Instagram Isn’t Necessary—But Marketing Is
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Transcript
Unknown speaker 00:04
Welcome to Dula Tips and Tits, the podcast where we cut through the noise and get real about what it takes to build a sustainable doula business. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been a doula informally for 14 years and full time for seven.
Unknown speaker 00:20
Around here, we don't sugarcoat stuff. We talk autonomy, owning your worth, creating a business that works for you. No fluff, no burnout, just the honest truth on how to be your own best boss. Let's get into today's episode.
Unknown speaker 00:35
Welcome back to Dula Tips and Tits. Today we're talking about marketing. Marketing is something that I think gets like a pretty unsexy vibe with doulas in part because we are sort of the opposite personality for the most part from salespeople.
Unknown speaker 00:55
We think about the sleazy car salesman sort of situation and they're trying to get you to buy something that seems like a great deal, but isn't a great deal. That whole vibe is not what we want to be doing.
Unknown speaker 01:09
In a lot of ways, it feels like we need to have things like social media in order to do that marketing, but the reality is it honestly depends a ton on who your people are and where your clients are coming from and that is a big factor when you're thinking about how much time and effort you need to put into marketing.
Unknown speaker 01:30
Let's say, that's not true, into marketing on social media, let me be clear. Because let's say that you get all of your clients from word of mouth or you teach childbirth ed classes and every class you have someone who wants to hire you, right?
Unknown speaker 01:45
Those are things that don't need social media to grow. But if those people then go and look at your social media, your social media might actually help to kind of establish who you are and give them a vibe of how you work.
Unknown speaker 02:00
things like that. So social media is not a bad thing to do. That is not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if you don't currently have an online offer, like you don't have a self-paced class, you don't have you know like a more sustainable like scalable kind of online offer, social media is not what your marketing effort needs mostly right now, right?
Unknown speaker 02:25
And I think part of where we get caught up as doulas kind of patching this together on our own is we think like okay marketing, okay visibility, okay going viral, okay and I remember a post a while back by doula Darcy where it was like a joke reel that was like how to go viral as a doula and then it said you shouldn't go viral you don't have enough time to to like serve all those clients, right?
Unknown speaker 02:55
Like unless you have online offers you don't need to go viral, that would be crazy, right? Like you can't handle that many people. And so when we're thinking about your marketing, I think your marketing, we kind of need to like take a step back from the outward facing stuff, right?
Unknown speaker 03:13
Like what does marketing really mean? It means being clear on what you offer, who you are. It means being consistent on those same two things, right? Being consistent on how you show up and what it looks like to work with you and what your prices are and what your contracts are and your policies and all of that.
Unknown speaker 03:32
And it also means connection, like actual human connection, whether that's with someone who could potentially refer clients to you, or it's with someone who is a client themselves, right? Like in, there's two, I have two big client sources.
Unknown speaker 03:51
One is my classes, my childbirth education classes. So I teach at a hospital in the area, I'm on staff there. And then I teach at the breastfeeding center here in DC. And then I have my own online class.
Unknown speaker 04:04
Now at the moment, my own online class is almost all my doula clients. So it's not something that I have scaled to like a national level at the moment. I am working on that, but it is a slow role. But the classes that I teach outside of my own, so the breastfeeding center and the hospital, I get someone who's interested in hiring me every time I teach.
Unknown speaker 04:31
So I get paid to teach the class, right? And also I get a client out of it almost every class. So that's a very consistent source of clients. That means that in those classes, I want to be very authentic about who I am and how I show up because I'm potentially helping people see if I am or am not a good fit with them, right?
Unknown speaker 04:55
I also want to make connection so I can tell. I'm a good fit for someone, and if someone's a good fit for me, so I can also weed people out. My other source of a lot of clients is direct referrals. Now, I have folks that are, of course, like friends of clients and whatnot, but that referral source is not as plentiful as a couple providers who really, really like me.
Unknown speaker 05:21
Like, there's a midwife who really adores me and refers me to people. There's an OB who, man, she tells all of her patients who want a doula about me, and I'm so flattered by it because I also really enjoy her.
Unknown speaker 05:36
But she is a professional referral, right? She decided she liked me working two births together. We did a birth together, and she was like, you're fantastic. What is your company? And I've had people ask me that before, But I don't usually have them be like, oh, and then I sent you a bunch of patients.
Unknown speaker 05:52
But she actually sends me a lot of people, like that is one of my big sources of referrals. So the connection there is either with the families who could potentially hire me, or with the providers who could refer their patients, right?
Unknown speaker 06:11
The other kind of connection I have in my business is with you, with the doulas, right? So I go to like an event where other doulas are present. I'm mostly connecting with the birth professionals. I'm connecting with the birth workers, the doulas, right?
Unknown speaker 06:27
Like that is my main goal because I'm like, I want to build connection and rapport with the people who are my ideal client. And that is both families and doulas, right? So then my message needs to be clear to the doulas that I'm trying to market to, and then I'm trying to build authentic connection with.
