Whether you’re marketing a daycare center, a K-12 school, a private education program, or any early education and childcare program in between, there’s no doubt you have your hands full.
And we’re not just talking about being swamped with lesson plans and snack time. Balancing your digital marketing to attract more parents and guardians of your target age groups for increased enrollment can feel as daunting as it is urgent.
In fact, according to our recent education study, 84% of parents and caregivers of children make a school choice within five months of deciding to enroll their child in a program, and 50% take three months or less. That means you have to act fast with promotions that pack a punch.
Here’s what you need to know for A+ childcare marketing.
Contents
- Childcare marketing: 6 stats and facts you need to know
- 8 childcare marketing strategies and tips
- Create a target audience persona
- Consider which education or extracurricular programs are most important
- Highlight what your organization offers in terms of safety, education quality, and affordability
- Offer tours and open houses
- Know what channels matter most in your childcare marketing strategy
- Focus on your online presence and reputation management
- Start a newsletter email campaign
- Create a brand story
Are you more focused on higher education marketing? We’ve got you covered with these A+ strategies for higher education.
Childcare marketing: 6 stats and facts you need to know
Before we get into our top childcare marketing strategies, consider these stats and facts to inform your approach.
💡 For more data and insights to guide your school or program in the right marketing direction, check out our exclusive small business marketing trends report for free here!
1. Parents and caregivers rely most heavily on school websites, review sites, or parent/teacher reviews to decide on an enrollment program for their child.
Our education study found that parents and caregivers of school-aged children look at a variety of sources for early education and childcare information. This means that the more channels your childcare marketing strategy includes, the better.
2. Facebook and YouTube are the most used resources by parents and caregivers looking to enroll children in an early education or childcare program.
During the enrollment decision process, parents, caregivers, and families are most likely to look at Facebook and YouTube first when they’re evaluating schools.
3. Parents and caregivers trust Snapchat and LinkedIn the most when finding information about school programs.
While Facebook and YouTube are the first stops parents make when looking into early education and childcare solutions, Snapchat and LinkedIn are the other two social media platforms that they rely on the most for trustworthy information.
4. Parents and families of school-aged children are most responsive to social ads, OTT streaming ads, and search ads.
Parents and caregivers are most likely to click or act on social ads, OTT (over-the-top) streaming ads, and search ads. These channels are followed by standard video ads, display ads, email campaigns (this email marketing checklist can help you with those), and print ads.
5. Nearly half of households with school-aged children have sought out school information via search.
Additionally, about 42% of household members of young children visited a school website (and 40% clicked on an online ad) to learn more about early education and childcare programs.
These spots on the search engine results page (SERP) are go-to places for parents looking into childcare options.
6. 80% of parents would switch childcare providers if they found a center that offered shared videos and pictures of daily activities.
Here is a breakdown of what parents say providers could offer to motivate them to switch childcare centers:
- Shared videos and pictures: 80%
- Parent communication app: 63%
- Digital documentation: 63%
- Assessments: 62%
- Contactless check-in: 60%
- Contactless payments: 53%
- At-home activity content: 51%
⭐️ Get more data, stats, and tips for your early childhood education business by downloading our Early Education Digital Advertising Benchmarks!
8 childcare marketing strategies and tips
Check out these childcare marketing ideas and strategies guaranteed to boost your enrollment rates.
🌱 Make an effective, actionable plan to grow your childcare center or school using our free growth strategy template!
1. Create a target audience persona
Knowing your ideal parent, guardian, family member, or caregiver who would make the decision on enrolling children of your target age group is critical to finding marketing success. It might feel silly at first, but truly try to picture that person in your mind. Consider their lifestyle, day-to-day activities, household income, and more.
For instance, we’ve found that the average household income of families with school-aged children is $94,200 per year. Along with that, 65% of families with children ages K-12 average an annual household income of over $50,000. Data points like these can inform your audience targeting strategy to ensure you’re showing to the right people at the right time.
2. Consider which educational or extracurricular programs are most important to your audience
Our recent education study found that STEM, arts and music, and sports and activities are the most popular offerings families look for in an education program for their children. See how you can play up these programs in your marketing copy, ad creative, and more to ensure your campaigns focus on what’s most important to your audience.
3. Highlight what your organization offers in terms of safety, education quality, and affordability
Our education study found that these three major traits are most important to parents when choosing a school. In other words, a better, more personalized education, along with safety and tuition affordability, are the factors most likely to drive transfers to your program.
Be sure to include these three key points in your brand messaging, ad copy, and more to stay competitive within the education industry.
4. Offer tours and open houses
According to our education study, 57% of parents prefer to visit a school in person to conduct deeper research into potential programs for their child. 49% also visit a school’s website and 45% read parent reviews.
Since the majority of parents are looking to visit your childcare center or school in person, be sure to make it easy for them to do so by frequently offering tours and open houses. Whether you host and advertise a full-fledged event or simply offer regular drop-in hours for parents and caregivers to tour your learning facility, including that in your childcare marketing promotions, can make all the difference in your enrollment numbers.
5. Know what channels matter most in your childcare marketing strategy
Parents and caregivers are looking everywhere in their enrollment decision journey, so be sure you’re implementing a cross-channel marketing strategy that catches your audience at every stage of the funnel.
Consider all your potential marketing channel options for your childcare marketing strategy. For example, the data we looked at above called out channels like YouTube, search ads, and social ads as go-to resources for parents.
For instance, with tons of parent resource groups on Facebook and Instagram, it’s no wonder that they’re the top social channels parents use for research. So, marketing and advertising on the Meta platform should be a priority.
6. Focus on your online presence and reputation management
The most used resource for initial research by parents and caregivers is a school’s website. So be sure you optimize your business’s website to increase your online presence–making your site easy to find and navigate for prospective families.
Aside from your school’s website, parents and caregivers also rely on review sites, as well as parent-teacher reviews, when evaluating programs. Be sure to get your childcare center or school listed on as many business directories as possible, and respond to every review you receive (even the bad ones!) to strengthen your online reputation.
⚡Increase your online presence fast with our free guide on how to get more reviews, complete with tips to boost your ranking, reputation, and revenue!
7. Start a newsletter email campaign
We saw above that email is a top channel for prospective families looking to switch up early education programs. 70% of parents and guardians take action on email campaigns from schools.
Draw readers in with a regular newsletter that informs prospective families on the latest and greatest from your childcare center. For example, you could use these newsletter ideas to start and then transform your email campaigns from there as you collect data and optimize.
8. Create a brand story
A strong childcare marketing strategy goes hand-in-hand with a powerful brand story. Be sure to solidify your school’s unique value propositions and brand messaging ahead of time, so you can easily work it into your marketing promotions and copy. Start by asking yourself the following questions:
- Why would a parent choose your school or program?
- What makes your childcare center special?
- What are the core services you offer?
- Is there something you offer that competing schools don’t?
- What do you want your childcare center to be known for?
- How do you think your families would describe your organization to their friends?
- What do your families love most about your school?
From there, you can develop a marketing plan that effectively speaks to your school’s brand personality.
An example of an early education program with a clear brand story.
Turn your school into a local shining star with the right childcare marketing tactics
There is no right or wrong answer to how you approach your childcare marketing, as every school or center will have a different plan than the next. Focus on what matters most to your local audience by using the right combination of channels and promotions to attract prospective parents and caregivers. For more ways to level up your childcare marketing strategy, see how our solutions can help.
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