Childcare Digital Marketing: Ultimate Best Practices
An in-depth guide for childcare with insightful best practices and campaigns examples to help digitally market your childcare centres.
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Do you know the best way to market your childcare business? This is no trick question, there are many types of marketing out there that may not be right for childcare. The VP at New Horizons Academy states, “With the right marketing, our average conversion rate jumped to almost 3x higher than the global average.”
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The key is pinpointing the most efficient type of marketing that best suits your unique childcare business. Read on to discover the productive power of using digital marketing to advertise your childcare centres.
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What Is Digital Marketing?
Truthfully, digital marketing is a huge umbrella term – so, let’s define it. Any marketing and follow-up that takes place online or using electronic technology to spread a promotional message about your childcare centres is known as ‘digital marketing’. In its most simplistic form, childcare digital marketing refers to marketing campaigns that parents see via computer, phone, tablet, or device. For example, parents who clicked your email receive an invitation to attend an in-centre event – because your marketing campaign was viewed online, it’s considered digital marketing.
Digital content consists of videos, online marketing or web-based tactics, paid social ads, social media posts, email, text or multimedia messages, and blogs. But why would you ever need to use digital marketing in childcare? Well, there are more than 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide that see digital marketing messages. And 91% of parents are online every day – many of which are searching for a childcare provider, so it’s vital to advertise your centre.
Many childcare businesses focus on digital channels over traditional, offline marketing because you reach a wider target audience in a format you already know parents prefer – online. 67% of today’s parents (Millennials – your key demographic) like to research, shop, and make childcare purchases online. Make the enrolment experience convenient by meeting parents where they’re at.
Traditional Marketing Versus Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is often first compared to traditional marketing. Further, traditional marketing involves marketing channels like billboards, magazine and commercial ads, print collateral, and direct mail. Think of an old-school Coca-Cola TV commercial or your favorite Super Bowl advertisement - that’s traditional marketing. Most traditional marketing is commonly used today - billboard advertisements, targeted mail, and TV commercials are everywhere.
Traditional marketing versus digital marketing in childcare.
In childcare, it’s not uncommon to see providers send direct mail to prospective parents, encouraging them to attend a parents’ night event. Even large signs outside your childcare centre that highlight the next enrolment period dates captivate parents’ attention from afar. Traditional marketing is straight to the point and, on the surface, appears efficient. However, expectations are changing, and your prospective parents today are busier than ever before. They expect convenience, an online enrolment experience, and the option to self-serve, or respond at their own pace.
Traditional marketing is still important for local businesses, but it can be hard to monitor performance. In contrast, digital marketing is easy to track and you can see what initiatives work best for your centres. Digital marketing reaches every touchpoint of a parent’s daily internet use to engage them and keep your business top of mind.
For instance, a prospective parent is using Facebook to research nearby childcare providers. Your targeted ad pops up (Facebook lets you design ads practically hands-free). Since parents often search for childcare services by location, you should filter the ad to target prospective parents near where your centres are located.
Common Types of Digital Marketing in Childcare
- Website marketing
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing and Sponsored Content
- Email Marketing
Website Marketing
38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the layout is unappealing. Website marketing involves promoting your childcare business in a way that captures the attention of parents with the overall goal of bringing in more visitors. You want your website to attract interested parents who ultimately enquire about care. Plus, a childcare website is one of the fastest ways to connect and communicate. Your website should include landing pages, or standalone web pages that have a specific purpose. Ensure each landing page has a web form to capture interest and collect parent contact information.
For example, a parent sees a Facebook ad promoting in-centre tours. They fill out an Instant Form on Facebook and are redirected to one of your website page’s that includes a digital tour scheduler. Not only are parents able to self-serve, but you also provide available options beforehand to make sure your staff is never caught off guard by a tour. Plus, the only information on your landing page is about tours, optimising your website as a powerful digital marketing tool.
Content Marketing
Content creation is at the heart of marketing. 84% of people trust the information they see online, and your parents often use this information to make purchasing decisions. Content marketing is used to attract leads because digital content is a personal way to show parents the value of your childcare centre and brand. The goal is for your content to interest parents enough, so they fill out an enquiry form. You have a lot of unique rooms, programs, and learning curriculum – and parents want to hear about it.
Create blog posts, long-form articles, and videos about valuable industry tips and your childcare centres. Parents that are further along in their enrolment journey enjoy seeing virtual tour videos that highlight your facility and positive testimonials from enrolled parents. Plus, you can segment your parent audience for a more personalised experience.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is used to drive traffic and brand awareness about your childcare centres online. It’s a great way to reach a wider parent audience that meets your target demographic. There are a range of platforms to use: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, but one stands out the most – Facebook. 78% of the Millennial parents that you’re targeting with digital marketing tactics use Facebook.
It’s a beneficial social media platform to use Ads (sponsored or paid to reach even more parents), synch up your website, or simply post to teach searching parents about your high-quality centres. Plus, social media marketing offers in-platform analytics and metrics tools, so you can easily track your childcare campaigns.
Email Marketing
The concept of email marketing is simple—you send a promotional message and hope that a prospective parent clicks on it. Childcare businesses use email marketing as a way of communicating with their audiences. Email is often used for advertisements, discounts, events, and directing parents to your childcare website. Here are popular types of emails to send in a marketing campaign:
- Blog subscription newsletters.
- Follow-up emails to parents that enquired.
- Family welcome emails.
- Holiday promotions to prospective parents.
- Tips or similar series emails for parent nurturing.
- Behaviour-based drip campaigns that let you take personalised content to the next level.
Email marketing is especially beneficial if you incorporate additional techniques and technology. Marketing automation lets you automatically segment and schedule your emails so they're more tailored to your parents’ needs. If a parent completes a tour, but they’re not ready to enrol – move them to your waitlist. Keep them engaged with email marketing as they look at other childcare centres. For more email marketing best practices and how to build childcare centre email marketing campaigns like a pro, click here.
Create content and campaigns that guide parents.
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As you know, there’s different stages in your enrolment journey. The overall flow looks something like this...
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Once the prospective parent is in your system, nurture them to schedule a tour with a digital tour calendar linked in your email and text communications.
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After a tour is completed and the prospective parent is ready to register for care, they either move to your waitlist or to the next stage of enrolment.
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Once families are moved off your waitlist – it's time for them to fill out enrolment paperwork.
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Prospective parents complete the enrolment paperwork and submit it
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Lastly, the family receives their expected start date, and the child enrols.
More or less, this is your enrolment journey. Of course, your childcare business is unique – so, the enrolment stages, number of communications, and digital marketing campaigns will vary. Check out examples of different types of thoughtful content to send parents.
Let’s take a look at a successful childcare email from a digital marketing campaign.
What Makes This Email Work
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The email is visually pleasing and represents the brand colours, font, layout, and language that Sprouts Early Education Center uses.
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It’s segmented based on where each parent may fall in their enrolment journey! There’s a section for prospective parents that are in the research stage and need to learn more about what the childcare business offers.
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Plus, there’s a section for parents farther along the enrolment journey. They can view testimonials and positive reviews from enrolled parents. It’s a great way to increase conversion rates and nurture families to enrol.
