[babydubs5]

Just wondering if anyone has tried "networking" through business cards being sent to friends and family and other places. If so, about how many cards did you order versus how many you sent out? Was it effective? Did you get responses from the cards?


Thanks in advance!

[kelceesmom]

My mom works in a hospital and she says they see cards come through for potential adoptive parents. I have heard it definately doesn't hurt and you never know. I would take them to hospitals, fire depts., police depts., your doctors office. I hear that some leave them everywhere. At movie theaters, phone booths etc. If you can have it done for cheap what do you have to lose? Send them in your bills let all your family and friends have some because they can have contacts too. Good luck in your journey.

[tobeafamily]

We carded quite "robustly" and yes we got calls....one of which turned out to be a placement for another family (we were already committed to our son's bfamily when I got this call "I'm in labor at XX Hospital and I have this card from you....")

We also found it to be a marvelous stress reducer - DH and I would set goals to leave 10 cards a day in public places (ATM machines, gas pumps, public restrooms, etc.) Also, many of our friends formed what they called a 'mad mad carder brigade' and also left cards out for us all over the place. We were sure to update the brigade anytime we got a call!

Lastly, we found many unexpected gifts - calls from well wishers, tips from people who had adopted, etc. That was really nice. Only a few 'negative' calls and all but one were really apologetic about asking us not to card there anymore.

We ordered our cards "free" through VistaPrint, chose slowest method, and got them for like $5 for 250.

We kept our language open - Active, fun loving couple hopes to adopt. We're ready to provide a stable, loving home full of music, laughter and love for a newborn or twins. Please call FNM at XX, email SS and website.

We avoided "if you or someone you know is pregnant and considering adoption" because it was directive - what if they weren't? Or if it just scared them? We figured people would know what to do without us telling and heck, the card that ended up in the woman in labor's hands got to her through a friend who found it four months previous and passed it on 'just in case'.

HTH,

Regina

[babydubs5]

Regina, did you only order 250? or did you do more? For some reason 250 seems like it would run out fast if we were to send them everywhere (we had planned on sending some to friends and family, leaving at drs. offices and such....) i like vistaprints so far

the one i have mocked up says:

Hoping for the miracle of adoption

Josh and Dawn XXXX
Dreaming of Becoming Parents

IF you or anyone you know could help us fulfill our dream, we'd love to hear from you

phone number
email
website


do you think thats too direct? should we just put "if you know anyone who could help us fulfill our dream...." instead of if YOU or anyone you know.....

i dont want to come across as offensive or pushy in those cards, as i am seriously hoping its how we make our initial connection.

any ideas on alternative phrases with similar sentiments?

[tobeafamily]

We ordered many more than 250, but keep in mind that we had a mad mad carder brigade to feed I'd say we did a total of 2000 cards - again, with 10 - 12 people distributing. Get 250 - 500, then reorder as needed.

HTH

Regina

[babydubs5]

regina do you think my wording is OK? or should I reword it slightly? what do you think?

[tobeafamily]

Dawn,

I'm fortunate to have a sister who makes her living in advertising. She's quite the expert in it!

Here's what she told me:

You've got to give your reader a sense of who you are, what you have to offer, get them interested/wanting to do what you want (act), then give them a method to do that. This is true for any marketing campaign - just read an ad in the paper. Always contains company, item, incentive to act, method to act.

I think your message covers some of that - what you want, method to act. Missing though is who you are and why they would be interested in acting.

List two or three things that you like about yourselves, your life - for instance in our case it was fun-loving, music and laughter. We asked our friends to give us some adjectives that describe 'us' to the world and that's what most people came up with.

Anyone reading might think - hey, fun-loving, not stuffy or fuddy-duddy. Or oh yeah music I like that too. Or I'm glad they like to laugh. Get it?

So, to add these elements:

We're Dawn and Josh. We dream of being a family through adoption of a newborn. We're a happily married couple ready to provide a warm, loving, safe home in the country. Can you help? Please contact us at XX

Get the idea?

These are just thoughts. Nobody can write your messages for you, they have to come from you to resonate to others as truth. I'd just encourage you to put yourself in the mind of those who will see your card - what impression of you do you want them to have in 1 or 2 sentences? What's important or special about you?

HTH, best of luck.

Regina

[katgravchuleta]

Dear Tobeafamily,
I read your post above it helped alot, I had read an article about sending out flyers, this is a much better idea they are smaller and lessin your face I guess you could say, also people tend to look more at business cards than flyer just to see what they are for. My husband and I have been thru the everything but finding a baby, we did have 1 bmom responded to an ad I placed in the local newspaper, but she was Native American, and real iffy about keeping it or not, when she said she decided she wanted us to have it, we never heard from her again. So we are still waiting, and I was trying to figure out how to get our names out there. Thanks for the help! and God Bless!
Katgravchuleta "Kat"

[tobeafamily]

Kat,

Glad my experience helped. One thing we found surprisingly easy and effective was putting flyers up in our (and friends) car windows. People seemed to just gravitate to a flyer in the window, then they'd read and....we would get calls. Easy, very inexpensive, very attactive.

The most important thing is to tell everyone. Your letter carrier. Newspaper delivery person. Pizza delivery person. Leave business cards with 20% tips at restaurants and such. We made a mass email distribution list - basically everyone we knew - and updated that group on every contact or every two weeks. That's how our connection was made.

Best of luck.

Regina