With all the options for child care in your area, and parents still working from home as we wait for the signal to return to office life, parents of prospective students need a reason to remember your center when deciding who to trust with their little ones. Help parents understand why they should choose you by leveraging your basic competitive advantages and a savvy, affordable marketing plan.

Highlighting Your Basic Competitive Advantages

Documenting your competitive edge and getting that information into the hands of your potential customers is an easy, low-cost marketing strategy that works. So, what makes your center stand out from the competition? Basic competitive advantages are the features that make your center and program unique, and if you want your child care business to have healthy enrollment year after year, you need to go beyond what other centers are saying.

To determine what makes you special, do some research on your competition—centers in your area that offer similar programming and are similar in size. You do not have to guess; visit their websites to see what they offer, or make a couple phone calls to ask questions about their facilities and staffing. After a little research, you will see where your center excels compared to the competition, and you might pick up a few tips you can incorporate along the way. To get started, answer these questions:

What is most important to the new families you are trying to enroll?

Look at the questions parents ask most on lead forms or emails, or in enrollment conversations on the phone and in your center. Do you notice a pattern? Perhaps teacher tenure is a primary concern, or maybe it is ratios, class size, teacher credentials, or even parent engagement opportunities. Identify the most important needs and concerns of prospective families and examine what you are doing to meet them. If you can demonstrate that your center checks those boxes, you have the best chance of earning their trust—and their business.

What are the top three reasons parents choose your center? 

You have done your homework and know what makes your center great, and what appeals most to parents. Now it is time to narrow that list to your greatest hits. For example, if you have ratios below state requirements, you will want to show parents how your center measures up to state ratio requirements, then compare other area centers to make it easy to see why yours is best. You might offer things like research-based curriculum, Reggio-inspired learning, or individualized lesson plans—all designed to give kids a leg up in their academic futures. Perhaps your tenured staff has fantastic credentials and gets great reviews and feedback. These are things parents want to know in order to choose you.

Why Child Care Technology Should Top Your BCA List

Technology in the classroom is something parents have come to expect from child care, preschool, and school-age programs. When parents tour your facility for the first time, it is something you highlight: tablets for learning games, desktop computer stations, smartboards and more. And if you can wow them with your state-of-the-art classroom tools, you just might win their business.

But there is more technology available outside the classroom that makes a statement about your program, and whether it is keeping up with the demands of today’s parents. That starts with the software and tools you use to manage the business end of your business.

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Integrating Technology for a Better Parent Experience

The new normal is bringing changes to the way program directors look at many things, from staffing to seating to cleaning, to knowing the right length of time for children to wash their hands. Now more than ever, safety concerns come first, and many child care centers and preschools are looking to technology to tackle the logistical challenges of operating a child-centered business in the new normal.

While many organizations already offer parents an app for mobile messaging, the organizations who are winning the technology battle are using software that also provides contactless tools for parents to view accounts, pay online, and check children in and out of your center without stepping foot inside your facility. Offering this type of technology and convenience—especially a curbside, contactless check-in procedure—is a big deal, so you should highlight the convenience and added safety it provides. Limiting foot traffic in your facility to staff and students is a huge step forward in your program’s security plans as well.

Helping Parents See Your Competitive Advantages

If you are running a small to midsize child care business with a “bare bones’’ advertising budget, enrollment time can be a painful waiting game as you wait for new registrations to trickle in. Luckily, marketing your center does not have to be stressful or expensive, if you incorporate a few tried-and-true ideas to get your name and your business in front of prospective customers.

So, how do you get this information in front of prospective families? Do you rely on word-of-mouth? Drive-by traffic? Social media platforms? Online or print advertising?

Try mixing your traditional marketing methods with some new ideas to spread the word about why parents in your community should choose you.

Word of mouth is a sure-fire way to generate new business. Happy parents love telling family, friends, and neighbors how great your program is, and they will do it with even more enthusiasm if you provide an extra incentive in the form of a referral bonus or discount. Try offering a small discount for each new student that enrolls (with a limit, of course) or additional opportunities to participate in classroom events.

Leverage your social media presence. Did you know the average American adult spends over 11 hours a day on electronic devices? Whether it is scrolling through social media feeds or browsing for articles, parents are online and connecting all day long. What are you giving them to share? Make it easy for parents to post about your center by sending an organization-wide message for them to use. If you are using a parent engagement app, you can do this with a picture message and a caption such as, “Happy Bumblebees Preschool has made check-in and check-out curbside, contactless, and convenient!” Then, create a follow-up message asking parents to share the news on their own accounts. It really is that easy.

Engage parents in your social media marketing strategy. There are loads of ways to use Facebook and other platforms to keep parents involved and in-the-know, but how do you get them liking and sharing beyond the normal “cute kid” posts they normally interact with? Try these three ideas:

• Most likes contest. When parents share your posts, their network of friends see them, too. Consider holding a contest for the number of likes from their re-posts. After a week, whoever has the most likes is the winner.
• Like and share raffle. Consider hosting a raffle at the end of each enrollment period, with points or tickets earned for each post shared. The more they share, the more chances to win!
• Post-a-quote contest. Ask parents to submit a short statement about things they love about your center. Turn each quote into a social media post and display a different one each day for a set period—if you get a lot of quotes, you may need to post more than once a day. The quote post with the most likes is the winner.

Friends and followers will see how in-touch they are with your program and their happy little ones throughout the day, and they will long for that same connection and engagement. Start a hashtag and get your program trending.

Ensure your social media presence does not get lost by “boosting” posts. Consider boosting your most important posts, such as the announcement for your next open house, your enrollment period, or news about summer camp. Boosting posts does require a small fee, and it gives you the ability to make your posts more visible.

Use an attractive and interactive website. Just about everything we do is online. When was the last time you used a paper telephone book, or looked in the newspaper for an ad for… well, anything? Get your program online! You do not have to be a brilliant web designer to use a free or low-cost easy-to-use website builder. Try one that will allow you to select a simple template, and just drag and drop the text boxes, documents, and pictures you need, then add the information you think is important for parents and potential customers to be able to find.

Not computer savvy? Try the barter system. Find a parent with experience building a website (there are more than you think) and exchange their services for a tuition discount.

Traditional, Tried-and-True Methods Still Work

• Drive-by traffic. This is a solid way to draw in parents who are new to the area, or just new to being parents. As they explore your community, increase your program’s visibility by placing a banner or sign on your fence or across the front entrance of your building. 
• Online/print ads. Whether you are advertising online, through your website, or just posting in your local library or church bulletin, make sure your ads highlight those basic competitive advantages you identified earlier. It is a good idea to rotate them every few months to prevent “ad blindness” and ensure they do not get overlooked. For example, if you are now offering curbside contactless check-in, it is worth updating your current ads to make it known that your program is offering safe, 21st-century tools for both staff and parents.
• Open houses. Art shows, craft nights and book fairs are great ways to showcase what your students are doing and learning, and give guests an opportunity to visit your program. Excite and motivate families by giving them a glimpse of what you are all about (and do not forget to blast the information out via social media beforehand).
• Brand consistency. Incorporate your brand in every communication you send, so people remember it. People learn and memorize through repetition, so the more your information is seen, the more likely parents are to recall it when recommending your program. Include your center’s logo and contact information on invoices and the reports you create in your child care management software. When it comes to emails, make sure recipients know they are coming from your business by incorporating a standard email signature format with a logo or your center’s slogan in your email templates.

Incorporating a few simple marketing strategies can help turn your worries about wilting registration into a waitlist wonderland. With a good mix of technology and traditional methods, you will not have to break the bank to inspire families in your community to choose your program.