50 Ways to Market your Midwife Business

Marketing is Essential for Branding and Success of your Practice. 

Midwives offer expertise in normal birth. Physicians, like Family Practice doctors and Obstetricians, get training in medical management of birth. They are great at caring for sick women, but midwives give high quality, family focused care. Birth is a normal process, make your marketing revolve around that!

Here is an extended list of marketing examples to get your business going or bring it to the next level of branding:

1 . Facebook

You can post or pay for ads to bring people to your website. Getting involved in closed groups and commenting on conversations will help create your brand and expertise in the midwifery community.

2. Twitter

I am not as familiar with this option, but similar marketing tactics as Facebook.

3. LinkedIn

A professional online networking community allows you to connect with other businesses and people of like-minded goals

4. Website

Getting Google search engines to find you is a complex algorithm with different levels of exposure. Making a website with valid content that highlights your skills and services allows people to find you.

5. Community business network groups

Networking and referring people to each other’s businesses only creates a stronger business community in your area. Brag about your knowledge and available services.

6. Business cards

Always carry your business card to pass out at family get-togethers, doctor appointments for kids, stopping at to bank to deposit checks, or running errands at the grocery store. You never know when your contact information on a professional-looking card will be warranted.

5. Radio ads

Focusing on your target market, like podcasts about home births, midwives, natural parenting, or controversial topics like vaccinations, will get your awareness out there.

6. Mail Chimp

Automated marketing platform and email marketing service

7. Newsletter

creating your own articles and sponsorship collaborations with other businesses to educate the community is vital

8. Health Fair

Attending expos and exhibits to network and put a table for consumers to learn about your services can do wonders in the short and long-term

9. Giveaways

Free births or tubs to use for water births get everyone talking. People love free and will spread the word about your business for you.

10. Hand Sanitizer Container

Having a goody to disperse that has your logo and promotes clean hygiene is always a great way to brand your name

11. Billboards

Having a large sign next to a highway where millions of people see your logo and business name can make your customer list grow by leaps and bounds.

12. Warm Market

Friends and family already trust you and want to see you succeed. Let them be your cheerleaders for the community. At family get-togethers, brag about your services and what you are working on to promote women’s health care.

13. Roadside signs

It is a cheap and very effective way to put your message in almost any yard. Have your past patients, friends, family, and collaborating businesses place a yard sale-type sign with your logo, message, and contact information.

14. Open houses

A beautiful facility like an office or birth center should be shown off to the community. Have a “Meet the Midwife and Muffins” night to informally open your doors to the public for a tour that will get you lots of clients. Women want a bed they can see for birth, compared to a hospital bed. Tours show what the homelike environment is really all about.

15. Postcards

Vistaprint has amazing business marketing tools at affordable prices. I am on their email list and I get coupon codes sent to me a couple of times a month. Take advantage of mailing out postcards with your current service promotion. You can purchase mailing lists, pay Vistaprint to mail out the cards to a specific population, or Google search business addresses you would like to directly connect with.

16. Mailing campaigns

Hiring a marketing company to send out massive flyers or postcards is a great branding technique in the beginning, or if you want to branch out into new services. You can focus on specific populations, income types, educational backgrounds, zip codes, and so much more.

17. Mom Groups

Getting connected with a homeschool group in the area, a mom-to-mom garage sale Facebook group, or local support groups for working mothers can really create a trusting, personalized connection to your market.

18. College class presentation

Going to local colleges and talking with nursing students about midwifery, business students about running their own business, and health professionals with degrees in maternity history in the United States always gets your business promoted. You will also inform the next generation of consumers about the normal birth options available.

19. In-Network Insurance Status

Many people will see a positive pregnancy test and instantly search for a care provider. She may call her friends, mother, or primary care provider for suggestions. With rising healthcare costs, increasing numbers of women are calling their insurance companies to find out who is in a network in their area. Especially if they want a midwife, I was the only choice with insurance plans in our area to choose from. That made the decision pretty easy when they knew midwifery was caring for them, and they wanted their insurance plan to cover it!

