What if marketing your doula business was FUN?

In this Facebook live replay, I explored the question, "What if marketing was fun?", revealed three important objectives that your marketing efforts will have during the process of attracting new people into your business before they become clients, and offered some tips to help you find ease and fun in marketing your birth business.

Video Transcript

Hi everyone! Good morning and thank you for joining me. Today I’m going to explore the question – What if marketing was fun? Plus I’ll offer some practical tips to help bring ease and enjoyment into this process of sharing your business with the world.

I’m going to take a moment to share this with my Facebook group and while you wait, let me know where you’re joining me from right now.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Darlene MacAuley and I help birth professionals start and grow their businesses with a focus on establishing systems and creating community, both on and offline.

 Before I get into today’s topic, I’d love for you to give me the first word that pops into your head when you hear the word “MARKETING.”

I do know some people truly love all aspects of sharing what they do in their business. And others like some activities more than others. And then there are still others who wish all they needed to do was sign up new clients and do the work they love.

If you are in the latter two groups, I hope to offer you some insight to help shift your perspective a little bit and give you some tips you can implement today.

And, if you know of any other new birth pros who might benefit from today’s topic, I invite you to share this video with them now!

At the end of this live stream, I’m going to tell you where you can get some additional support for marketing your birth business. I’ll give you more details later, but for now, let’s get started!

A common struggle I hear about all the time is that doulas and other birth professionals are having trouble getting clients. The follow up to this statement is that these same people often don’t enjoy marketing their business.

So, I want to explore a few things with you today. First, I’d like to give you some food for thought about marketing in and of itself. Then I’ll tell you the three types of impact you’re looking to make with your marketing efforts. And finally, I’ll share a couple ideas on how you can feel ease and enjoy marketing in February.

#1 – What exactly is marketing?

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

Okay, so if I just went by this definition, I wouldn’t think marketing is any fun either!

Back when I started my doula business I took a marketing course from a marketing coach, and she had a much simpler, relatable definition of marketing that really resonated with me.

Marketing is all about CONNECTION. You want to make a connection with your ideal clients and those who refer business to you.

So instead of saying to yourself, “How am I going to ‘market’ my business today/this week/this month?” what if you instead asked yourself, “How am I going to connect with others today/this week/this month to share what I do?”

Let me know how you feel in the comments about the second question. “How am I going to connect with others to share what I do?” Does it feel lighter than saying “How am I going to market my business?”

#2 – Let’s talk about the three types of impact your marketing/connecting should accomplish

When you are thinking about how you are going to connect with others, think about the big picture first. In order for you to get on anyone’s radar, you and your business needs to be VISIBLE to the general public and more specifically for you, within your community. Think about your favorite products and everywhere you might see them – tv, radio, the internet, newspapers and magazines, social media…

For birth professionals, being visible in a wider sense can mean having a website and being on social media. But it might also look like a spot on your local news or an interview in the paper. It could be sponsoring a charity event or having a booth at a baby fair. What else can you think of that gives you VISIBILITY?

VISIBILITY is the first type of impact your marketing should have.

People will buy services and products from a business they LIKE, KNOW and TRUST. VISIBILITY is the first step. Once people discover who you are, you’ve now got to let them get to know you, chances are they are not going to buy from you right away. So, you need to show people you’re an expert to demonstrate your CREDIBILITY, the second type of impact your marketing should have.

This means you get people to follow and engage with you on social media. You invite people to subscribe to your email list and then send them messages to show you know a lot about your field. Maybe you’ll create a meetup or free workshop, or you’ll blog or start a YouTube channel. These are just some of the marketing activities you can do to raise your CREDIBILITY and give people the opportunity to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you.

The third type of impact you want to have with your marketing efforts is that of OUTREACH. Outreach activities have the most impact in terms of gaining you new clients because of the level of personal interaction these activities involve. In the OUTREACH category, you’ll find networking activities or collaborating you can do with other professionals, keeping in touch by email or phone with past clients, and personally following up with prospective clients who you’ve previously met or who have initiated contact with you. When people get to know you personally, they are more inclined to want to hire and refer you.

In order for you to get clients, you’ll need to engage in a variety of activities that have all three types of impact – VISIBILITY, CREDIBILITY, and OUTREACH.

#3 – Finally, I know you want to know… How do you make marketing fun?

If you are just getting your feet wet with connecting with others to share what you do, an easy way to jump in is to focus on your strengths and what you love to do or what is easy for you to do.

For example, I am an introvert and my strength is writing. When I had my birth business, I didn’t blog regularly, but each of my blog pages was very descriptive. Clients regularly told me that they hired me because they were drawn in by what I had to say on my website and understood what I was about and who I served. When people tell you that they felt like you were speaking directly to them in your marketing materials, you know you’re on the right track.

Here’s another example. As an introvert, I despised networking events where you mingled. So, for networking, I reached out to local professionals via email to introduce myself and I met people at their offices or for coffee 1:1 to get to know them and their businesses and give them an opportunity to get to know me. I also went to networking groups that were more structured, allowed us to introduce ourselves at the beginning of the meeting to the whole group, and left the mingling to the end, where I would approach people who I wanted to get to know and had just learned what they did, or I could just leave if I felt uncomfortable.

So, my challenge to you is to:

#1- Think about and jot down your strengths and how you would love to connect with others.

Then, #2 – Brainstorm all the ways you can connect with your ideal clients that hit all three types of impact –

What can you do to be VISIBLE?

What can you do to increase your CREDIBILITY?

What can you do for OUTREACH activities?

And #3 – Set a goal for yourself for the remainder of February to focus on up to 5 activities you will commit to doing in order to connect with both your ideal clients and potential referral partners.

If this live stream was helpful to today, I’d love to hear one big takeaway of yours in the comments. And, if you found this live stream helpful, please be sure to share it with other birth pros that you know.

Finally, I am the host of the Inspired Birth Pros Facebook Group. It’s an active community of over 2000 members and the focus of the group is to help birth professionals with the business-side of their businesses. I will add a link in the description to join the group if you’re not yet a member. And, if you are, I’m going to be posting a follow-up question related to this live stream so we can talk more about ways you can connect with potential clients that feel easy and fun for you. If you’re not a member and want to join in the conversation, be sure to join the group!

Thanks so much for joining me today. See you next week!