Using Promo Codes

We recently released promo codes on HoppingIn. This feature lets you, a childcare, generate codes that you can give to parents to book spots at a discount. Still, many childcares have been asking for ideas on when to use promo codes and how to offer them. 

Low times

At the beginning of the school year childcares often see a lower of enrollment. This is usually because you have a group of children that have since aged out of childcare but not all of the incoming children have started yet. 

This is a great situation to incentivize and drive children to your school. Here you can target those that might be looking to trial your school or families that might not be happy with their current childcare situation. 

Overall, this is a low time so any additional revenue that you can build here really goes a long way to helping the finances or you organization. 

First time users

You always want to grow your roster and making sure to fill that funnel is crucial to having an ongoing center. Finding families that might be a good fit for your center is hard enough so you want to ensure that those leads don't go stale. 

Using a promotion can incentivize those families still on the fence to take the next step and trial your center. Obviously drop-in is an ideal usecase here as the barrier to entry is low and there's no commitment. The promotion is a tool that you can use to push this interested family all the way to enrollment. 

Holidays

The joy of holidays can wreak havoc on your center's attendance. Using a promo code can help to bring in children to fill out rosters so that your center's revenue can remain consistent and cash flow positive. Holidays are also times that people are used to deal hunting and they're likely to jump on a deal especially if it might expire. 

We normally recommend putting an expiration date on any promo code that you create. This serves two purposes: 

1. Having a expiration date helps create a sense of urgency. You're looking for potential bookers to book now, not next month!
2. This limits your promo. Eventually you want (need?) your prices to return to the price that you initially budgeted for at setup. If this code is available forever then you don't know how or when someone might book at this discounted rate. 

Overall promo codes are a useful option for you to help drive children to your center and to lower the barrier to entry for booking. HoppingIn's goal has always been to help you earn additional revenue when you have available capacity and promo codes are just another tool in your belt!

If you don't see promo codes in your account then you might need to reach out to support to ensure that this feature is available for your account.