Childcare

Marketing Tips
10 Must-Do Marketing Tips to
Grow the Enrollment of Your
Early Childhood Program

July 2012
Be Found on Your Local Map Notes
Over the past 10 or 15 years, and especially within the last 5 years or so, there’s List below the keywords a new
been a “sea change” in the way today’s young parents search for child care. It’s visitor might use to find your
all about showing up on Google and the other major search engines for your top center through a Google search.
keyword phrases – things like “child care centers, your town” and “preschools,
your zip code.” Moreover, Google’s local map listings for all types of local
businesses (especially things like restaurants, hotels, salons, and yes, child care
programs) is the number one way that most programs are being found by par-
ents. So if you have not claimed your Google Places local listing page, you are
leaving serious enrollment dollars on the table. You simply must be found on
the local Google and Yahoo maps, for the top keyword phrases that parents are
using to search for care in your area.

Register your program with

Google Places so that you
show up on the map!

Do you have a website? If not,

Treat Your Website as an what steps are you going to take
in order to budget one soon?
Investment...not an Expense
Your website is the single most important marketing tool for your program.
Period. Any potential client will absolutely visit your website before ever mak-
ing contact with your center and it will, most often, be the first impression you
make on a parent. Your website should be easy to navigate and provide useful
information to your viewers. Useful information includes an “About Us” page,
a “Contact Us” page, information on your programs and curriculum, tuition
information, and your mission statement. List phone numbers, email addresses
and teachers if possible. Since you literally have seconds before someone leaves
your site it should load quickly. One way to avoid a slow loading website is
to keep the number of large images to a minimum. Pictures of children are
fantastic, but too many of them and your site will be too slow to load. Add
things to your website that are exciting and different, like a virtual tour, pictures
of children and your center, and most importantly, parent reviews. Your site
must contain proof from actual parents that they love the staff and the program.
Lastly, be sure to tell visitors how your program is different!

visit: memberhub.com/schools call: (866) 586-2080 visit: www.childcare-marketing.com call: (877) 254-4619
Design a Custom Branded Logo Notes
A logo is a great way to get people to recognize your program. The most Brainstorm on some logo ideas
popular brands in the world are recognized by their logo. Think about the Nike and maybe even sketch some
swoosh. Having an image that quickly provides a snapshot of what your center ideas out in the space below.
is all about can really help with your reach. Start your own branding exercise
by writing a mission statement. Put yourself in the parents’ eyes and make it
about them. Include a statement of your goals with adjectives that describe your
center and how you accomplish your objectives. Use that direction to create a
logo for your program. Before you get too far on your creativity first do a little
research and look at the logos of your competitors. It’s important that your logo
stand apart. Consider whether your logo should be font-based, include images,
or represent an abstract graphic, like the Nike swoosh. Whatever you do, make
sure you keep it simple. The less complex the design, the easier it will be to
work with the logo for all of your marketing material. If you lack the design
skills to create a logo then you can checkout http://99designs.com/logo-design.
If you have the resources it would be well worth hiring a branding and design
company to help you create something really unique. A well-designed logo is an
investment that will pay you dividends for years to come.

Make sure your logo is unique,

fresh, and rememberable. List 3 things you can do that will
attract the attention of millennial
moms and dads.

Understand Your New Target

Market - Millennials
Chances are good that you and your target market think VERY differently.
After all, 80 percent of today’s babies are being born to a new generation: the
Millennial Generation, also known as “Gen Y.” These new parents act very dif-
ferently when it comes to searching for products and services, using social me-
dia to connect with the world, and using their smart phone or mobile device to
do almost everything. You’ve got to study and understand how they think, act,
and behave if you want to be effective in attracting them and enrolling them in
your program. Here’s just one example: Millennials are very concerned about
the environment and seek to do business with companies who are good stewards
of our planet. So if you’re celebrating Earth Day in your program by planting
trees with your preschoolers, tell your market about it!

