Do THIS To Self-Match Your Adoption Quickly

If you are considering self-matching your private adoption, you are likely struggling with how to get started.  You may be wondering how to create an adoption profile and curious about how an adoption agency would have helped you and how you can replicate their process on your budget.  I have tons of resources on the youtube channel and podcast that teach you how to self-match your adoption step-by-step, but today we will be focused on how to create an adoption marketing plan that will help you self-match your private adoption more quickly.

What Is an Adoption Marketing Plan?

Having an adoption marketing plan, also called an outreach plan for your self-matching private adoption, will help you match your adoption more quickly. It is important that you have a high-quality adoption profile that creates an emotional connection. First of all, I know this may feel a little weird, what do you mean by a marketing plan, and really, what the word marketing plan means in the adoption world is having a plan on how you're going to share your adoption profile. You see, that is the big difference between using an agency model versus using a self-matching model. Now, there are other differences for sure, like support and grief counseling for expectant parents, that I think are important, but when it comes to your marketing plan, agencies will charge you $10,000 to $30,000, easily and sometimes also a monthly fee for sharing your adoption profile. So having that marketing plan is important because it is helping you determine what eyeballs are looking at your profile. 

Without people seeing your profile, you're not going to match, no matter what the quality of your profile is and no matter how much heart you have for adoption. If people don't know that you want to adopt, it will be much more difficult for you to adopt. Let's talk just a little bit deeper about the functional pieces of the plan so you can think of your adoption marketing plan as a step-by-step of exactly what to do and what to share each day, and where to share it. When I work with my one-to-one clients, I give them a six-month process we walk through. It says day one to day, whatever, all the way through exactly what you share on each location of where you plan to share your adoption profile so that it makes it simple for you to know exactly what to do and exactly what to share where to share it.

7 steps to creating an adoption marketing plan

There are seven steps to creating an adoption marketing plan. These steps get results, my friend, they helped Emily and her husband match with twins. In addition, they helped several other clients recently start new conversations, like April and Jeremy, and Texas, who matched with an expectant mama after three days of running Facebook ads, using this process and my Facebook ads course, to match with expectant parents. So let's walk through this because I know it will be valuable for you.

1. Determine where you feel comfortable sharing your adoption profile 

Now, I know this may seem a little strange, but if you don't feel comfortable sharing your profile in a particular place that you write down in your marketing plan, then you're not going to do it, which will impact your overall success rate in matching your adoption. So the very first step is to get out a piece of paper and write down all the places that you feel comfortable sharing, whatever profile element you think is appropriate or that particular place. 

2. What is legal in your state- check out this blog post on my website.

The second step in creating your adoption profile is to ensure that you've checked what is illegal in your state before you take action. Now, I have a resource that I've created for you. But before I share it with you, I want you to hear me say I'm not an attorney, I don't give legal advice. But instead, what I've done is I've collected the laws that I've seen from each state's website and placed them in one blog post for you. So it will help you get a good overview of what the law is in your state, and then if you have any questions whatsoever, I suggest you do a Google search for the four A's. The four A's are a reputable source for adoption attorneys with experience who know what they're talking about, and it's listed out there by state. And then, you can just call each one in your state and see who you feel comfortable talking with and ask them the questions about what is legal in your state. 

3. Make a list of free places to share 

The next thing that you want to think about is where are all of those free places where you could actually be sharing your profile. This step is really important because you want to have a mixture of both free and paid. Some free ways might be a flyer you put up in a laundromat. I had a client that recently matched the flyer that was in a laundromat, and it had a QR code on it. All she did was scan that QR code, which took her to the website. She learned more about them, then she texted them, and they're due to bring home their daughter in just a couple of weeks from when I'm writing this blog. Some other free places where you can share your profile or, obviously in those Facebook groups that are focused on adoption, but there are also other Facebook groups that aren't focused on adoption. Emily just brought home her twins, I think they're three or four months old now. She matched through a baby resell group in her local community. The expectant parents were considering placing their children for adoption and were also looking for ways to care for these children. They were looking for baby gear in these particular resale groups, and she saw Emily's post about the fact that she was hoping to adopt. When they decided that adoption was the right choice for the babies, they reached out to Emily and ultimately matched. So there are free ways to match that are both in real life that you could hand out and place things in particular places and through social and digital avenues that are great consideration. So I encourage you to make a list of those different places that you feel comfortable sharing it for free. 

4. Make a list of paid places to share 

Next, I want you to think about those paid opportunities where you could share your profile. Now, before you put any profiles into the wind or into the wild to potentially match with you, you need to make sure you've done your due diligence on the legal check in your area, especially in paid places. But I have clients all the time, just like Amber and Jeremy that I mentioned earlier, that matched with a Facebook ad after he'd been running for just three days. They used the ad that I had built for them and the targeting that I taught them to use, and they matched. I've had other clients that have matched through Google ads and other non-traditional paid placements that have made a difference in their adoption journey. So make a list of what areas you feel comfortable paying for advertising to get more people to look at your profile.

5. What profile elements do you need? 

The next step in your adoption, marketing plan creation, is knowing what profile elements you want to use or need to use based on where you plan to share your profile. Now, if you're doing something in real life, you're not going to hand out books all over town, right? That's just not practical. That would cost a small fortune. But you might hand out a brochure, you might put a flyer on the wall or hand out a business card. If you're sharing it in digital methods, you might share it on your Facebook page, or you would have a website that would have a video, and you would share more about your adoption or your family through your adoption profile there. So you want to think about all the different elements that you need. Don't worry, I have best practices around what expectant parents are looking for and how they come around and ultimately meet and match with people. 

6. Get help creating your profile elements. 

The next step is to get help with creating those elements. The number one mistake I see folks make that self-match the herd option is they try to go at it alone. They think I just need an attorney, and I can tell you, my friend, from experience, that that will slow down your adoption, like nobody's business that will quite literally make you wait years, you need the help of an adoption profile expert, to help teach you what to say, how to share it, how to create it, and what to do so that you can match with expectant families.

7. Create the day by day plan of what to share and where to share it 

The last and final step in creating your adoption marketing plan is to create the actual plan, create the actual step-by-step day by day, what do you share? Where do you share? And how do you share it? What are those little tips and tricks on how to make your content seen more often when you're on social media? How can you schedule content in advance so that you're focused on finding opportunities and having conversations?

Get Help Creating Your Adoption Marketing Plan 

So there you have it, my friend, those are the seven steps to creating your adoption marketing plan. That is critical when you're trying to privately adopt a baby. When you're going through this process. I know it can seem a little overwhelming, but don't let it be my friend. Instead, jump over into the Facebook group, send me a DM or schedule time to chat with me, and we can discuss your exact situation and create your adoption marketing plan together. Remember, anything's possible with the right plan and support, and I'm just a message away. I'll see you soon friend.

Hi, I Am Amanda

I am an adoption profile expert on a mission to teach you how to adopt and help you create and share your family's story more affordably!