strategist by day and the Hamster-In-The-Wheel that keeps everything technical running for Doula Orlando. He blogs about life with a toddler, instinctive parenting and the occasional tips for small businesses.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 2)
2. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 1)
3. Resource: Natural Baby Pros – For Birth Pros and Parents

Setting Up Your First Ad

For illustrative purposes, I’ll be assuming you’re advertising your own Facebook Page while walking through this – though most of the tips here work just as well for your external site. I highly recommend investing your resources in building a Page, though – it’s an unobtrusive way to get information out to people who may be passively interested in your services, and the more people are aware of you, the more business you’ll get!

If you have a Facebook account, you can go to the “Ads” section on the left hand side of your home screen. It may say “Ads & Pages” for some people – don’t ask me why.

Once there, go ahead and click on Create an Ad. You may need to set up your billing information prior to creating your ad – don’t worry about this, as you don’t get charged until your ads are approved and running, and you set the budget of your daily spend.

Make sure if you see the above options pointed out by the red arrows above anywhere while starting this process to set your daily budget (how much money you’re willing to spend daily) and keep your new campaign paused. Any ads you create under the paused campaign will never run until you unpause the campaign itself, so it allows you to test without accidentally putting unfinished ads out there.

Eventually, you’ll get to the meat and potatoes of the ad building, which looks like:

This is where you’ll put your main ad copy and pictures you’ve selected prior.

There’s some things to take note of here as indicated by the red arrows – specifically, the Destination – make sure it’s your Page or your website.

If it’s a Page, then you have another option: the Destination Tab. You can have a user land on your Wall tab, your Info tab or any other custom “tab” you’ve added to your Facebook Page. As you can see, my Facebook Page is currently set up with a custom welcome screen.

It’s a little more attractive than a simple Info tab and provides some instant information to someone who just clicked an ad and wants to know more. Some people don’t prefer them for a variety of reasons, but I find it adds a more personal touch for any new visitors that wander by, which I feel is an important factor when dealing with the very personal, relationship-based birth industry. Setting up custom tabs is a little tricky and technical, but it’s something I’ll be covering in a future article.

If you’re not the tech savvy type, don’t worry about it – if you have a lot of activity on your Page that could entice them to join, use your Wall as the landing page, or if you want them to contact you, you can point them to the Info tab – make sure it’s filled out with a lot of details, as it’s the first thing they’ll see!

Once you make sure everything fits and looks right, we can get past the meat and potatoes and move on to the delicious winterberry froyo of ads: TARGETING!

This is where you’ll find and isolate your audience. This is where you’ll attract new fans and gain traction for your business. This is where the magic happens!

So, the basic demographic:

• I currently target women only within a 25 mile radius of the businesses’ closest city.
• My ages range from 18-64.
• I generally split the ages up by 3 years to start, so 18-21, 22-25, etc. If you DO go with age groups, make sure to click the “Require Exact Age Match” checkbox, or Facebook will go out of your range automatically.

I have not attempted to target dads as my current budget doesn’t allow for it, but they DO have a presence that can be tapped to passively attract clients, so don’t rule them out!

Now, the real strength of the Facebook Ad system: the Likes & Interests section! Which brings us to…

Being Relevant

You’ll need to use the Interests section to target people you want to know about your services.

As of very recently, you have two options for Interest: Broad Category Targeting or Precise Interest Targeting. I highly recommend Precise Interest as it allows for far more precision, but if you’re not looking for a lot of maintenance and can live with the costs, Broad Targeting may work for you – I’d suggest the Family > Parents or Newlyweds category. For now, though, we’ll focus on Precise Interests.

You’ll utilize Precist Interests via a keyword like system that shows major likes/interests. This is where a clever mind can shine! So let’s take a look at the Targeting options…

There’s lots of useful tips in the picture above, so take some time to look them over and explore before you start building, you might just have a great idea!

When you start typing in a word in the Interests section, you’ll notice relevant words/phrases popping underneath the text you’re typing – this is Facebook’s attempt to guess your answer and show you a group based on the word you’re typing. You’ll need to click on that word in order to use it, or type the full phrase out – you can’t target anything that Facebook doesn’t offer you.

