Early childhood education professionals work hard to shape a centre that runs incredible programs to enhance children’s lives, with a motivated and inspired team of educators behind them. 

While building this is vitally important, it does not come with a 100% guarantee of increasing the number of enrolments your centre has. What you need is a solid marketing strategy in place to showcase all the wonderful work you’re doing at your early childhood education service. 

Of course, for most of us, our passion lies in educating and nurturing young children and supporting families — not in marketing and advertising. Well never fear, because we have compiled some proven strategies to incorporate to ensure more families near you know exactly how great your service is!

Proven Marketing Strategies for ECEC Services

Showcase what makes you different: In marketing speak, what makes your centre (or any business) different is called your point of difference or your USP — a unique selling point. This is the factor/s that is most likely to be what makes a family choose your service over another. Know what yours is and push it to the front of everything you do.

List your centre on all directories: Parents will look online for services near to them and if you’re not there then they risk not knowing you exist at all. Check out all directories, make sure you’re on there and make sure your information is current and accurate. Care for Kids, Childcare Finder, Starting Blocks, Toddle — there are many places you can be found.

Ask for reviews: During the research phase, reviews are crucial for parents. Any place you can be reviewed, aim to get positive reviews there. Ask your current and previous families in person or via email to jump on to sites and leave a quick review — many will happily oblige, especially if you give them the link to make it simple.

Invite the community in: Rather than wait until families request a tour, get an invitation out into the community! An open day or information evening can be a perfect way to showcase your service and give families a firsthand experience of who you are and what you do. Keep it inclusive and child-friendly to ensure that every type of family structure can attend comfortably. Send your invitation out via social media (maybe even a paid Facebook ad), local newspapers or newsletters, community noticeboards, community Facebook pages, real estate board sign outside for passing traffic, email to share with current members to their friends and family and any other opportunity you can think of to spread the word!

We are about to host our own Information Night at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder on November 10, which will be a great event for our current, prospective and new families.

Stay consistent: It’s very common to do bursts of marketing and advertising then phases of doing nothing at all. Like anything, consistency is key to getting results from your efforts in marketing. It’s the little things that count, like keeping your social media presence active and having a few proven ads that get results for you running regularly. 

When it comes to marketing, a little goes a long way. Write a list of marketing activities you would like to try, keep track of where your new enrolments and enquiries are coming from and keep doing what works so you can improve! 

What are your marketing strategies? Send us an email at info@bonkersbeat.com so we can share more tips and help each other improve their occupancy.