We use online marketing to sell shoes and houses, but very few child welfare systems are taking advantage of this avenue for recruiting new foster homes. Unlike radio ads or billboards that must appeal to a wide audience, online ads can be highly customized to focus on caregivers who meet the certain characteristics your foster children most need, such as caregivers who speak particular languages or work in a specific profession.
Leveraging targeted digital marketing campaigns, alongside your other recruitment methods, can be more successful at finding these families than more generic campaigns.
Work with a digital marketing expert to design your first campaign. Together, you can determine what kind(s) of caregivers you’d like to recruit; what collateral (e.g. email content, website landing page) you’ll need to create; and what the right budget is. Online advertisements do cost money, but can have a higher return on investment than some analog recruitment methods.
2 of 54 states and territories have implemented this recommendation.