Local Child Care Marketing

Helping Child Care Leaders Build Their Web Presence

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Best Child Care Website Design Practices

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Does your child care center have a website? When was the last time you updated your child care website? Does your daycare center’s website follow current trends of child care website designs? Who is maintaining or updating your child care website?

Learn how to improve enrollment by making your child care website appealing and easy to use. You can start by incorporating some of the best child care website design practices.

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Did you know that visitors judge your website on average within the first three seconds? You have a small window of time to introduce your child care center to visitors. As you look through child care website inspirations, keep your priorities in mind. Is the text readable? If parents cannot read the text on your website, they will move on and switch to the next search result that is easier to read. Just like that, you lost a potential enrollment opportunity.

Is your child care website design easy to navigate? Make your menu options above the scroll-line clear and easy to understand for all visitors. If visitors cannot easily find the information they are looking for, they will move on to the next child care center website.

Does the website take a long time to load? If your child care website design takes a long time to load, you may be in trouble. Parents will grow impatient and move on the the next search result. Many surveys show that over half of web users will leave a web page if it does not load within three seconds. You can reduce your bounce rate and retain website visitors if your child care website design loads quickly.

The Best Child Care Websites Leave a Good First Impression

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Leave a good first impression with child care website design.

Your day care center website should show personality and be fun. One of the worst things for your child care website design is to be too boring. You want to come off as professional but also make sure parents want to spend time on your website.

Do not sell your child care center short with a boring web site. If your website is boring, parents can quickly guess that their children will be bored at your child care center all day. At the same time, you want to know that parents can find all the important information on your child care website.

Child Care Website Design Themes and Color Schemes

There are website design themes specifically built for child care centers. If you are looking for the quickest process to market your child care center, you may want to try one of these child care website themes. Child care website themes will already give the feel of a child care website. This way you can minimize the amount of time you spend building your child care website.

As you look online for child care website inspiration, you may notice that most child care websites have a light background. Let’s break this down for a minute. What is your first impression when you visit websites dominated by dark colors? If you were a parent looking for child care services, how would you respond to the child care center whose website background is black? As you find the best child care website design for your business, keep the first impression and parent experience in mind.

Mobile Responsive Child Care Website Designs

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Is your child care website mobile friendly?

Make sure your website theme or design is mobile responsive. A parent should be able to view your child care’s website on a smartphone or tablet with ease. Many people browse on their smartphones or tablets while at home. Even if there is a home computer or laptop available, most people will still opt to browse on mobile devices due to accessibility and ease.

Most popular child care website designs should automatically be mobile responsive. You still will want to double check before you spend too much time on a day care website design. You will want to make sure that any adjustments you make to your website also work on the mobile version of your website. Local Child Care Marketing makes sure your child care website design is mobile responsive.

Make Your Contact Info and Call to Action Visible

Do not give families with potential students a chance to say they could not find your phone number or how to enroll their child in your child care center. Include a call to action or link visible on each web page somewhere. Many of the best child care website designs place important information at the top of the website. Important information includes your child care center’s address and phone number. This way nobody can miss it! If you find a fun and cool child care website design that does not give you the opportunity to include your phone number above the scroll-line, try again.

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Local Child Care Marketing can help you promote your child care business with child care website design and development. With our website development services, we can cut your bounce rate by minimizing your website loading time. Our website development service includes domain name registration, Premium WordPress Theme, and a custom header. We also provide social media integration across various platforms. These are just a few of the services included within website development offer.

Our advanced child care website development package adds on to the standard package with features like a premium slider that includes calls to action. The advanced option also includes up to five web pages of premium content. Our premium child care website development package goes a step further to give you the best results. The premium option includes a custom website design and an email setup or migration for up to twenty email addresses. We also provide up to ten web pages of premium content with this offer.

Help your child care center’s enrollment grow with a great child care website design. Contact Local Child Care Marketing by calling (855) 215-3838 today to help you improve your child care center’s web presence.

 

 

Why is running my Preschool more Difficult than I imagined when I Started

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Opening any new business can prove far more difficult than predicted; this is especially true of opening a preschool, because you, the owner, are often being driven by a desire to work with children. However, after the initial excitement, the owner can be swamped with stress and steep learning curves in terms of licensing requirements, staffing, finances and marketing. As a result, there may be little business growth which further exacerbates the problems.

Stress

A new preschool owner may not be prepared to handle the daily stress brought on by a new business. The pace is often much more hectic than imagined and is complicated by dealing with difficult situations such as discipline and unhappy parents or staff. Money concerns and steep learning curves in terms of administrative duties can truly leave owners feeling like they are in way over their heads.

Licensing Requirements

Licensing requirements can be one of the most difficult things to master and can have the most dire consequences if the owner fails to be thoroughly knowledgeable in this area. The process is often very complex and varies from state to state. Failing to follow the guidelines can result in a preschool being sanctioned or even shut down. As a result the preschool can lose the trust of parents or even be sued if a child is hurt while attending the preschool.

Staffing

Managing staff can also be much more difficult than imagined. First, you have to attract and retain highly qualified staff members, because this is the most important factor in attracting and retaining parents. You must also make sure that background checks are performed and must deal with a variety of scheduling conflicts. You must also learn to delegate so as not to be totaling overwhelmed – not an easy task for those who like to be in control.

Marketing

Those owners who attempt to open a preschool without some understanding of marketing will see very little business growth. It is true that word of mouth is the most effective tool in a preschool’s arsenal. However, that is not true in the beginning and you must be prepared to aggressively market using a variety of tools such as mass e-mailing and Social Networks like Facebook. As an owner, you must also understand how to track marketing results in order to make informed decisions.

