Running a daycare business requires a lot to be successful, one particularly important aspect is your ability to effectively promote your daycare to consumers. To be more successful in the promotion of your daycare business, here are some tips!

 

Some tips to promote your daycare business are:

 

1. Utilize Social Media
2. Hold an Open House
3. Encourage Referrals
4. Work Within Your Community

 

Utilize Social Media

I truly believe that this cannot be overstated: in the world of the internet, social media is the key to promotional advertising.

 

Social media is quite literally everywhere. Nearly every one of all ages and backgrounds has social media of some sort or another. They may be on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Reddit, or some obscure platform that you and I have never heard of. But no matter what, if there is a platform out there, people are using it.

 

Because social media is an open playing field, there isn’t anything stopping you from creating an account on these sites for yourself and your business. You can use these sites as a way of promoting your business by getting your message out for others to see. It also just so happens that all of these sites are free to use and operate.

 

• The best ways to use social media to promote your daycare

 

Find and join local parent groups

 

This is arguably the best and most impactful use of social media to promote your daycare. Every neighborhood and every town has a parent group somewhere, most likely on Facebook.

 

If you can find and join one of these parent groups, the advertising and promotion of your business will be as easy as it gets. It gives parents, who may or may not be actively looking for childcare options, a great place to start in their search.

 

This could bring more success to your business than you may ever be able to imagine.

 

Run your own social media page

 

When parents are looking for childcare options in their area, they are going to do their research. One great way of making sure that they find what you want them to see is to run your own social media pages. Running these pages allows you to control what prospective clients see and allows you to create the best image for your business possible.

 

Engage with the local community in the digital sphere

 

In the age of the internet, nearly everyone and every business have a social media page associated with them. One of the great ways in which you can use social media to advertise your brand is to engage with local businesses and locals themselves.

 

Using social media, you can interact and collaborate with other local businesses and answer questions that others may have. All of which improves your standing in the community which is ultimately very important to the success of your daycare!

 

Hold an Open House

Just like when selling a house, when opening a daycare, you have the opportunity to host an open house. In an open house, you open your daycare business for anyone and everyone interested to come to check out your space and ask questions about the business you are running. This gives a good opportunity for parents to see what your daycare is like and if it is an environment, they want their kids to be in.

 

• Tips for running a good daycare open house

 

Choose a good time and day that works best for parents.

 

Most parents are going to have busy schedules, especially during the week as that is most likely when they work. So, the best option would be to schedule your open house on a Saturday or Sunday around 2 pm.

 

Market the event

 

You want as many people as possible to show up to your open house, meaning that before the event occurs you should spend some time advertising that it will be happening. This will help you achieve the best turnout possible giving the best result for your business.

 

Invite your employees

 

If potential clients can meet all of your employees and everyone their kids will be interacting with then they will feel much better about leaving their children in your business care. This will improve the overall result from your open house dramatically.

 

Make it a kid-friendly event

Running a daycare involves a ton of interaction with children. Inviting the children as well as the parents is a great opportunity to show parents how good you and your staff are when it comes to interacting with children. Assuming you do well, this will help influence their decision of hiring your business to care for their children.

 

Encourage Referrals

 

For many parents, the word of other parents is the best form of advertising out there. The words of other parents are what they trust more than anything. So, one of the best possible ways for you to advertise your business is to encourage referrals. The more you can get current customers to refer your business to others who are potential new clients, the more your business is going to expand and the more you are going to succeed.

 

• What are the best ways to encourage referrals?

 

While referrals are one of the best and most efficient ways to promote a daycare business, doing so can be difficult. One of the best ways to encourage referrals is to provide some sort of incentive.

 

That incentive could be anything, but most of the time the incentive is going to be a discount on your rate for a set period. This will encourage others to refer your business to those they know which will ultimately boost your business. Another great way to encourage referrals is to simply provide the best customer service and overall care possible.

 

If your customers enjoy your services then they are going to be far more likely to refer you to others simply because of the great job you are doing.

Learn how to attract parents to your daycare.

Work Within Your Community

As the owner and operator of a daycare business, you are part of a larger community of people and businesses. One of the great ways to promote your business and the brand that represents it is to work within the greater community around you.

 

This means volunteering at local food banks and soup kitchens if your town has them. This also means working with local organizations that provide other services for those in need. On top of that, it means working at and representing at local events that occur.

 

One great way of doing that is if your town has a local festival, signing up to hold a game or booth of some kind. This game or booth doesn’t have to directly relate to your daycare business either, as long as your company is represented at these events then the impact will be made.Your goal is to find some way to represent your business to the average person in your town or neighborhood as a positive influence.

 

• Why is working within your community so important?

 

As humans, we tend to view members of the groups we participate within in a more favorable light.

 

In this case, members of a community are going to be more likely to trust someone else who is a known member of the community over someone who isn’t. So by putting yourself out there as a member of a wider community, you are cementing your place as a positive influence in those people’s minds.

 

The more that people see you as a positive influence in their community, the more likely they are going to be to trust you with their children. It’s a fairly simple connection and once you make that connection, understanding the importance of working with your community becomes so clear. So, if you want parents in your community to trust you with their kids, show them exactly why they should do so.

 

Related Questions:

 

How much does it cost to operate a daycare business?

 

Running a business can be very costly and daycare businesses are no exception to this. On average, an in-home daycare, or a daycare that is run out of a person’s own home, costs about $250,000 a year to operate and keep running. This includes all of the costs that are associated with running a daycare, consisting of costs such as utilities, employee pay, insurance, and all the toys and necessary equipment.

 

How much should you spend on advertising for a daycare

 

As we know, simply opening a daycare won’t be enough to gather clients for your business. Instead, you have to put some energy into advertising to try and expand your client base. It is recommended that as a childcare center you spend around 2% of your total revenue on advertising and marketing.

 

For most childcare centers, this will end up being about $20,000. While spending this amount of money may seem excessive to some, you have to understand that if you don’t spend the money to advertise your daycare you are much more likely to fail. So if you spend the money to advertise your business, you’ll ultimately make the money back and more in the end.

 

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.