visit: memberhub.com/schools call: (866) 586-2080 visit: www.childcare-marketing.com call: (877) 254-4619
Harness Social Media Marketing Notes
Once you have a well-designed, search engine optimized website, you can
focus on social media. Social media isn’t just having fun with your friends Which social networks are your
online. Social networks are becoming the place where people go to interact with audience on and which ones will
businesses. In December of 2010 only 1 million businesses used Facebook, by you be successful on? Facebook?
September of 2011, there were over 200 million businesses using Facebook! Twitter? YouTube? Pinterest?
According to the 2011 Social Media Report, 80% of Americans use some sort of
social network, 40% of those people have access to social media through their
cell phones. 53% of active social media networkers follow a brand or business.
In short, social media use has ballooned in the past few years and you don’t
want your center to be left out. The most popular age group of social media us-
ers is 18-30; the parents at your center are on Facebook! Facebook and Twitter
are two popular sites where a childcare center can connect with current parents
Who will manage your social
media channels and plans?
and build relationships with new ones. Social media is also great for visibility,
challenging the competition, and generally marketing your services. Your brand
(and logo) will find visibility on these networks and as your online reach grows,
so does your ability to drive visitors to your fabulous website. Posting photos,
articles, news, announcements, etc. are all great for social media. Social media
is an incredible marketing tool, but just make sure that you list your social me-
dia objectives and goals. Then measure your efforts. It needs to be personable
and fun. Give your Facebook page some personality and pretend it’s a person How often will you make posts on
that’s just being social, as if at a party. your social media accounts?

What will you share on your

social media accounts?

Marketers plan to increase

their spend on social media
in 2012 faster than any other
tactic. What’s your plan?
How will you measure success?

visit: memberhub.com/schools call: (866) 586-2080 visit: www.childcare-marketing.com call: (877) 254-4619
Manage Your Online Reputation Notes
Parents, especially mothers of young children, are talking about preschools and
childcare centers. It’s what they do and it’s inevitable that the conversation will What Google Alerts should you
take place online too. This is a good thing. If these people are discussing your set up? List them below, then go
program offline then you can’t listen to the feedback and you don’t get to join create them.
the conversation. It’s a lot easier than you might think to monitor your reputa-
tion online. Here are two things you should do right now, if you haven’t already.
First, register with Google Places and ask your parents to review your business/
school. Yes, you need to “show up on the map”, but you also need to have some
reviews! Next, create what’s called a Google Alert. Visit google.com/alerts
where you can put in your school’s name and Google will alert you any time
someone blogs, tweets, posts or otherwise mentions your program online. Put in
every variation of your program’s name, director’s name or anything suggesting
someone would be talking about your program. But don’t stop there; and this
is important. When someone says something about your program, RESPOND.
Whether it’s good or bad, say something. Tweet back or leave a comment. List a few key points that your
People will be more impressed with that than you might think. Setting up a social media policy should cover.
Google Alert is an easy and efficient way to get started with monitoring your Who responds to posts? What
brand. Once you have an established social media plan and policy (to establish should staff be encouraged to
guidelines like who, on your team will reply to comments) you can do a simple post with their personal profiles?
search for “social media monitoring” and find various other tools that are spe-
cifically designed to help you take control of your online reputation.

By using saved searches and How can you use social media to
Google alerts, you can see further shape your reputation?
brand or name mentions in
posts even if people are not
fans or followers.

visit: memberhub.com/schools call: (866) 586-2080 visit: www.childcare-marketing.com call: (877) 254-4619
Empower Your Parents To Notes
Spread the Word
Engaged parents that talk about your program will always be the most important How will you get your parents to
channel of marketing. Word of mouth is still the most effective marketing av- refer your program to friends?
enue for any business. Offering parents referral awards for having their friends
come to your childcare center could be a great way to get your parents sharing.
The more contact you have with your center’s parents the more engaged they
feel. So make sure you have an effective communication plan with your parents.
They will start bragging about how awesome your communication efforts are
and how much they feel in the loop. Set up volunteer opportunities, send out
newsletters, text-message them, have events specifically for parents, and have
parent-teacher conferences regularly. If you don’t have a parent board then
create one soon. This is a great way for parents to be involved in the decision-
making process and it sends the message that you care about and respect your
clients’ opinions.

Happy parents are your best List your closest competitors.

source of marketing. How do
you encourage them to share?

