Different daycare marketing tactics may be effective at different times of the school year. As spring rolls around, it becomes more important to market your daycare center’s summer programs. Summer can be an especially stressful time for parents, as children don’t have the structure of being in a classroom five days a week.
While children gain free time to play, parents still have work commitments. Summer can also be a time for children to fall back on their education if they don’t have some sort of instruction. How to market a daycare to make sure parents find your center?
1. Contact Your Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) Agency
These agencies help families find local daycare centers that fit their needs. Is your local agency referring families to your daycare center? Make sure to register your center.
2. Improve Your Website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
How have families found your daycare center in the past? Can your daycare be found using search engines? If your website is not found on the first search engine results page (SERP), you may be losing a lot of potential business. Around 90% of people are more likely to change their search keywords than they are to click through to the second SERP. Can you believe that?
How do you get a coveted spot on the first SERP for any term relating to daycare centers in your area? The secret here is SEO, which describes a bunch of different daycare marketing tactics. Not sure how your daycare center website is doing when it comes to SEO? Here is a list of questions to ask yourself:
- Do you have a daycare center website?
- Does your website have at least 350 words on each page to describe your daycare center?
- Do you have a blog where you regularly post content that can be helpful to parents?
- Is your website easier for people to use on computers and mobile devices?
If you find yourself answering “no†to any of these, you want to at least start a basic SEO regimen immediately. SEO needs to be included in your childcare marketing strategies for you to see an improvement in SERPs.
3. Social Media
You can use social media to market your daycare center summer programs before enrollment deadlines. Why do so many daycare marketing strategies include a section on social media? Think about your target market and how search engines rank websites.
Parents with young children are usually ages 18 to 35. What do we know about people who are between the ages of 18 and 35 right now? They are part of the millennial generation. This generation grew up on computers and spent their teens on social media. These parents are most likely to look for a local daycare center using a search engine.
Why do your social media accounts matter to search engines like Google? Try looking up a coffee shop in your town. The first page of results will most likely include Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Social media profiles have been included in top results for over three years, and it doesn’t look like this trend is going away anytime soon. When it comes to daycare marketing tactics, social media cannot be ignored. Start or revamp your daycare center’s social media accounts today!
4. Online Reviews
A social media presence also gives you the opportunity to build your daycare center’s reputation. Invite current parents to write reviews of your daycare center on your Facebook Page and other sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, and Care.com. Online reviews are trusted very highly and can make or break your child care center’s reputation.
5. Facebook Ads
Have you ever thought about using a Facebook Ad to market your daycare center’s summer program? Facebook’s Ad program allows you to get the most bang for your buck by showing your ad to a very specific audience. You can ask Facebook to build a custom audience based on age, gender, and location. If you only want your ad to be seen by women who are 32 and watch Supernanny, you can do that with Facebook Ads!
6. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads
If you have a promotion and are okay spending some money in order to be seen quickly, you can promote your summer daycare programs with PPC advertising. This approach on its own will not have long-lasting effects on your web presence, but it can increase your visibility in the short term.
7. Host an Open House
One of the best in-person daycare marketing tactics is hosting an open house at your child care center. An event like an open house gives parents the chance to become familiar with your center and your staff. If you want to market your childcare center with an open house, make sure you give yourself and your team enough time to spread the word about the event! daycare marketing experts suggest giving yourself about a month and a half to promote your daycare center’s open house.
8. Increase Neighborhood Visibility
Get to know the families in your neighborhood, and let them get to know you! Is there a spring festival or an Easter event for young families at a local church? These are great opportunities to meet parents who may be searching for daycare solutions.
Does your community or local church have a newsletter? This may be a budget-friendly way to market your daycare center locally.
Local Child Care Marketing Solutions
The Local Child Care Marketing team helps you understand what child care marketing strategies can work for your child care center. As you are looking to ramp up enrollment for summer daycare programs, now is a great time to call in the experts! Find the right combination of different child care marketing services for your needs and your budget.
Local Child Care Marketing aids daycare centers all over the country increase enrollment by improving search engine visibility and building a good reputation online.
Contact us to learn ways to market your child care center today!