Many birthing professionals starting out as a doula or a childbirth educator buy their business cards, set up an email and tell all their contacts they're going into business. But these new birthing professionals are missing a huge marketing tool—a website!
Currently, many expectant couples start their search for a doula, childbirth educator or lactation professional on the internet. They go to Google. Then they type in their city and the type of birthing professional they’re looking for. If you’ve set up your website correctly, they’ll find your website and contact you quickly and easily. If you don’t have a website, they’ll find another birthing professional who has a website.
But let’s say a couple heard of you through word of mouth or actually have one of your business cards in hand. Where are they going to go? Probably not go to the phone, but to their computer. They’ll Google you to see what comes up. Hopefully, your website comes up and they’ll get to learn about your services. If it doesn’t or you don’t have one, they’ll forget about you and move on to another birthing professional.
While it can seem intimidating to start a website, there are many organizations and other websites to help you out. Even TheOnlyBabyStop can help you with website design and website evaluations (click here for more info!). You could also go to Go Daddy, Yahoo, VistaPrint, WebStarts, and Weebly to name only a few businesses that can help you set up a website for free or a small charge. In fact, you should be able to set up a competitive website in only a few hours.
Keep it Simple. You want your website to have your contact information, your services, your background and maybe some testimonials. While Flash, video and music can be pretty, these often end up slowing down servers and/or annoying expectant parents which means they may move on to a different website.
Learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Good SEO is what helps you come up in Google and other search engines. This is a good article about it.
Watch copyrights. If you’re borrowing pictures or articles off other websites, get written permission first or you could end up on the opposite end of a lawsuit.
Choosing a Good Profile Picture for a Listing or Website