Finances

Ultimately the success or business growth of any preschool is measured in terms of finances. This too can come with a steep learning curve and managing finances may require the help of an expert or the need to learn special software. Then, there are cash-flow problems. Start up costs can require almost three months of operating cost without any incoming money. Also, deadbeat parents must be dealt with, which is often hard for those who are tender-hearted.

As a result of these issues, it is simply not enough to be passionate about children. Preschool owners, like yourself must be knowledgeable about licensing requirements and must be able to handle staffing, marketing, and financial issues. Unfortunately, these are often underestimated by owners who are experiencing the thrill of opening a new business. However, failure to get a handle on them can result in a great deal of stress for you, the owner and perhaps even ultimately failure.

Competitor Analysis What Child Care Business Owners Need To Know

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Why should you a Child Care Business Owner worry about performing a Competitor Analysis?  Simple – knowing the strengths and the weaknesses of the competition can help a small business gain the upper hand. It allows the child care center to design unique services and marketing techniques that can snatch the attention of potential clients.  Here are the top five things you should know about your competitors: business profile, customer profile, facilities, services and marketing strategies.

#1: Business Profile

First, when doing a Competitor Analysis consider the business profile.  This information could include ownership, size, history, staffing and management to name just a few points.  For example, if a childcare center is a part of a national chain that has a huge impact on their buying power and advertising dollars.  What about history?  If it has been in business for a number of years it might be possible to gain a competitive advantage by emphasizing the innovating techniques and more modern facilities.

#2: Customer Profile

As a Child Care Business Owner you must also consider the profile of the competitor’s parents.  This information could include the major employers, the income and education level of the parents, and the number of children per family.  For example, are these white collar or blue collar parents? Is this the same market?  Also, take a look at customer retention and satisfaction.  What’s being said by parents on Social Media?  Are there negative comments or positive?  How can this be used?

#3: Facilities

A Competitor Analysis should also take a close look at the facilities.  Such things as spacing, parking, location, and playground equipment might all be factors that could provide a competitive advantage.  For example, does the competitor go above and beyond when it comes to the space required by licensing requirements?  What about the location?  Is the competitor farther away from major employers or is the access inconvenient?

#4: Services

Then the services provided by competitors must be considered and compared to the your own services.  For example, what kind of curriculum is being offered?  Is it new and innovative?  If not, how can this be capitalized on?  Other concerns might be special services such as longer hours, special needs children, sick child care, or after school program.  Also, what are the rates for these services?  The bottom line is provided the parents with the best value!

#5: Marketing

Of course, a Competitor Analysis must include an examination of the marketing strategies being used by the competitor.  What types of media is being employed? …traditional? ….Social Media? …Email Marketing?  Also how does their website hold up when compared to yours?  Can it be improved upon?  Can more useful articles be used to pull in clients?  Don’t forget to look closely at their advertising patterns.  Are they marketing anything new or aggressively?  Be prepared to counter any special offers.

As a Child Care Business Owner you absolutely must perform a Competitor Analysis.  It is the best way to take advantage of your center’s strengths and the weaknesses of the competitors.  In essence, knowledge is power.  To gain that competitive advantage, examine carefully the business profiles, customer profiles, facilities, services, and marketing strategies.  Once that information is clear, use it to determine the service to offer and how best to market them.

Marketing: Why Does It Take So Much Effort To Market My Child Care Center?

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Choosing the right child care center is never an impulsive decision. It is just too scary to place a child into the hands of an unknown entity. Instead, parents will carefully research their options and will make the decision when they are ready and not necessarily when your center is running a big marketing campaign. As a result, your child care center needs to have an active and continuous preschool marketing plan in place to see the most growth.

Reputation

The reputation of your child care center may be one of its most valuable assets and truly does require concentrated advertising effort to help maintain and spread. This includes marketing effort at retaining the current client base through activities that keep them happy and informed. However, you need to be aware that more is required, because not every new parent comes through word of mouth.

Cautious Parents

Parents tend to be extremely cautious when it comes to choosing the right child care center. They want a center that they can trust and that they know is reliable and respected within the community. A carefully crafted preschool marketing program can help relieve these fears by establishing your preschool as experts on children and it can emphasize your history and standings within the community.

On-going Marketing

Parents make the decision to place a child in a child care center when they are ready to do so and not when your center is running a marketing campaign. However, on-going advertising can help capture the parents’ attention at the right moment; it is a matter of opportunity at the right time. On-going marketing can also create a brand image which can lead a parent to feel familiar with your center.

Perceived Value

Your child care center must also put considerable effort into marketing perceived value. Parents are not necessarily looking for the cheapest preschool; instead, they want quality. Your child care center must find ways to market your uniqueness, convenience, reliability, and other factors that concern parents. Simply put – parents want quality child care and will not settle for an inferior preschool in order to save a few dollars.

Competition

Because parents are so cautious, they will likely spend time researching all of the child care centers in your area. A savvy preschool marketing plan must include taking the time to know what the competition is offering so they can counter. It is not so much the offer will tempt the parents to enroll their child, but that the parents will consider any offers that are out there when they are ready to place their child in a program.

In order to see enrollment increase, your child care center must put a lot of effort into advertising. You must maintain a positive reputation, overcome parental concerns, enhance the perceived value and be keenly aware of the competition.  In addition, your center must engage in on-going marketing so that your name is always the first to spring to mind when a parent is searching for a preschool.