We’ve covered various topics about how to market your daycare center before on the Hopping In Blog, but there’s a lot more where that came from. Among them, a house list.

At a first glance, it sounds mysterious. It’s treated as top-secret material but once you get the hang of it, you’ll see how obvious it is.

So, what is a house list? It’s basically what it sounds like: a list of current, past or potential clients who’ve expressed an interest or contacted your daycare center. It typically includes at least the name and the email address of the potential customers.

The question is: how to build it and make it work for your daycare center?

Get to Building

The first thing to keep in mind is that everyone who reaches out to you is a prospective parent.

Begin building a list of everyone who gets in touch with your daycare center. Even if they are just casually expressing interest or asking a question about it. Their interest may be very mild at first, but once you get to building and start sending out occasional updates, that’s going to change.

house listEven if your daycare center is currently completely full, have a list with anyone who contacts you. If you offer part-time drop-in care parents can use an app like Hopping In to check out your availability and make use of vacant spots. When the time is right, they can even become a full-time customer.

Having a house list is also a great way to send out offers or notices about curriculum improvements or changes, new staff hires and other relevant news about your daycare center.

You can also send out helpful insights about childcare and child development. Parents appreciate seeing your expertise and how much you care. It’s the kind of thing that really turns an interested parent into a parent who is enjoying your daycare full-time.

Just make sure you don’t send out too many e-mails, as this can actually push prospective parents away. We all know the feeling of getting spammed, so don’t be that person.

The Art of Asking

The best way to get the information for your house list is to simply ask.

Put a form on your website that asks for email when inquiring about the daycare center. When somebody calls, offer to send them your daycare center info package and ask which email to send it to. Make sure your social media pages also include links where those interested can find out more that require e-mail to sign up.

Try to find out as much as possible about the potential customer’s needs and situation when speaking. This will greatly aid in marketing even if they don’t ultimately send their kid to your daycare center. You want to know what your potential clients need. What better way than to ask them?

Always provide a place for the person contacting you to include optional information such as their child’s age and name.This allows you to adapt your approach to different needs. No two parents are the same, and the same should go for your messages.

If you know a parent has a two-year-old looking for care and you can offer that, it means you can send out a much more effective email. Combining your house list and targeted emails can be a massive boost.

It’s one thing to have an all-around great service. It’s even better to approach every family with the personal touch made just for them.

Thank you for reading! I sincerely hope the Hopping In Blog is serving as a valuable resource for daycare providers. Remember to join our e-mail list for updates and feel free to get in touch with questions or comments.

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

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