The key to effective advertising with Facebook is splitting your ads out into several main groups once you’ve got your core audience selected. Here’s some examples:

Core Lifestyle: Keywords contained in this group pertain exclusively to people who are actively involved in the birth industry or are aware of terms like “doula” and “midwife”. These are people who would not need to know what a doula is as they’re either a fan of it or mention it on their profile, so an ad doesn’t need to focus on explaining what a doula does – you can likely focus more heavily on your specialized services in the ad copy here, such as massage, aromatherapy, whatever unique skills or services you bring to your business. Remember, you can target whatever Pages people like as well, so organizations like DONA, CBI, CAPPA, and now that I think about it, Inspired Birth Professionals, are all useful terms in this group.
Example keywords: doula, midwife, dona

Core Related Lifestyle: What kind of mothers are you looking for? What kind of mom do you think would have passing knowledge or be interested in information about birth professionals such as doulas and midwives? People who have a holistic worldview tend to be more familiar with these terms, and in my case, these are the kind of people we want to target anyway. For other birth professionals, this may mean doing research into the type of client you wish to get – I’ve seen some birth professionals explicitly advertise as Christian, so this would be a good ad group to focus on specific religious groups if that’s the type of client you’re seeking. Ideally, this group should focus on hobbies/activities and groups/charities that your ideal client would support.

This is actually one of my strongest performing groups, as it casts a net over people who may not have considered a doula or may not have heard of the specific benefits of a doula – if they come across my ad and I supply them with quality content and information as a good first introduction to the concept, then they’re more likely to use the services I promote.
Example keywords: organic gardening, holistic living

Local Businesses: Think about it. You see expectant mothers all the time. They’re on the go. They shop! They eat! Think about the mindset of a mom who would want a doula – in all likelihood, she’s aware of your own local color and homegrown businesses and the best local dine ins. Ideally, you should focus on local, non-chain businesses with this group – look around, and see if they have a Facebook Page. See if you can target that Page. Tailor your ads to appeal to someone who loves a local business enough to list it as a ‘Like’ on their Facebook – they’re likely very passionate and loyal toward it. Talk to that part of them, and you can gain a fan. I usually break this out into restaurants and shops to see what performs better.
Example keyword types: yoga studios, craft shops, diners, local magazines

Kid Businesses: This one’s simple – someone who has kids, or may be expecting kids, may be interested in major children’s brands, be it stores or a brand like Gerber’s. I reserve most of this group for national chains such as Babys’R'Us, Motherhood, etc, but if you live in a large enough area that supports independent children’s stores then definitely break them out into a local group!
Example keywords: Gerber’s, Babys’R'Us, Motherhood

Childcare: Find the names of local childcare services in your area, and see if they have a Facebook Page that you can target. Moms are very good at recommending things to expectant friends, so even if you engage someone who’s not pregnant, you could via an eventual word of mouth referral!

TV: This is just another common sense target – expectant mothers will most likely be watching/following certain TV programs, or maybe you just want to find someone who watches the same stuff you do. Either way, targeting through TV is a good way to reach a lot of people – TV shows are among the biggest category of Pages liked on Facebook.
Example keywords: PBS, Nick Jr

Odd Phrases: This is your experimental ground. Remember, Facebook allows you to target what people list on their profile as things that they do, are a professional of, or are simply interested in. For example, I recently tested phrases like “i love being parent” and “i love stay at home mom” with specifically targeted ad copy to address/recognize that phrase. Be creative, try stuff and see what works, every local area is different so there’s limitless potential!

These are just some very broad examples, you can even continue to pare those down into further categories – at its core, Facebook allows you to isolate a person’s interests. These aren’t the only groups you can limit yourself to – there’s lots of other behaviors/interests expectant mothers indulge in, you just have to think it up and test it. Find out what kind of moms you attract – or if you’re a mother yourself, think about everything you read, saw, listened to or were interested in when you were pregnant. Use that and try to find other people with the same interests and get your message out there!

Let’s talk about what all this hard work is gonna cost you…

Before you publish your first ad, Facebook will suggest some methods of pricing for you shown in the image above – the two billing methods are: CPC and CPM. CPC stands for Cost Per Click, and charges you up to the maximum amount specified for each click. CPM is Cost Per Thousand, meaning you pay up to a certain price per thousand views or Impressions your ad receives. I often find that I start off with CPC to test concepts and identify what ad groups are getting traffic and clicks, then transition to CPM as my ads become more relevant and more people click on them. It’s a good way to get more eyes on your ad for less money.

You’ll see a suggested ad price – you can go with what Facebook suggests or play around with it a little – sometimes you’ll get lucky and your ads will run even when you go way below the suggested price, I’d only suggest doing that if you’re willing to watch it for a while and see how long it takes for that to happen, if at all. As you get more familiar with the Facebook Ad system, it’s a fun thing to play around with these variables to help cut down your costs, just remember you need to monitor it closely every day!

So you’ve got all your ads set up and they’re running and now you’re seeing stats pour in every day! What next? What does all this weird jargon mean? CTR? Reach?! Why are these pie charts flying at me at the speed of sound?! Why is there no actual pie?! Find out in the next article.

