The paperwork’s done, your home is remodeled and it’s finally enrollment time. If you’ve put your promotion on the back-burner, it’s the prime time to start thinking about advertising your home daycare.

Even if you’ve been running a home daycare for a long time, these 5 tips for advertising your home daycare will help you boost enrollment right away, and bring in many happy kiddos who need your care.

1) Use your gut instinct to find your customers

If you’re opening a home daycare, chances are that you either have your own children or have friends with kids. Think about where you’d go for daycare recommendations.

Is it Facebook groups? Mommy and me networking events? Reddit?

Parents mostly look for quick and quality solutions. The same goes for daycare. Think about where you would turn for help, and start advertising your home daycare there. These places already have their attention for finding solutions, and your daycare is one of them.

Use that opportunity.

2) Focus on local

Digitally local (Facebook groups, message boards) is very similar to physically local. It’s great to see that people from Detroit like your daycare but it’s not like they can travel to Sacramento every morning before work.

Location is everything when it comes to advertising your home daycare. Are there daycare parents in your neighborhood? Is there a grocery store they often use, and that you can advertise in?

Don’t be afraid to be ingenious. If parents are there, your business should be there.

Same goes for Google AdWords and any kind of advertising through digital channels. They all have functions that allow you to target the people in your location, making your marketing efforts even more effective.

daycare sandwich board

Another great trick is using sandwich boards. You can put them in front of your daycare so everyone passing by knows that you’re open for business.

When focusing on local in advertising your home daycare, your main goal is to be seen.

The next step is turning the attention into enrollment.

3) There’s nothing like word of mouth

The first thing everyone does when considering a daycare is check the reviews.

Parents want to know what other parents liked, and see whether it’s applicable to their situation. That’s why it’s good to have plenty of daycare reviews. Even negative ones can help you boost enrollment if you handle them well.

If you’re just starting a daycare, there are other ways of spreading the word. Get flyers, brochures or even a simple business card that you can hand out. State only the most important and don’t forget about logos. 90% of attention is visual these days, so utilize that by creating a colorful logo.

Connect with others in your community and participate in community events. You never know who’s got a friend of a friend who needs a daycare soon. And by allowing others to get to know you, they’ll be safer knowing that their children are in your daycare.

4) Show, don’t tell

You should always give your customers the opportunity to get to know you. To do this, you can organize an open day and advertise it.

Why not have families come over for snacks and activities? It’s a great way to see who your potential customers are, and introduce them to your daycare. You can answer their questions and see what they need out of a daycare.

Ice cream and fun in the sun never hurt anybody. And if nothing else, they’ll definitely spread the word about your fun event – making advertising your home daycare a piece of cake.

5) Software

Having a full and thriving daycare is the best advertisement.

But in order to fill your spots and get to the waitlist, the parents must first know that your daycare is available.

Hopping In allows parents to browse nearby daycares who have open spots and book them with a single click. In turn, you fill your empty spots and earn extra revenue. It’s another way of advertising your home daycare to parents who need extra care.

You can even offer daycare-on-demand to potential customers who want to “test the waters” before they sign the contract.

The best part is that Hopping In is completely risk-free, since there’s no charge if you’re not using it to fill your vacant spots.

If you’re ready to start advertising your home daycare, remember:

  • Find out where your customers are
  • Go local
  • Spread the word and leave a great first impression
  • Use tools that make your efforts easier

It’s time to make your daycare seen.

Try out Hopping In today!

Author: Hopping In Blog

Sholom Strick is an expert on the business of running daycare centers and founder of Hopping In, a tool that helps childcare centers and family daycare providers fill unused spots.

To contact him or for media inquiries email s.strick@daycareteam.com

Happy Daycare Teacher

Free download!

7 power tips to get customers into your daycare fast!

 

Join our email list and get a free instant PDF! 

You have successfully subscribed, please confirm your email address for your free download!

Share This

Share this post with your friends!