A Roadmap by Design
Not every woman begins her journey from the same location. Not everyone arrives for the same reasons. As experts in pregnancy help, this statement doesn’t surprise you. In fact, you’ve built your entire organization around it, and you are prepared for whoever arrives at your door. When you begin seeing your marketing through the same truth at its foundation, it’s amazing how quickly it transforms from a list of services (some with a hefty pricetag) into a roadmap built to strengthen your entire organization over time. And like your ministry, the success of this system won’t happen by accident; it has to be an intentional design.
When a woman or man, experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, realizes they are in need of a resource destination, they begin searching for the closest and most reliable location to meet their needs.
In these beginning moments, it is important to recognize the reality to which this journey is beginning. Like any road trip, we all pray for “travel mercies” and that the roads would be clear and the weather would be mild. Now, consider the women and men searching for your services. The request for clear skies and uneventful travel is thrown out the window before the journey even begins. As you know, her quest for support and information often begins in the middle of the night, with cycles of fear, questions, and even trauma racing through her mind. And, most of the time, the only destinations that come to mind are all the places she believes she will never reach.
It is here that I make my point. A fluent marketing roadmap, one that works together rather than in siloed corners of communication, can begin preaching truth and trust back into her mind, steering her back onto the road and onto a path that leads to support, information, and hope for the future.
A Road with Only Green Lights
The most successful roads are those built by a team that shares the same blueprint, applies the same effort, and takes ownership of the same job site day in and day out. When every piece of your marketing roadmap lives under the same roof, the handoff between services is seamless, and those looking to travel on it find only green lights. And for you personally, you won’t pay to run a digital ads campaign with one company only for it to be unsuccessful because the other company running your website didn’t know that you were leading clients to a page that was recently altered by your ASEO contractor, which is now renamed with a differing brand tone. Yes, that may have felt like a fever dream mixed into a sentence, but for many PHO’s, this is a recurring cycle of frustration that leaves them discouraged, while the women who need support are left in the dark, without clear direction on how to find it.
For that reason, I feel a responsibility to emphasize the significant advantages of partnering with a single marketing solutions company for the entire roadmap. To say it plainly, many of you are leaving the real benefits of your marketing solutions on the table. Not because you will not use them, but rather, because no one has told you they were there.
Here is what a full roadmap looks like, and what each lane was built to do.
Branding is both the integrity and reality of the road itself. At the foundation of everything you build lies the truth of who you are and what you do. Without the consistent identity and voice found in a thoughtful brand, everything your organization offers at the door is lost.
Think about it this way. No one, unless extremely desperate, will go into a stranger's home, and even if they do, the odds of their guard being down are near impossible. Building out a strong brand is the first and essential step in creating a solid road to your organization.
Social media is the good Samaritan offering directions. Building on your brand's identity, social media offers your client familiar, trustworthy directions, before she ever has the chance to make the wrong turn. When operating to its full potential, social media is one of the only ways you can reach her, before she even knows she needs to find you.
Digital ads are the road signs. Strategically placed in the right location, with timely, resourceful information, digital ads work seamlessly with social media, through the lens of your established brand, to guide her to your website or direct phone line and get her to you at the precise time she needs you.
Local search is the highway exit. When she searches for help nearby, the local search ensures your name appears on the ramp.
ASEO is the GPS. ASEO stands for Advanced Search Engine Optimization. To keep it simple, this means that when done intentionally, it is the authoritative voice that guides her journey by getting her to you faster and with as few roadblocks as possible. ASEO is the satellite view of her journey, not only preparing her course as she initially requested, but also navigating her through distractions and misdirection so that she can avoid everything except what leads her to the support she needs.
Your website is the driveway to her destination. Here is where the true introduction begins. Up until now, the communication has been one-sided. She has heard from our tools of direction along the road, but she is still a stranger. Through her experience on your website, she can share her intentions and story. Through every page viewed and every invitation to connect pressed, we see her. And when this site is prepared with the same level of excellence as every step before it, we see an arrival that feels natural and an entrance that is expected. No longer complete strangers, you have connected with her and prepared a place for her arrival.
As you have hopefully seen, each step of seamless, loving marketing was used to support her before she ever received a material or information resource. Your brand has given her a reflection of who you are and what to expect. Social media has informed her of your existence and that you are known amongst her community and her peers. Digital Ads acted as a relevant resource during her time of need and said, “Hey, I’m not just here for your community, I’m here for you- right now. Let me take you there.” ASEO, along with authoritative, consistent content like blogs, doesn’t need to show up right away because it's been around long before the crisis began, tirelessly working for months to maintain a clear path to support. And finally, through a personalized website built for its intended audience, she can reach out and find the courage to accept the resources and support she deserves.
This is the goal. This is the roadmap. All done, through the partnership of loving PHOs and intentional marketing solutions.
The Road Does Not End at Your Door- Keep Going!
It is easy to look at the roadmap and think once she has reached your door, that she’s reached the finish line. I mean, she found you, the directions worked, mission complete, right? Absolutely not! Keep going.
The moment she walks through your door is only the beginning. In fact, I might even say it’s when the most important work begins.
It’s here that the quality of care she receives, the accuracy of the records kept, and the attentiveness of the people who offer her support will develop a new roadmap that is entirely her own. One that follows her through her pregnancy, her decisions, and the months and years that follow. This one, however, is built with a cross. Not only because it opens into a range of choices and directions, but because every inch of it is paved with the love of Christ that your organization carries with it every step of the way.
Final thoughts: Before she leaves, ask her how she got there.
The storms she weathered, the signs she followed, the avenues she tried, the times she got lost: these are not footnotes in her story– they are road improvements. When that information is noted carefully and brought back to the people maintaining your marketing infrastructure, it does what any good road crew does. It expands the on-ramps for your ads and social media, fills the potholes on your website, and smooths the course for the next woman, exactly like her, searching for the entrance faster and with less hesitation.
Your marketing roadmap was never meant to be finished. It was meant to be driven, studied, and made better by every woman who travels through it. No matter who takes ownership of your marketing, make sure this route isn’t missed.