Whether you’re a lawyer that specializes in adoption, an adoption agency, an adoption facilitator, or a counselor specializing in adoption, your business can always benefit from a little growth. Check out the following tips to know where and how you can improve your adoption business for you and your clients.
1. Social Media Presence
Do you have a social media presence? Is it maybe a little lack-luster? Is it producing the results that you want? Social media can be a bit of a mystery, but you don’t have to let it be.
Why use social media?
If you’re not on social media here’s your wake-up call. Everyone and their dog (literally people’s dogs) are on social media. That goes for businesses, too. Social media is quickly becoming where people go for information. Curious about using a business? A quick Facebook search can show reviews, information, promotions, and more. You can learn so much information about a business based on how they manage their social media pages.
What social media should I be using?
It’s a myth that you need to have an account on every type of social media. Instead you should utilize one or two and be serious in building them up. What kind of profession you’re in, what kind of information you have to share, and who your audience is will help you determine what social media platform you should be using.
For example, Facebook tends to have people ages 18-49 hanging out on it’s platform, while Instagram’s users are typically under 35. So who are you trying to reach? What kind of information will your perfect clients be looking for? How can you best share the information and services that you have?
Is it worth the effort?
YES! It is absolutely worth having and running your own social media. Will it be easy? The short answer is no. Growing a social media presence will not be an overnight success. But a successful social media presence can be done. The two things you need to do when you want a successful social media presence are to be be consistent and share good, useful content.
And if this is overwhelming, don’t be shy about taking a course on social media or hiring out someone to manage it. You won’t regret it.
2. Online Advertising
Speaking of having an online presence, you need to be advertising online. As the previous tip mentioned, people use the internet for almost everything these days, so why shouldn’t you be there too?
Look into advertising on Facebook and Google Ads. If possible, you can create a short video advertisement for YouTube. But you should also consider your audience. Where are they visiting? It’s possible that they are visiting the most used adoption site on the web (or even the one you’re on now!).
Don’t be shy about reaching out to specific websites, like Adoption.com which averages half a million monthly visitors, and asking about their advertising opportunities.
You may also want to consider reaching out to popular social media platforms to see if they would be interested in promoting some of your products or services (Adoption.com has over 400,000 social media followers on their platforms). The important thing to remember is to partner with businesses that have the same audience as you. If you’re an adoption lawyer, it makes sense to partner with a home study professional, but makes less sense if you partner with a dentist.
You can set the budget for your advertising and find the right type of advertising for your budget and your business. Advertising can help you grow your clientele and grow the opportunities that you can offer your clients.
You may also wish to advertise in a directory of adoption professionals. When someone searches for a professional in your state, your business will come up. This can be a highly effective and affordable means of advertising. You can learn more about listing in a directory by the most popular adoption website here.
Not sure what to put in your ads? No worries! Some companies will be able to create custom ads for you, and of course, they’ll be professionally made.
Advertising is part of owning a business. It may seem intimidating, but with a little research and the right help, you can create effective ad campaigns that will evolve your company.
3. Sharing Success Stories And Reviews
If you still have a business, you have found some success, so why not share those with the world? It’s not gloating, it’s actually making your company seem more credible.
Sharing success stories or positive reviews can be an effective way to show people that you’re trustworthy and able to get the job the done. It may seem anecdotal, but potential clients love to see others, just like them, get what they were looking for by working with your business.
You can create videos and share them on your social media. It’s also advisable that you collect reviews from people and have a whole page dedicated for positive feedback from your clients. You never know if reading the perfect review will be the tipping point for a client to work with you.
If you’re an adoption lawyer, agency, counselor, or facilitator, talk to your clients and don’t be shy about asking them to say a few nice things about your business. If you’ve done a job well, chances are they’ll be more than happy to let others know (especially since their review may be the thing that helps another client get the help they need to build their family).
On the other hand, it’s important to recognize that if you receive a bad review on sites like Yelp or the Better Business Bureau, you have to address them. Well, you don’t have to, but you have a significantly better time of redemption, whatever the issue is. Use those negative reviews or feedback to prove that whatever that individual’s experience was is not the norm. Demonstrating what you’ll do to help the troubled customer be satisfied again will help show that even though human error happens, you’re ready to do whatever you can to set it right.
4. Get Published
Did you know that getting published can actually help bring clients to you? It’s true! You see, when you share a little free information, prove yourself to be credible, and let people know who you are, people will likely seek you out.
Some sites offer you the opportunity to publish some of your work. And if you publish on an organically high-ranking site like Adoption.com, you’ll see a bigger impact because that audience will naturally be larger.
The other way to help promote your published work is write something incredibly useful. It’s likely you have great ideas for content, you just don’t know it yet.
When you’re writing articles, most audiences love “How To” articles and numbered list (like this article, for example). Think of the top questions clients ask you; if you wrote an article addressing those questions, you could have it ready for your clients for when they ask and then use it to draw in more clients by showing what kind of qualities and information you can offer.
And don’t forget content doesn’t just mean writing. If you have a useful video, infographic, meme, or something else, you may still be able to get it published. Having a variety of informative content is what makes a website great!
5. Connect With Other Professionals
People always talk about how you have to network to find a job, but what about networking to improve your job? Meeting with other professionals in your field may be just the thing to bolster your business.
