Owning a daycare center gives you a sense of pride, knowing that you are providing excellent care for many children. However, for your daycare to grow, you need to get its name out there. After all, you cannot depend entirely on word-of-mouth advertising for your business to thrive. The best way to do this is through a carefully thought-out marketing plan. Your daycare center needs and deserves to be promoted effectively, but how do you do this?

 

Here are a few ideas to help you effectively promote your daycare center:

• Post flyers for your daycare in highly visible areas.
• Utilize a direct mail marketing campaign to target parents around your daycare.
• Use your social media accounts to reach potential customers online.
• Sponsor family-friendly events to market your daycare in your area.
• Host an open house event for interested parents.
• Partner with other local businesses to set up a referral program.

 

Post Flyers For Your Daycare

 

One of the oldest methods of advertising for any business is using flyers. Handing out flyers in person may be the most effective method of flyering because it allows you to have personal contact with potential customers. Nothing beats being able to greet someone with a warm smile while handing them a flyer for your daycare. This gives you the chance to show people that you are caring and genuine. When you are running a daycare center, your personality is one of the strongest selling points of your service.

 

However, there are many other methods of flyering. Many business owners like to post flyers in highly visible areas, such as on telephone poles, on community boards, or even in other businesses. Some daycare owners may not prefer this method, because they do not get a chance to make a personal impression on potential customers. Another effective method of flyering that has become common lately is putting your flyers on cars in the parking lot of other businesses.

 

Use Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns

 

Direct Mail marketing campaigns are a great way to promote your daycare center because they give you the chance to cover a large area without having to do a lot of driving. These can either be done through email, or the United States Postal Service. Either way, this method of promoting your daycare gives you the chance to reach a large number of people in a relatively short amount of time.

 

If a direct mail marketing campaign is something that you believe will help you to promote your daycare, you must ensure that it is run properly. According to Entrepreneur, here are the steps you must follow to run a successful email marketing campaign:

• Develop a mailing list.
• Create a mailing piece.
• Code your response vehicle.
• Test and run the campaign.
• Handle customer responses.
• Analyze your results.

 

Make Use of Social Media

 

Of all of the promotional ideas that are available to you, using social media is the fastest, easiest, and least expensive way to promote your daycare. Using social media also allows you to reach the largest number of people. According to Statista, over 223 million Americans we’re using social media regularly as of 2020. Many of those people are parents, who could be looking for a daycare for their children.

 

One of the most important rules to using social media to promote your daycare is to keep your personal and business accounts separate. It helps to think of your business’s social media accounts as advertising tools. There is nothing wrong with using your personal social media account to promote your business, but you should keep in mind that your personal social media account is a reflection of you. Remember to keep it clean and professional, especially if you are in the business of caring for children.

 

Sponsor Family-Friendly Events

 

Sponsoring family-friendly events in your local area gives you the chance to be in direct contact with people who have families. This is possibly the most effective way to promote your daycare center to your target audience. There are several things you can do to promote your daycare at these events, such as sponsoring a booth; getting your name on event shirts and banners; setting up a booth to serve snacks and advertise your daycare, or even sponsoring friendly competitions at these events.

 

While sponsoring a family-friendly event is a fantastic way to promote your daycare, it may be difficult to determine which events your daycare should sponsor. According to Sponsor My Event, here are a few ways in which you can choose the right event for your daycare to sponsor:

• Try to get an estimated number of attendees to see how many people you will be able to reach.
• Focus on attendance demographics to determine if you are targeting the right audience.
• Get the date, time, and location of the event to see if it fits your schedule.
• Find out who has sponsored previous events, and get in touch with them.
• Look at the overall value of the sponsorship package to see if it is worth sponsoring.

Learn what makes a daycare stand out to potential clients here.

Host an Open House Event

 

What better way to promote your daycare than to invite parents and students to an open house event at your center? This will give potential clients a chance to meet you, take a tour around your facility, and meet your staff. You can even invite your current parents and children to the open house event. This will give you a chance to take advantage of the oldest form of advertisement, which is word-of-mouth. Can you think of a better way to promote your childcare services than having current families talking you up to new families?

 

We all know the old saying that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is why your open house must be properly planned and perfectly executed. Per Constant Contact, here are a few tips you can use to make your daycare’s open house a smashing success:

• Carefully plan the date and time of your event around parents’ schedules.
• Use all avenues of marketing to advertise your event.
• Make sure that your daycare is sparkling clean.
• Set up a welcome area, complete with enrollment packets and marketing materials.
• Invite your entire staff to the event.
• Serve refreshments at your open house.

 

Start a Referral Program With Other Businesses

 

Forming a relationship with other businesses in your area is an aspect of marketing and promotion that is often overlooked amongst many business owners. There are many like-minded businesses with which your daycare can partner to start a referral program. This is mutually beneficial to all businesses involved, and will cost you little to nothing in return. It would be especially beneficial if your daycare center is located near a shopping mall or other family-friendly stores.

 

A good referral program can also go hand-in-hand with flyering. You can ask a few businesses in your area if they would allow you to leave some of your flyers or business cards on their counter. In return, you can offer to let them leave some of their promotional material with you. This normally works best when your daycare pairs with like-minded businesses, such as children’s clothing stores, furniture stores, kid’s hair salons, or other businesses that are family or child-centric.

 

Conclusion

 

Effectively promoting your daycare center can be hard work, but it can also be fun. This will allow you to meet new people and get your daycares name out in the public eye. A few ways to successfully promote your daycare center or to post flyers in highly visible areas; launch a direct mail marketing campaign; use social media to promote your daycare; sponsor family-friendly events in your area; host an open house event, and start referral programs with like-minded businesses.

 

If you follow the six suggestions, you will soon find yourself with full enrollment. Your daycare center will be the childcare provider of choice in your community. You may even have so many new sign-ups that you have to implement a waiting list. However, if you put in the work, the reward will be well worth it. Soon, your daycares reputation will sell itself.

 

Related Questions

 

What are some of the advantages of having a good website for my daycare? Having a good website can benefit your daycare in several ways. It can serve as an advertising and marketing tool. And people are researching businesses, their website is usually the first thing that is seen. This is why it is especially important to have your daycare as professional and concise as possible. Your website can also benefit existing clients by offering portals in which they can view their children throughout the day. A website can even provide updates on each child’s progress.

 

What are some of the benefits that children get from attending daycare? There are many benefits that children get from attending daycare, rather than staying home with parents or a loved one. Here are a few of the benefits of attending a daycare center:

• They learn how to follow a schedule.
• There is usually an improvement in their behavior.
• They get much-needed social interaction.
• Immune systems are made stronger through contact with other people.
• There is a much easier transition to traditional schooling.

Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.

To learn more on how to start your own daycare checkout my startup course and documents here.