Unknown speaker 06:51
And also I need to have a separate clear marketing message for the families. So for me in my business, I have two different streams of clients. I have two different streams of marketing. I have two different marketing messages, right?
Unknown speaker 07:06
Depending on who I'm talking to and what the content is intended to do in terms of sales, I have to change how I'm talking and what I'm talking about. Because that's how my business functions, right?
Unknown speaker 07:21
That's not true for you if you don't have multiple sources of clients or multiple genres, let's say, right? So you don't have professional people and also clients like pregnant folks and whatnot. But I think that it is oftentimes the case that we're sort of talking to everybody rather than talking to our ideal clients.
Unknown speaker 07:44
I will tell you, if you have not noticed already, I'm a little bit corny. little bit ridiculous jokes. I, I tell jokes like that in class too. I intentionally tell jokes like that in class so that people can self-identify as a good fit for me.
Unknown speaker 08:01
Like the people who laugh at my jokes in class, those are my ideal clients. The people who find me mildly annoying, not my ideal clients. So I want it to be really clear for both them and for me, which of those sides they're on, right?
Unknown speaker 08:16
Now, when I think about connection and clarity, I need you to self-identify what you need to work on, right? Like it, I don't know you enough and know your business enough to be able to say, okay, you need to go home and work on your consistency.
Unknown speaker 08:32
You need to work on your connection with people. You need to work on your Instagram presence. You need to work on your website strategy. No, I don't know because I don't know your business in and out, right?
Unknown speaker 08:42
But if I do get to know your business in and out, I can help you figure out what is the thing you need to focus on. is your focus primarily nurturing the people that you're interacting with? If you already have like classes of students, then you need to nurture the heck out of those students and make sure that they're aware of all the other services that you offer, right?
Unknown speaker 09:05
If you don't yet have students but you want to have students, then you need to refer people to your classes. Like you need to market your classes like they exist because they do, right? When we have like an option of private childbirth education, for instance, oftentimes we don't really talk about it until someone buys it because it doesn't feel real to us.
Unknown speaker 09:29
But you have to put it out there like it's real, right? And so when we think about marketing, it is all of those things, right? Like it is having clarity on your offers and who you're talking to. It is having consistency in how you're showing up and what that looks like.
Unknown speaker 09:46
And then it is connection. Connection with the right people, connection in the right way, connection that is authentic so that people can self identify as your ideal client or not, right? That means social media should clearly articulate those three things.
Unknown speaker 10:04
It should show who you are, what you do and who you do it for. And if it's once a week, that's okay, right? If it is every day or even three days a week, amazing. You're killing it, right? But the most important thing even more than timing is the consistency, right?
Unknown speaker 10:27
Is the messaging there the same or are you sending mixed signals to people? Because that is what is going to build rapport and connection. That is what's going to ultimately pull in clients. If they go in there like, oh, I see you're a doula, but I actually don't know anything else about you.
Unknown speaker 10:46
I don't know how you operate. I don't know what you believe in. I don't know what you think about stuff. I don't know what kind of doula you are, then they can't even get a sense of whether you are the right person for them or not.
Unknown speaker 10:57
And that's not helpful for either of you, okay? So I want you to take some time to think about what part of this your business needs most. Are you lacking connection? Are you lacking clarity? Are you lacking consistency?
Unknown speaker 11:12
And then hit me up on Instagram at haraadoula and let me know which of the things you're gonna start working on so that I can kind of encourage you and affirm you and cheer the heck out of you as you do that thing.
Unknown speaker 11:25
And then actually do it, like decide the thing that makes sense for you and then do the thing. Because that is often the thing that gets in our way is just ourselves, like just our actual lack of action, all right?
Unknown speaker 11:38
Okay, I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula tips and tits podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at hara doula so we can celebrate alongside you.
Unknown speaker 11:57
If you found this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app that helps other doulas find us as we do this work together. This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment.
Unknown speaker 12:13
It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business. We'll see you again soon.
ASK A QUESTION!!! My plan is to start Friday Q&A (we need a new name, I know!) but first I need your questions! Submit them using the form below:
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You became a doula to support families—not to create reels. But visibility still matters. In this episode, I’m breaking down what real, sustainable marketing looks like and how to build trust *without* burning out on Instagram.
Quote from the show:
“Today we're talking about marketing. Marketing is something that I think gets like a pretty unsexy vibe with doulas in part because we are sort of the opposite personality for the most part from salespeople. We think about the sleazy car salesman sort of situation and they're trying to get you to buy something that seems like a great deal, but isn't a great deal. That whole vibe is not what we want to be doing. In a lot of ways, it feels like we need to have things like social media in order to do that marketing, but the reality is it honestly depends a ton on who your people are and where your clients are coming from and that is a big factor when you're thinking about how much time and effort you need to put into marketing.”
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach
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If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula
Doula Tips and Tits is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Doula Biz Blueprint Self-Paced Class for Doulas Launching Successful and Sustainable Businesses!
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