Consider partnering up with other adoption professionals to provide more services. Maybe you partner with a home study professional as a private adoption attorney. Both of you will be able to draw in more clients and help refer each other. If you’re an adoption agency, partnering with Adoption.com Parent Profiles will enhance your client’s experience and marketing while working with you.
The key is to know what service you’re missing that could improve your business. If you’re a one-man show, that’s okay, but building a repertoire of referrals can help you get more clients and help more people. Of course, finding the right professionals to partner with can be challenge if you don’t know where to look. You may consider reaching out here for fellow adoption professionals.
Be sure to discuss expectations about your partnership. Will you be the only professional in your field that your fellow adoption professional refers clients to, or will there be others? What kind of clients does this adoption professional work with? Are they the right clients for you? What kind of services can you both offer to your clients? Discussing these things ahead of time can keep you both out of conflict and let you focus on performing well at what you do.
6. Offer Incredible Marketing Opportunities For Your Clients
Have you thought about partnering with businesses because of an incredible service they offer? Also, have you heard of Parent Profiles? If you’re in the business of helping families match and adopt, then you might want to look into what Parent Profiles can offer your clients.
Parent Profiles is part of the number one adoption site. If you’re looking for a program that will help your clients market themselves to potential birth parents, being apart of Parent Profiles is a necessity. Parent Profiles also allows for complete customization of each family’s profile. A family can add videos, favorites, photos, Dear Expectant Parent letter, references, endorsements, and blog posts. Each of these things enhances a family’s ability to stand out from the crowd and match with the right potential birth parent.
Did we mention we can also help with marketing their profile? Parent Profiles has a team that will create custom ads for a family. We also have skilled a skilled social media team that can set up ad campaigns to further their reach even more. The best part is that you don’t have to worry about providing these services for your clients, but you can be assured that they will be treated well and get the help they are seeking.
You may also wish to refer your clients to some of these resources:
5 Tips For Making Your Adoption Profile Stand Out
6 Tips On How To Get Your Adoption Profile Seen By Expectant Parents
Tips for Creating a Successful Adoption Profile
5 Inappropriate Times and Places to Post Your Adoption Profile
5 Adoption Profile Do’s and Don’ts
7. Be Educated On Latest In Adoption Education And Laws
Staying current on the latest adoption news and information can help you stay ahead of the game and prepare your adoption business for what’s ahead. Staying current with the adoption news doesn’t have to be hard either. You can check back here every day for the latest adoption news.
You may also want to invest some time in brushing up on the latest adoption movements. When you’re involved in a culture that’s changing and evolving, it’s important to educate yourself. You may want to use the following resources to brush up or address any issues that could be shedding a bad light on your business:
12 Ethical Pitfalls Adoption Professionals Should Avoid
Positive Adoption Language Guide
6 Qualities to Look for in an Adoption Professional
For Adoption Professionals Group
8. Build up Your Social Credibility
When you’re trying to break into the online world, the best thing you can do for yourself is start building your online credibility. That means showing people online that your business has good reputation, is proven to be helpful, and offers the answers or help your audience is looking for.
Much of your credibility can be built online. You should be doing a good amount of content creation, updating your website, and talking to your audience. Here are a couple ways to do that.
Create A Facebook Page
It’s free and easy to do. You can read here about creating a Facebook page. Then you should consider adding daily content. A couple times a day is a good idea to keep you in the thoughts of your clientele without being obnoxious. You can create easy, shareable memes (more on that later), share your blog posts, share success stories, answer questions, and more. The purpose of a Facebook page is to be where your audience is and give the information they might coming looking for.
Create Memes
Memes are shareable, adorable images that also combine text. You’ve seen them around and probably shared a few on your personal Facebook. Memes can be shared on any platform. They can also be created using free services like this one or this one. You can snag some stick images, pull a quote from some of your work, and combine them to create a cute shareable meme. Your meme should relate directly to your audience because that’s the only way they’re going to share it.
Start A Blog
Starting a blog is easier than you think. This can even be added to supplement your current website. Or you can use a paid or free service to get started. Starting a blog is a way to connect with your audience and keep them updated on the latest information. It can also help your work or website to look current and updated.You can have some posts on what you’re researching, common questions from clients, ways your clients can help themselves, and more.
Create Helpful Videos
Videos don’t have to be complicated. If you have a webcam on your computer, you’ve already got a step up. You can create mini-scripts that answer your clients questions. Videos shouldn’t just be talking heads so don’t be shy about sharing a slideshow presentation or having some active shots about whatever you’re talking about. Upload them to Youtube and share them on your other social media.
Be Involved With Your Audience
When you’re using online platforms, be social media or otherwise, it’s important to respond to your clients. Sometimes it’s easy to just forget about them because these are people that are not right in front of your face. But that would be mistake. Get in there and talk to the people responding to your posts. They could be future clients!
9. Watch Those Numbers
When you’re trying to improve your business, it is of the utmost importance to keep track of your statistics. If you’re not using Google Analytics, you need to be; they even have a free and premium option available.
These numbers are important to watch because you can implement strategies and actually see if they are working based on the numbers. It will take a little while to get used to the kind of stats you see online, but the benefits that will come from keeping track will be priceless.
You may wish to start your own spreadsheet and fill it with your numbers to refer to over time.
Then, anytime you want to implement a new strategy, you can keep an eye on the numbers and re strategize as necessary. You’ll never be going in completely blind when you pay attention to the numbers.
To see a directory of professionals in your area, check out AdoptionDirectory.com.