20. Radio Talks

I was invited to a chiropractor’s podcast and interviewed for over an hour about the politics behind birth in the United States, hot topics like circumcision, medical management vs physiological birth, water births, and so much more. It was a great way to get my expertise out into the community, and patients using a chiropractor were already one step closer to picking an alternative care provider for birth.

21. Networking

My favorite professions to connect with to learn about each other’s businesses were chiropractors, naturopaths, privately run primary care offices, doulas, childbirth educators, lactation consultants, and schools. Pick places where consumers already fit the midwifery philosophy of care.

22. Parades

I would walk with my team in community parades during the 4th of July, seasonal traditional events, or any celebration the area was having. Handing out candy to kids while handing parents a brochure got exposure to thousands of people. Your smiling face during a positive event really sets the stage for success!

23. Flyers

Creating large posters to place at schools and supportive business offices, like chiropractors, doctor clinics, and yoga studios, really provided repetitive exposure for families to see.

24. YouTube Videos

Make 3-5 minute videos educating about midwifery, touring birth centers, testimonials, tips, and suggestions for discomforts of labor and pregnancy, and demystifying what a midwife brings to a home birth. These are all great topics to get your expertise out onto consumer computer screens when browsing.

25. T-shirts:

This is one of my favorite options. Staff can be given them at orientation, patients can be given one after delivery while really on a high from your services, and they can be sold at your boutique shop for additional revenue. T-shirts are walking billboards. My husband almost always wears a shirt supporting midwifery. He gets lots of comments and people stopping him from learning more, especially being a man!

26. Pay per clicks

Google, Facebook, YouTube, and so many more have options to pay for your ad to be put on top of search pages or to pop up as an ad during videos that potential customers are watching.

27. Testimonials: 

Personalized comments that families leave about your amazing practice are vital. Potential consumers wanted to hear it repeated from established patients: This midwife is amazing; pick her!

28. Blogs

Talk about anything. The passion and knowledge I have about midwifery topics make me aware of what my practice’s mission is all about. Your blog can be informational, inspirational, or interactive to get families engaged. Blog posts can be shared and can spread information about your business quite quickly.

29. Pens

Everyone uses pens. They can last for years and will continue to get your name out there. Make sure you spend the extra money and get pens that don’t partially wear your message as people use them. The last thing you want is to be half-present and look sloppy. People will get a subconscious image of your business being that way, too.

30. Referrals

Treat others as you want to be treated. Good care is worth its weight in gold. Women will not stop talking about their amazing experiences at your clinic to friends and family. Quality care trumps cost factors any day of the week!

31. Brochures

Place details of your services and brand in a well-designed pamphlet to place in educational packets for patients, hand out to family and friends and provide to other businesses to set out for other people to grab.

32. Onesies

Babies get tons of pictures in the beginning. Having a new shirt from a birth center stating, “born at [birth center]” with your logo will be seen by anyone looking at this adorable, new baby face.

33. Accredited Organizations listing you on their website

The American College of Nurse-Midwives has a website that lists midwifery practices all over the United States. The American Association of Birth Centers also has a similar registry. Local midwifery chapters, like “The Michigan Midwives Association,” have their own website with practices listed for consumers to easily view with a click of a button.

34. Doulas Services

Midwives and doulas are sister professions. We both support women during labor but in different aspects. Becoming friends with your local doulas will greatly increase your professional referrals. If a woman chooses a doula, she has already decided she needs additional support during labor.

35. Calendars

Life is busy, and if a family can have a helpful resource on their fridge to organize the hectic weekly tasks that have your name and logo on it, all the better. Repeated exposure from a colorful calendar gets your brand into everyone’s home.

36. TV Ads: 

I spent a minimal amount of money to get on PBS Station to have my ad play for 30 seconds during the show “Call the Midwife.” How perfect was it for consumers to be interested in this historical show about midwives, just to find out that a local practice offering those unique services was right next door?

