14 Black Friday Offers for Your Doula Business
You may be thinking, “Wait, Doula businesses don’t typically participate in Black Friday.” Or, you may have seen the traditional 10% off sale during Black Friday with other birth businesses, right?
If you haven’t figured it out by now, welcome to Doulas Going Digital. We don’t do traditional around here. Let’s start with reframing the way that you think about the biggest shopping event of the year, and how it can be leveraged to grow your birth business.
Reframing Black Friday Shopping
I think we can agree that standing in line on Thanksgiving at 6pm when WalMart opens to get a $10 toaster is a terrible idea. No judgement if that’s your jam, but we’re not positioning our businesses as Walmart’s, am I right?
Here’s the thing - during the week following Thanksgiving, the customer mindset is on shopping and purchasing.
Look at your own habits. While you might not be standing in line for a bunch of unnecessary crap, you may still be participating. Be honest, do you have a list of wish list items (or services) that you’re waiting to buy until Black Friday? Yeah, me too.
So as a birth business owner, it makes sense to participate in the Black Friday shopping environment - even better if it’s not the usual 10% off company wide.
And remember, Black Friday is not just for products. It’s for birth and postpartum services, as well.
Participate Without Devaluing your Birth Business
What do I mean by devaluing? Think about companies that always have sales going on - so much that you’d never pay full price in that store. They’ve put stuff on sale SO often, that they devalue the items or services that they sell. You can probably think of several right now - I’m looking at you JC Penny’s. We don’t want that.
On the other side are companies that only offer discounts or sales 1-2 times per year. It’s a fun way to bring in new clients, while maintaining the value of their services. Creating a special Black Friday offer is a way to participate in the shopping season, without devaluing your important birth and postpartum services.
And to be clear, I’m not suggesting deep discounts on your 1:1 birth doula packages, postpartum support packages or your other high prices services. That would mean that you’re working HARD & A LOT for little money, and that doesn’t serve anyone.
Think Low-ish Cost & Here’s Why
The average consumer is looking for a high value & low cost item for Black Friday. Now, if most of your offers are birth or postpartum packages (higher price point), the only option is to go from 0 → 100 with you, with no stepping stones for potential customers.
Black Friday provides an opportunity for you to offer something at a lower price, to meet people where they’re at and take them on a journey with your business.
In feminine energy marketing speak, low priced offers help people rise. They might make a small, $10 or even $40 investment with you (masculine energy marketing calls this a tripwire), and then they’re more likely to purchase from you again.
Keep in mind that selling $10 offers might not generate huge $ for you right now, but that’s not the point. The point is to offer a stepping stone, so to speak, where potential clients can go one step further on the road to hiring you for birth, postpartum or virtual support.
Aim for Quick Wins
Another thing to consider is the delayed value aspect of traditional birth & postpartum services. Generally, people pay up front and might not experience your service until months later. This is not bad, it’s just how birth business works. Traditionally. But remember, we’re not traditional around here.
Providing a quick win may help to minimize buyer’s remorse. It’s something that your potential clients can use right away. And, they may end up working with you more after they’ve had this amazing experience with you.
On that note, make it digestible. Overwhelming people with too much at once might lead to analysis paralysis. To give it context, think about the Cheesecake Factory menu. It’s ginormous, and makes it SO difficult to make a decision. Less options, basic info, is more digestible. Again, stepping stone.
Okay, without further adieu here are:
14 Black Friday Offers for Your Doula Business
Birth plan support (private 30-60 min session)
This may be virtual birth planning (or in-person). You can meet with your clients on Zoom and guide them through creating a custom birth plan.
2. Birth planning workshop (virtual small group)
Similar to #1, but a small group. Again, this may be done on Zoom or even in a private pop-up Facebook group.
3. Voxer (or other messenger support)
This is different from email support, in that walkie talkie apps allow for voice messaging. It’s a stronger energetic connection to be able to talk to each other throughout the day. *Just ask the members of the Doulas in Business Mastermind - we’re on voxer together all day.
4. Bonus time with pay-in-full package purchase
Let’s suppose you have virtual birth doula or virtual postpartum support packages - even in-person offers. This would be ‘bonus x hour(s)’ when people pay in full for one of your larger packages. And because it’s a limited time offer, people that have already been considering hiring you may be more inclined to take you up on the offer.
5. Private group meditation (record & repurpose)
If you’re comfortable, offering a small group meditation for pregnancy or new parents can be so helpful! If you feel unqualified to facilitate a meditation, try a mindfulness exercise.
To leverage your time with this, I suggest recording & repurposing an edited version.
6. Pre-recorded Pregnancy or New Parent Meditations
You can record a guided pregnancy meditation, affirmations and such in Zoom or apps such as Otter (both have free versions). Then, upload into google drive for easy sharing.
7. Virtual workshop
Choose a topic that your community is interested in, or something fun & connection-based, to host a virtual workshop. You can do it in an intimate connection way on Zoom, or even in a private Facebook group.
Topic ideas: anything pregnancy related, birth prep, baby registry party, postpartum prep, etc.
8. Workbook with journal prompts
This might be something that you create in Canva (there is a free version), download as a PDF, and upload to google drive for easy sharing.
A few topic ideas: Unpacking your birth baggage, preparing for postpartum, or working through your birth fears.
9. Ebook
A pregnancy or postpartum ebook might be a 15+ page educational resource that goes deep on one or two topics.
10. Guides
Again, this would make a great PDF. An example for postpartum doulas that provide nutrition support might be a “Postpartum Meal Prep Guide.”
11. Informational video on ONE topic
This could be like a workshop replay, but on ONE topic. Again, think digestible information.
A few examples are: placenta encapsulation basics, breastfeeding 101, newborn care basics, the importance of postpartum planning & how to get started.
12. Email course
An email course is a series of emails that are spread out over a specific number of weeks or months. The emails might include videos, tutorials, journaling prompts or other helpful information.
13. Bundle pack
If you have a collection of smaller items, consider putting together a birth prep bundle, or a postpartum support prep bundle. Examples of what to include may be products or a series of posts, packaged more conveniently.
14. Membership
This could work great for ongoing services, such as yoga, meditation or circle offers. For Black Friday, you might offer a one month free trial, or a discount with purchase of 3 months.
My suggestion: pick ONE to try this year. Do it in a way that you are either leveraging your time or creating an asset for your business.
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