Like what I write? Then Like Orlando Doula on Facebook! Or follow us on Twitter. Or visit our site for more useful articles: Doula Orlando. Or be a multitasking maven and do all three!

Phil is an SEO, social media and marketing strategist by day and the Hamster-In-The-Wheel that keeps everything technical running for Doula Orlando. He blogs about life with a toddler, instinctive parenting and the occasional tips for small businesses.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 3)
2. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 1)
3. 7 (plus 2) Questions answered by Inspired Birth Pros (not me)

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We are fortunate to have a new contributor to Inspired Birth Pro, Phil Vox with Doula Orlando. He’ll be sharing his wisdom with us over the next three weeks, teaching us how to create and make the most of Facebook Ads. I look forward to learning along with all of you!

Phil’s Introduction:

I’m an SEO/marketing analyst for a successful advertising company by day, and a hopeful entrepreneur and unabashed geek by night. I’ve used numerous ad platforms and have had the luxury of being able to tinker around with different methods of advertising as my full time job. I’ve put this knowledge to use in helping build our doula business, and I’m happy to share my experience with others seeking to find new ways to promote their business and connect with their core audience in meaningful ways.

Introduction to Facebook Ads

Getting the word out locally about your services is a vital component for your business and there are lots of ways you can put your name out there. I’ll be focusing on one of the methods that has a lot of long term potential for birth professionals – Facebook Ads.

Now, maybe you have a small budget, or maybe you think Facebook is too big of a place to advertise your birth business.

I literally spend no more than $5 a day and get my message seen at least 5000 times on a slow day, and this leads to highly relevant new fans on our Facebook Page daily!

So, if you can forgo a cup of expensive coffee for a day or two, do some research and follow up on it frequently, you can run some ads and have some small success in building a following.

Before You Get Technical

Let’s take a look at how Facebook advertising basically works. A real simple way to do that is to just look at the Info section of your own Facebook profile – see all the interests, the Likes, the stuff you’ve written about yourself that’s linked? All that data can be targeted. So your job is to figure out the interests of the moms you want to attract, then engage them with a good ad and get them to become a fan of your Page. Figure out products, services, media, anything that you think an expectant mother might be engaged in or a fan of and use that to find them and tell them your story.

Before you even touch the Ad Manager, you should focus on the kind of ad you want to design and the basic kind of targeting you want to do. You should also start looking through your own pictures or think about buying some – one of the biggest factors in Facebook Ads is the picture, it needs to grab someone’s attention and be relevant. Generally, I’ve had better performance with photos that focus on the face(s) of a person/people, but you may find something else works better.

You’ll want to stick with horizontal-oriented photos, as Facebook ads dimensions are 110 pixels wide and 80 pixels tall (with an ideal aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9, according to their official help file) I personally like to crop the most out of any image I have to fit the format, and you can use simple, free graphic editing tools such as Gimp to do this manually. If you’re not that picky, though, Facebook will resize an image for you. Remember, though, a Facebook ad is THIS tiny…

Keeping the finished size in mind, you’ll find that wide angle shots with a lot of detail tend to get lost. Go for simple, attractive photos that catch your eye in a snap without any context – if it works for you, it’ll work for someone else!

In terms of ad copy, you have a limit of 135 characters so you’ve got a decent amount of space to pitch yourself. This is 135 characters in real text:

This = 135 characters. It’s not 22, or 25, or even 77.
It’s just 135 exactly, a little run on sentence, spaces included,
so yay for me!

As to what to say, it depends on what you want to sell about yourself – mentions of certifications help, talking about what specific benefits the CLIENT gets will net you more clicks than simply talking about yourself and your skills, so try to frame it around the overall benefits someone would have with you rather than just a description of what you do. Tell them how they gain by liking you!

You’ll also be able to play around with ad copy based on the specific groups you choose to target, which leads us to…

Variation, Variation, Variation.

You’ll want to create different versions of your ad to see what works – this can be as simple or complex as you like, it really depends on how much time you have to put into it and how obsessed over statistics you are. This variation has a lot to do with Likes & Interests, which we’ll cover very shortly. In my case, I end up starting with several broad sub-groups, then splitting those out based on any applicable trend – a quick example would be Restaurants > Break down into Vegan and Non-Vegan, then see which responds better to the same ad copy/picture.

You also can break out ads by specific age groups, and I eventually end up getting to either the single, specific age of a person or within 3 years of it with my ad groups.