37. Car Magnets

It is amazing the comments you can get waiting at a stoplight in the summertime. I love fresh air and rarely use the air conditioner. With your window down and a midwife sign on your car door, I had a phenomenal response of people telling me their birth stories with the use of a midwife. Some people would honk in support and smile as I went by.

38. Certifications

Having professional certifications or practicing national licensures really branded professionalism, security in a less usual choice for birth, and awareness of what skills were present in a midwife’s practice. Getting Neonatal Resuscitation Certification or Birth Center Accreditation only strengthens the public’s confidence in you!

39. Magnets

Business card magnets with your contact information were great to hand out at the first prenatal visit. Stressed-out dads during labor had a concrete number to call that had been listed on the fridge for nine months. Anyone who came over to the house saw your business name on the fridge.

40. Classes offered at the clinic or birth center

Having free educational events, childbirth classes, support groups, or tours of the practice creates consistent exposure that people in the community can rely on to learn more. Current patients could bring families to these classes to help get support for choosing your clinic and get other women interested in your services.

41. Sign outside of the office

When people drive by your clinic, it is a free billboard that can show your presence in the community. Birth centers have a huge advantage over home birth practices. There is a building attached to their midwifery entity that all the world can see, versus a car doing home visits.

42. Award bragging

Midwifery Matters, the only CNM birth center in Michigan at the time, was given some prestigious awards from the ACNM (American College of Nurse-Midwives). We submit our birth statistics annually to this national organization. There were awards for good outcomes, high breastfeeding rates, a low number of postpartum hemorrhages, and some other important markers with birth statistics. Our practice won almost every recognition possible. We were ranked with some large, national midwifery practices and really stood out for years to come with our brand. It was used to help promote legislative change for birth centers and midwives in Michigan, promote the safety of our practice to skeptical community members, and help negotiate contracts with insurance companies.

43. Stress balls

Women during labor want something to squeeze, whether it is her husband’s hand or a squishy ball. Why not put your name on that useful tool so mothers can take it home as a sweet keepsake from their birth experience?

44. Conferences or educational events

whether your practice hosts this event for others to attend or you network at local community events. Like-minded individuals will be more likely to use your services and refer others to what is being created in the area.

45. Branding

Wherever you go, talk about your business. Be passionate, and the message will always shine through. This is your baby, and everyone should know about your services!

46. Henna art

Host a free event where pregnant women can have gorgeous artwork placed on their bellies, hands, and feet. You can choose to have your logo incorporated into the design or give unique henna art that women will brag about for weeks before it fades. It is always a great conversation piece.

47. Waiting room slideshow

Having a TV running your tips, fun facts, staff bios, and lists of available services is a great way to advertise. Pregnant women repeatedly come into your office for care and will learn something new you offer each time they are waiting to hear their baby’s heartbeat again. Why not have them learn that you offer women care after a baby is born?

48. Photography

Having families provide you with candid first moments of family together after the baby is born in the water can be priceless for advertising. These local families really had the ecstatic births that many dream of. Let your family’s tears of joy and smiling faces brag about your midwifery practice. Place the pictures throughout the clinic, on Facebook posts, newsletters, and email subscriptions.

49. Donate to charities

Giving back helps the less fortunate, creates great tax deductions for your business, and gets your name out there as a positive image in the community. Staff going green and picking up trash on Earth Day should be promoted on blogs, posts, and practice walls.

50. Precepting student

If your practice can support a student and still give amazing care, consider the benefits. You will expose students (especially nursing students) to a world many are very unfamiliar with. Changing the next generation to birth requires exposure to other options for obstetric clinical care than large-scale hospital birth assembly lines.

This is just a sample list of possible marketing tools and techniques available. Be creative, and anything is possible in promoting your business. No matter the budget, awareness can be raised. Many things on this list take time, while others require more resources, like finances. Some ideas will work better than others, depending on the end goal for your practice. Repetition in some form of marketing will really determine how quickly your success is accomplished!

Check out our course, and let’s grow your business! https://midwiferybusinessconsultation.teachable.com/p/marketing-your-midwifery-practice