Professional pointers: marketing and publicity.

Women supporting mothers in labor and with newborns is an ancient tradition, often woven into the structure of the community. This tradition continues, though in our mostly Western culture, we need to step beyond being neighborly and promote our work as a business. We asked you to share ideas on how to promote and market a labor assistant and/or childbirth educator practice. Thank you again to all who sent your ideas. As always, we look forward to hearing from you again.

I have found that in-services with midwives and family doctors have been great exposure for my business. I call the office, introduce myself and ask if it would be possible for me to speak to the practitioners. Oftentimes I have talked to mothers' groups that are organized at these clinics. I hand out brochures that include my qualifications and the ALACE website so potential clients can get an idea of what my training and ALACE's philosophy is.

Word of mouth has proven to be the best advertising out there, but I still keep in touch with new doctors and midwives that come on the scene, and have also networked with baby boutiques. I have permission to leave my information in the hospital waiting rooms. On occassion, nurses have asked for my business cards, and they pass them on to their intake nurses to give to clients.

It's amazing what you might get if you just ask. I find that because all of us are in this line of work to truly empower and help women, the universe gives back in the nicest ways, and work seems to be part of that flow.

Carol Peat CLA, ALACE

London, Ontario, Canada

Vista Print (www.vistaprint.com) offers FREE business cards to anyone who wants them. All you have to do is pay the shipping and handling which comes out to about $8 for a whole box. They have many styles and colors. The only "catch" is that they put their logo on the back in small light blue letters. Note: Not all styles are available with this offer, but they are clearly labeled.

Kelly W. Vittoria

Patchougue NY

When someone shows interest in my services, I always give them two business cards. I include a card in all correspondence--the Mothers to Mothers newsletters, thank you notes to nurses, midwives/OB's, with gift certificates. Our local Babies R Us lets us put cards and brochures in their store and invites us to come twice a year and hold a "Benefits of Having a Doula" class.

Erika Knipe

Boise, ID.

The Babies R Us store in our area allowed us to do a 2 hour presentation. We showed the "Special Women" video. We were invited to participate in their Baby Fest Weekend. We handed out birth information, our brochures, business cards and lollipops. We had a drawing for a free prenatal massage and for one lucky mom to win the services of a birth doula. We have been invited to return for 2 hour presentations. The managers in this particular store promote us whenever the opportunity arises.

Lasi Leavy

Reading Area, Pennsylvania

Keep in touch with other professionals

My cell phone is my contact number. A specific message thanks the caller for their interest in my services and asks them to leave their contact information. This is more professional than having clients call my home number.

Sharon Davis

Holland, Mass.

What has worked: having a website. Make the domain name as short, descriptive and easy to read as possible. Let search engines know about your site. The big ones are Google, Alta Vista, etc. Have people link back to your site. Do a search on "Doula listing services" and get the world out there about your website. Also, put descriptive words for your page title so when people do a search for "prenatal, your city", they will get your page.

Referrals. Get to know childbirth professionals in your area and build a relationship with them. When you have worked with one or received a referral, send them a "Thank you" card.

Mail your brochures and business cards to care providers. They can't refer to you if they don't know you or if they can't hand something to their client about you. Ask to leave your brochures in their waiting room so people can take your information if they want it.

What has not worked very effectively: Vinyl lettering on my van window showcasing my company and contact information. I've had a few calls from people who saw my van, and it's not very expensive to do. But it hasn't been super productive for clients.

Yellow page advertisment. It's a bit more expensive to do, but will pay for itself with one or two clients. It's not a total failure. I had a local television company contact me for a blurb about birth on one of their shows and they had found me via the yellow pages. But I get a lot of 'drive by's' with few actual bookings.

Putting up posters around town. People don't really stop and read much on those bulletin boards jam packed with flyers.

Heather McCue

Victoria, B.C., Canada

The best publicity and marketing tool I have is being a member of the Colorado Doulas Association. 100% of my doula business has come as a result of either a fellow doula's recommendation or by my listing at Coloradodoulas.com.

Kris Bagiu

Littleton, CO

Make sure search engines know about your web site

The best tool that has worked for me has been to write a letter to the attending doctor or midwife after each birth telling them that I enjoyed working with them. I give two specific things I appreciated about their care of my client (even if everything they did/said was not helpful.) I enclose a small stack of business cards. This helps solidify my name and face with the local medical community. What better way to get clients than be referred by their care provider.

Creating a practice with another doula has been very helpful for back-up and networking.

Call childbirth educators and offer to give a brief talk on doula care, then leave brochures or cards for people.

My local doula group has a phone line for pregnant women to get a list of local doulas. This includes name, number, and short bio of each doula. We include both birth and postpartum services. The woman can schedule a free interview. Each member pays dues to have their name on the list to off-set the costs of phone-line and printing.

At local festivals, we hand out free copies of Mothering magazine, literature on the benefits of continuous labor support, samples of Luna bars, Lansinoh or whatever. It helps to have a 3-D visual, like a pelvic model/baby or your massage tools to catch people's interest.

Bess Day

Eugene, Oregon 

I have worked with the following resources to help build business: donated services to the Public Television Channel, advertised in my Parish Newsletter, follow up with Mother's day and first birthday cards.

Mary Baszuk-Wrobbel

North Royalton, Ohio