Know Your Competition

Do you know who your competition is? Sure, you’re aware of the centers in the
area but which centers are your direct competitors and what are they up to? It’s How is your program different?
a good idea to monitor their progress. It’s not necessary to worry about com-
petition (after all, we’re all in this together) but it’s good to know what’s new
at other programs. This could just be something as simple as putting a monthly
calendar appointment to visit their website or reach out to their director for a
friendly conversation. The point is, when a parent goes online to find a program,
Google will tell them which centers are closest and they’ll want to know the
difference between the 2-3 closest centers. How are you different? If you don’t
know that, do you know how much one new client is worth to your center, be-
cause that’s how much that knowledge is worth. Create a Google Alert for your
competitors and monitor what others are saying about them.

visit: memberhub.com/schools call: (866) 586-2080 visit: www.childcare-marketing.com call: (877) 254-4619
Make a Parent’s First Experience Notes
a WOW Experience
When parents come to see your center, they must see a clean environment. List 2-3 things that will give
Cleanliness is one of the main deciding factors for parents when choosing prospective parents that WOW
where to send their kids. Keep the front desk, common areas, and the hallways experience!
tidy. A little mess can speak volumes to parents. Parents also want to know that
the teachers and staff truly care about the children there and want them to grow
intellectually. You do not want parents to get the feel that this is a place where
they just drop their kids off. Explain to your parents your mission statement
and what you strive for in a childcare center; tell them how teachers discipline
students and how you want their child to grow to their potential. Parents are
usually anxious when bringing their child to a center for the first time. Giving
tours of your center is a great way to ensure that parents see the full benefits of
your center and provide that extra push to get them to enroll. Make sure to leave
time for parents to ask questions and make comments; this shows how you
value collaboration with parents.

Your website is often the first

chance you get to make an
impression on someone! How will you keep it simple?

Keep it Simple
Simple is hard to achieve but it shouldn’t be. Your messaging should be
simple. Your website should be simple. The technology that you use should
be simple. Your programs and lessons should be simple. Your logo should be
simple. Your procedures should be simple. Your communications should be as
short and sweet as possible. Keep emails short and get to the point fast. You
can put friendly content towards the end of the message. Make sure everyone
knows where to get the latest information, all the time. If something about your
program feels complicated then it’s likely worth your time to figure out how to
make it simple. Implementing all these tips could look overwhelming at first.
Take them one at a time and just get started. You’ll make mistakes, but keep it
simple.

visit: memberhub.com/schools call: (866) 586-2080 visit: www.childcare-marketing.com call: (877) 254-4619
 We sincerely hope that you found these tips
helpful! Hopefully you’ve taken some notes
along the way and you have some action
items. The one thing that we ask is that you
share your goals & accomplisments with us
on our Facebook page. Come make a post at
facebook.com/memberhub.

About Matt & MemberHub.com About Kris & Child Care Marketing Solutions

MemberHub.com provides website and logo design services as Kris Murray is America’s leading expert on child care business
well as secure web-based software for early childhood learning success. As President and Founder of Child Care Marketing Solu-
programs to improve communication with parents. Teachers and tions, her mission is to help child care owners and directors be-
parents connect in secure online groups called Hubs. Announce- come more successful and profitable through proven cutting-edge
ments can be sent through email and text message and each hub marketing techniques and a unique approach to running a child
has a calendar with scheduled reminders, whiteboards for signups, care business. Kris has over 23 years of experience helping com-
private photo albums, file storage, discussions and more. Learn panies grow and do “smarter” marketing, and has focused exclu-
more at http://memberhub.com/schools. sively on early childhood businesses over the last 4 years. Kris is
a new Redleaf Press author of the book “The Ultimate Child Care
The MemberHub team also provides website design and develo- Marketing Guide”. She is also the creator of “The Enrollment
ment services to help programs implement the topics in this paper. Boot Camp”, “The Double Your Enrollment System & Marketing
Toolkit” and “The Daycare Success System”.
Matt Harrell is the CEO & Co-founder. Send him an email at
[email protected] Kris is also a professional speaker and has contributed to various
early childhood conferences on the topics of enrollment building,
marketing, and management.

For more on Kris, visit http://www.childcare-marketing.com or

email her anytime at [email protected].

visit: memberhub.com/schools call: (866) 586-2080 visit: www.childcare-marketing.com call: (877) 254-4619
Now, go do your
homework!