Easily Grow and Engage Your Childcare Waitlist 

Be Transparent with Families

Ensure parents on your waitlist are informed by being open about your policies. Consider addressing the following questions upfront:

1. Waitlist Fees: Are there costs either to apply, register, or join the waitlist?
2. Enrollment Periods: Can families apply and/or enroll at any time of year or are there designated enrollment and start dates?
3. Waitlist Order: Where is each family on your list?
4. Communication: What is the best point of contact for families to reach you? How do you keep your waitlist engaged? 
5. Enrollment Offers: Is there discounted pricing for siblings? Do you offer special pricing at various times throughout the year? Can parents defer/postpone for a few months or even a year?

Lead Nurture Campaigns

Parents have more choices than ever before about where to enroll their children for care. Many families inquire for care with 5-7 different centers, book tours with 3-4, and then contemplate between 2-3.

It’s essential that you stay top of mind with waitlisted families as they could still be looking for care in other areas. Send long-term nurture emails at regular intervals to maintain their interest and keep them excited about enrolling at your center. 

These emails should be personalized to help establish that interpersonal connection. This means that they need to include the parent’s name and/or child’s name either at the beginning of the email or within the body text. Additionally, only age-appropriate content should be shared with the family. For example, refrain from sending an email with a link to an article about potty training to a family with a newborn. Instead, share that email with a parent whose child is aged 18-24 months.

Start with 2-3 emails in their first week on your waitlist. This ensures that they feel in touch with you and don’t feel forgotten after registration. Then, you can begin to make the emails less frequent.

From 2-3 times in the first week, you send 1-2 in the second week. By the third week, you can move to once a week. Ideally, the longest you would wait between each email is 10 to 14 days. You should also consider sending quarterly newsletter emails. Discover helpful tools, like scheduling automated emails. Easily follow up with families currently in your pipeline.

Content Ideas to Share with Waitlisted Families

• Testimonials: Gather quotes or happy stories from families in your center using a survey and share the positive results with your waitlist. One of the best ways to get started is by using any online reviews that you have received from parents already. Check sources like Google, Yelp, and Facebook for positive feedback to share with your audience.

• Children’s Gift Guides: Share Christmas and/or Birthday gift guides for parents about the latest toys, games, and activities. Here’s a tip - send the birthday gift guide 1-2 weeks before the child’s actual birth date to show that you care about important milestones.

• Talk about your classrooms. For example, discuss why they look a certain way, i.e. “We use blue in our infant rooms because it creates a sense of calm and peace for the babies.”

• Video Content: Give a center tour or share a ‘day in the life’ of a child at your center, including where they check in, what the classroom looks like, where they take a nap, the playground, and where they get picked up.

• Parenting Resources: Show your personality by sending a roundup of your favorite Instagram accounts with parenting tips for families to follow. Including a bit of a ‘why I like them’ will allow people to get to know you more. Do the same with your favorite parenting podcasts.

• Pinterest Ideas: Create and/or share Pinterest boards for educational activities that parents can do at home with their children.

• Offer Introductory Play Sessions: provide a chance for parents to get a closer look at your center's environment 

• See a Waitlist Email Template: In the beginning, check in once a week with your waitlisted families to remain top of mind and answer all enrollment questions.

Use Various Communication Methods

Make sure to include some variety in your communications based on family preferences. Aside from choosing to automate waitlist emails and all follow-up emails, other forms of communication are important. Establish a phone call or texting cadence with families. It’s recommended to call the families on your childcare waitlist monthly and send a text message every other week to stay top of mind.

If you want to go the extra mile, particularly for those families paying a fee to remain on your waitlist, send them a physical mailer or small package with a children’s toy, books, or educational activity such as a planter kit which they can use to learn about eco-science and plant growth.

How much should I charge families to secure a spot on my daycare waitlist?

The average daycare waitlist fee varies depending on your city and state, as well as your regular tuition fees.  

A daycare waitlist deposit can range anywhere from $50-$350.  

You want to charge your worth but also make sure this fee is obtainable for your target families.  

Use Proven Templates for Successful Daycare Waitlist Emails

Creating emails and drafting copy that engages families takes a lot of hard work. That's why we built this guide, along with 9 FREE email templates you can start using at your center. Engage your childcare waitlist today. 

Download the full guide and email templates by entering your email below.