Adoption Advertising - Finding Birthmothers in the Classified Ads - Guest Author Tom Pellegrene Jr

Measuring Success

The easy way to tell how your ad campaign is going is by seeing whether your toll-free number is ringing and you have been talking with birthmothers.

If, after a month or so in your chosen papers, things aren't going well, try a few different papers with costs-per-thousand almost as good. If after a couple of months the phone isn't ringing at all, ask your lawyer or homestudy social worker to evaluate the ad. There may be something about it, rather than your advertising plan, that is turning birthmothers off.

It's important to reach as many birthmothers as possible for your limited advertising dollars because unfortunately, birthmothers as a group are not the most reliable of people (although there are many wonderful exceptions). This is a very stressful moment in their lives, and they don't always do what they say they'll do, such as return your calls, call your lawyer, read your letter to birthmothers, meet you or (in the end) agree to allow you to rear their children.

In our 18 months, Pam and I "came close" with three birthmothers of those 49 we found before succeeding with a fourth. We trained ourselves not to get excited until we took that woman's child home from the hospital. And if we hadn't succeeded, we'd have been back in the advertising columns again -- not competing against you, but seeking to find a pregnant woman who liked us.

Keep your head up

All this sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But keep your head up -- women keep getting pregnant, so the readers for adoption classified ads keep changing. People eventually will dial your number, and someone will choose to let you raise her child. We'll look forward to seeing your e-mail birth announcement.

If I can be of help, please feel free to contact me . Best of luck.

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©Tom Pellegrene, Jr., All rights reserved

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