In short, if you want really, really relevant ads, you’re going to have to start slightly broad, keep track of your groups by age and interest, then narrow your focus as results come in. So create 2-3 starting versions of your ad copy and pair it up with pictures that you think would resonate well with a particular age group or interest that you already have in mind, then get ready to copy, tweak and add to these starting templates a whole lot as your campaign ages.

So, now you’ve got your ad copy and images selected. It’s time to plug that in to Facebook’s ad system, which we’ll cover in our next article!

Like what I write? Then Like Orlando Doula on Facebook! Or follow us on Twitter. Or visit our site for more useful articles: Doula Orlando. Or be a multitasking maven and do all three!

Phil is an SEO, social media and marketing strategist by day and the Hamster-In-The-Wheel that keeps everything technical running for Doula Orlando. He blogs about life with a toddler, instinctive parenting and the occasional tips for small businesses.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 3)
2. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 2)
3. Resource: Natural Baby Pros – For Birth Pros and Parents

Enjoy this video on suggestions for teaching comfort measures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq4Z43xrMig

I’m looking forward to more great tips from Janice in the near future!

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Resource – Penny Simkin’s Articles and Presentations
2. Resource – Hypnobabies Hypnosis CDs for Pregnancy, Birth, Postpartum, and Birth Professionals Too!
3. Resource: Support for Mamas on Bedrest

Plan Your Space, Draw People In

At a typical fair, each business has a designated space. Vendors are usually are provided a table, a chair or two, and maybe an electrical outlet. The organizers may also put up a small sign with the business name at the back of the booth.

Beyond what is provided, it is up to you to make your booth a place that people want to come and visit. One way to get ideas is to go to some fairs and see what attracts you. You may notice that many exhibitors have their table at the front of the booth, right up to the aisle where people are walking. The exhibitor may have some items displayed on the table, perhaps some brochures, and they’re sitting at the table, available to talk to the people passing by. Most of the time, what happens? People keep walking. Especially if it is crowded.

Here are some ways to cozy up your space:

• Put your tables against the back of the booth and/or along the sides of the booth so people have to walk into it to see what you’ve got.
• Set up a couple of chairs so people can come in and sit down.
• Bring in a rug to warm up your space. In a conference center the floor is typically concrete.
• Make a space where little ones can sit and color or do some kind of activity while you speak to their parents.
• Bring in a plant or some flowers to brighten up your booth.

Get Their Attention

You’ll also need to have some eye-catching visual aids to get people’s attention and draw them into your booth. Many birth pros will have some of these props just lying around!

• A large banner to hang up, where people can see it from across the room.
• Props for demonstrations – Birth ball, pelvis model, posters, rebozos, baby slings with doll or real baby! With the props, you might put the large items, like the birth ball, toward the front of the booth, close enough to people walking by to have to watch out for it. That’ll get their attention!
• A video playing  on a laptop, talking about what you do or featuring video testimonials.

Carol Peterson, a Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis Instructor and birth doula from Birth Journeys, recently attended a fair and shared her experience:

I have just returned from a local hospital’s Baby Fair, and in seven years of sitting at tables promoting childbirth classes, this by far was my best fair.  Here’s what I did:  pushed the table back and added a visitor chair, brought a stool for myself, took a birth ball and added birth related stuff to the table.  But, the single biggest thing that I can attribute the success of this fair to is my professional Hypnobabies sign.  People actually stopped and said “Enjoy your baby’s birth?!  Really?!”.  I used an inexpensive coat rack with wheels to hang the sign from and the large Hypnobabies logo really caught people’s eyes.  I put the sign behind the table, rather than hanging it in the front, which is what most people do.  Not everyone stopped, but many did.  I had several nursing students stop by, and the nursing instructor will be contacting me to discuss Hypnobabies with her class.  What an opportunity to shape the future!  I gave out packets of information to those who stopped and were interested enough to have a conversation with me and give me their contact information.

Have a Little Help from a Friend

Nicole King of Adventures in Childbirth suggests having someone else there to help talk to visitors, which especially comes in handy if you want to network with other vendors or are speaking with a prospective client.

In addition, a good way to reduce your costs of having a booth is to get together with other birth professionals. You can split the cost of the booth, have someone there to give you a break when necessary, and it’s nice to have somebody there to keep you company and even get to know better.

You could also share a booth with someone who offers a complementary service. I loved hearing from Leigh Short of BabyMine Birth Education, who shared the following:

I plan to join with a local massage therapist of chiropractor.  That way people are willing to linger a bit for a massage.  You can talk while they wait, or after they are in massage hangover mode.  Massage therapist is excited because it will also help her target a specific group.

