There’s plenty of guidance on how to write about sensitive subjects and very personal topics such as choosing fertility clinics. After all, the last thing your team wants to do is inadvertently cause distress or offence to a potential patient. The services you offer can trigger an emotional response for a range of reasons as varied as the patients you treat. This makes it vital that you approach your marketing content both sensitively and genuinely; not only on the grounds of good taste, but to uphold both your own integrity and that of your patients.

But you know all that already. You know how to write your copy – but do you know the most effective place to put it?

Your text could be beautifully written in a way that conveys your services both sensitively and with authority, but if those beautifully written words are printed on the back of a bus or a flyer delivered with four takeaway menus, it’s unlikely they’ll ever have the impact you want to them to have.

We know that fertility treatment is an emotive subject, and traditional marketing can be a really good way of creating that first point of contact between you and a potential patient – but is it the most effective? The sensitive nature of fertility means people aren’t always in the headspace they need to be when listening to your advert on the radio or driving past it during their morning commute. A well-written advert won’t always have the success it deserves when using traditional media, and it may be disregarded simply because it appeared at the wrong time or in the wrong place.

So how do we minimise the risk of our fertility clients’ messaging being lost? We use social media marketing – specifically Facebook.

There are around 40,000,000 monthly users of Facebook in the UK alone, and nearly 88% of those users browse the platform via a mobile device. It’s that last statistic that’s important to us and key to an efficient marketing campaign: the huge percentage of people using their smartphones.

A smartphone is an inherently intimate platform. It’s a personal belonging with a sole owner, and if a potential patient is using their phone to browse Facebook, it usually means they have the free time to do so and are in a relaxed, comfortable headspace. The ability to approach potential patients when they’re most relaxed and in the comfort and privacy of their own smartphone is what makes Facebook a truly powerful platform. Your copy has a better chance of not just being read but also being absorbed and appreciated. If a potential patient chooses to look into your services by tapping on your advert, they’re able to do so effortlessly, discreetly and immediately from the palm of their hands.

Whether it’s sperm donation, egg sharing or IVF, Facebook marketing gives your services the space they need to grow. Once a potential patient has actively engaged with your messaging by clicking on a link, contacting you or simply saving your website to check out later, you’ll be able to release a well-constructed retargeting and nurturing sequence that allows you to maintain a 1-2-1 dialogue with that person, from day one ‘til the day they become a patient. This meaningful connection is especially vital when someone is considering life-changing fertility treatment, and we can demonstrate that Facebook is the best way to begin and nurture this connection.

Case study: We recently ran a campaign for a fertility clinic to promote their Embryoscope service, and by using the intimacy of Facebook, effective targeting, and carefully written copy, 320 potential new patients registered active interest in the service. The media cost for this campaign was £244, which is a huge return on investment in anyone’s book.

Shed Social is a specialist Facebook marketing agency helping fertility clinics build strong relationships with patients much earlier on in their journey to IVF treatment. This is done by writing well-researched, well-written copy that’s designed to pique interest and promote meaningful conversations and connections between clinic and patient. If you’d like to discuss an effective strategy for how Facebook could help you get into these early conversations with patients, then please get in touch.