Between fierce competition from abortion clinics, and the rise of Telehealth and online abortion pill shopping, how can you reach abortion-minded woman first and get them to come in? While the landscape has become more and more challenging, an excellent and seamless marketing strategy still holds the key to driving client foot traffic. Ensuring you have a compelling messaging strategy, online visibility, ideal service offerings, and a quality client experience will improve your foot traffic and enable you to serve even more women in your community.
ELEMENTS OF A SEAMLESS STRATEGY TO GET THE ABORTION-MINDED WOMAN THROUGH THE DOOR
1. A Compelling Message That Will Reach The Abortion-Minded Woman
Effective marketing begins with a compelling message or story. You do have an edge on the competition—though they will never admit it. You care about your clients and will never profit from their decisions. As a non-profit organization, you provide free and confidential services, and this will always lie at the heart of your messaging.
In addition to these services, you must appeal to what the client really needs. Though you might have listening ears and caring hearts, the client really wants to know you have medical professionals on staff, solutions to her situation, same-day appointments available, and hours that fit her busy work schedule. You can still let your personality shine through the duration of the appointment or when building your image on social media, but to drive foot traffic, you must answer the client’s immediate needs.
Messaging to Attract The Abortion-Minded Woman Vs. Happy-to-Carry
In addition to your general messaging about your service offerings, always reflect on your current client demographics. Are you mainly attracting abortion-minded or happy-to-carry women? While it’s impossible to exclude one group completely, this can be an indicator of the effectiveness of your messaging strategy.
If you find you’re mainly attracting happy-to carry women, reflect on these questions:
- Is your center’s name overtly pro-life?
- Does your logo picture a pregnant woman or baby?
- Do you emphasize material assistance or parenting classes in your marketing?
- Do you feature pregnant women and babies in your marketing at all?
- Do you avoid content or information regarding abortion?
- Do you show images of diapers or other items on social media?
If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, you could be attracting more happy-to-carry than abortion-minded women. If this applies to you, we’d advise you to have a discussion about your messaging strategy with your board members and team. Happy-to-carry women need help too, but they typically will find you as they seek the resources they need to continue with their pregnancy. If your true mission lies in reaching the abortion-minded woman, then changes could be necessary to reach them.
2. Message Placement
We always recommend centers have all their bases covered. This means you have a comprehensive marketing strategy with a user- friendly and professional website, search engine optimization, an eye-catching logo, recent positive reviews, social media, a blog, and the list goes on. You never know where your target will find you or learn about you, so you want to cast a wide net and make sure you show your professionalism and branding in each area.
Though every aspect of your marketing works together, your most concentrated and aggressive approach to drive foot traffic should focus on the abortion-minded woman’s search for solutions. We know from research that Gen Z is a self-reliant and independent generation, growing up in an age of technology and the internet. Their first gut reaction to thinking they could be pregnant, will be looking up information on their phones. Therefore, you need to have a strong online presence and constantly look to improve your website’s page ranking on search results pages. Having a high page rank will not only make your center easier to find, but also give your center more credibility and establish trust right off the bat.
3. Service Offerings
Do you have what your target client needs? Are your hours flexible, do you have same-day appointments, and do you have medical staff? These are the questions your center must grapple with, especially if your competitors outperform you in this area. If you have the ability, begin by assessing your hours to determine if they need to be expanded. Are you open outside of school hours, consistently with similar hours to your local abortion clinic and/or for clients who need to schedule evening appointments? Also, consider adding services to your arsenal like STD testing and treatment, pre-abortion consultations, or even Telehealth.
Telehealth Trend
With the pandemic, many abortion clinics began offering Telehealth, which appealed to many not wanting to leave home, but due to the convenience, these services are now here to stay. With competitors being able to reach your potential clients at their homes, you should consider doing the same. Simply offering a short consultation with a nurse to discuss the client’s unique situation and symptoms can build trust. Your goal at the end of this call would be to schedule them for an in-person appointment for pregnancy testing and an ultrasound. It’s a service worth investigating if you want to compete in this area.
4. Client Experience
No matter how technological our society becomes, the number one form of marketing will always be Word of Mouth. Therefore, once an abortion-minded woman walks through the door, the top priority should be delivering a quality and professional experience. This will lead to positive online reviews, and Word of Mouth advertising to friends and family. Building review credibility will lead to even more foot traffic, so promote positive reviews and quickly address negative reviews on an ongoing basis.
Here are a few tips for a positive client experience:
- Create a comfortable waiting room, and keep the wait short.
- Keep appointments at a set amount of time and ensure not to go over.
- Train volunteers and staff on the right language and responses to use with clients to prevent any offense or uncomfortable situations.
- Set expectations for the appointment with the client, and make sure to follow them to reduce any uncertainty she could feel.
If this is an area of improvement for your center, consider reevaluating your reviews as constructive criticism to better the experience. Don’t be afraid to speak with volunteers or employees constructively when you see potential issues, or need to address existing ones. Having positive Word of Mouth advertising will keep your mission healthy and thriving and naturally improve foot traffic.
Remember, each piece of your marketing strategy works together to drive foot traffic to your center. From your messaging strategy through your client experience, each piece should undergo evaluation and improvement on an ongoing basis. If you feel your center lacks in one of these areas, or if we can support your marketing efforts in any way, please reach out to Choose Life Marketing for a consultation. We help centers across the globe reach the abortion-minded woman in the most effective ways to empower women to overcome fear and choose life.
Contact Choose Life Marketing today to learn more about how we can help with your marketing strategies!