Give Your Guests a Gift

So, you’ve attracted people into your booth, you’re telling them about what you do, and you want them to remember you.  More importantly, you want to keep in touch with them in the future. Make sure you have information they can take with them. Here are the basics to have available:

• Business cards
• Brochures or postcards
• A calendar of upcoming events
• Packets of more detailed information in case you’ve been hired on the spot!
• Samples of products you sell
• Packets of information for professionals you’d like to network with
• ***IMPORTANT*** – Be sure to have a sign-up sheet and collect their name, email address and phone number so you can email them additional information or do a follow-up call in a few days. If you want to add them to your mailing list, be sure you get their express permission. People get VERY annoyed when they receive unsolicited emails.
• Bribe ‘em with chocolate. Not really, but it’s nice to have a bowl with something sweet to eat available.

If you want to go the extra mile, you could consider some of the following:

• Another way to collect email addresses is to do a drawing for something cool and useful. On the slip, be sure to have a check box so they can choose to add themselves to your mailing list.
• Create some goodie bags, filled with freebie products you’ve accumulated, some candy, and some of your marketing material.
• Be mindful that people who attend these fairs will get a slew of paper from a zillion vendors, and that it’s highly likely these will end up in their recycle bin or the trash. To make sure your name sticks around with them, consider purchasing some useful, personalized products to giveaways. Some things to consider might be pens, a magnetic business card with some handy information about birth or breastfeeding, a stress ball, or a hand held massage tool.

Create Community and Offset Some of Your Costs

You can help out your birth professional community and spread the word about birth and services for women by offering to advertise for other businesses for a small fee. This takes some time and coordination, but it can help you in a few ways.

What you’ll do is to send an offer to your network of fellow birth professionals. What they do is pay you a small fee and deliver to you a specified number of flyers, brochures or samples. You then put together goody bags that you can give away to people who visit your booth. You could also waive the fee if they give you a door prize to give away!

Doing something like this can help to offset the costs of your booth and also help your community of birth professionals!

Get Out There and Do It!

These tips and tricks will help you look professional and attract people to your booth at any Baby Fair. If you have any tips to share, we’d love to hear them too! And, if you have a successful experience using some of the tips we’ve provided, please brag about it! You’ll encourage many more birth pros to get out and be more visible in their communities.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Resource: Natural Baby Pros – For Birth Pros and Parents
2. Marketing in Small Ways Every Day
3. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 3)

It’s a good idea for doula clients to be aware of their doctor’s and hospital’s policies regarding access to and acceptance of labor support. One way to address this is to include specific wording on the doula contract that raises awareness and voices the expectation that the client needs to understand how supportive their caregivers will be of their doula.

One forum member, Vanessa Manz of The Birthing Garden, explains, “I have a section for Doula and Client responsibilities and it covers all the dos and do nots along with requiring the client to be familiar with any restrictions on my services at their place of birth. I think it makes the family take a deeper look at whether they truly want to give birth in a place that wants to restrict what services are available to them during their birth. “

Vanessa also shared some verbiage that is on her doula contract:

CLIENT will tour the birth facility so that CLIENT is familiar with policies and facility layout.

It is CLIENT’S responsibility to ensure that DOULA is allowed to attend CLIENT at all times at the birth facility.

It is CLIENT’S responsibility to understand birthplace HIPPA policies regarding privacy rights. DOULA will not be held responsible if she is unable to contact CLIENT via telephone call or other inquiry while she is at birthplace.

If your ability to support your client has been affected by restrictions or requirements of their hospital or caregiver, what did you learn from the experience and what do you now request of your doula clients?

These posts may also inspire you:

1. How to Organize Birth Doula Client Files
2. Doula Client Attraction Tip #2 – Identify Your Ideal Client
3. Ask Inspired Birth Pro: Getting Paid for Birth Doula Services

Image via Wikipedia

All new subscribers to the Inspired Birth Pro updates receive an email asking what their burning questions are that can be addressed in future blog posts. The most common questions I receive are:

• How do I attract more clients/students?
• How can I be more organized (with home/business/finances/paperwork/office)?
• Where do I even begin with my new business?
• How can I have more balance in my life?

I’d like to invite anyone who has seen success in any of these areas to write a blog post for Inspired Birth Pro. It can be a single post, or a series over a few days if you have a lot to say about a topic. If you want to write but would like some guidance, I can help!

If you would like to share your experience but don’t like to write, we could arrange to do a phone interview and it will be shared on IBP.

If you’re interested, please contact me. I would love to share your wisdom here.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Ask Inspired Birth Pro: Getting Paid for Birth Doula Services
2. New Beginnings at Inspired Birth Pro
3. Inspired Birth Pro is in the Latest Issue of International Doula