Marketing your childcare service

Where are you now?

The first step in working out a marketing plan is to assess where you are now. Look at your current customers – who are they and why do they use you? It may be because you're close to a particular school, because of the hours you offer or some other reasons.

What are your aims?

Do you need to get more children in general, or on certain days? Maybe you are full now but you are about to lose some children when they start school? Being clear about what you want to achieve is important.

Who are your competitors?

Are you in an area where there are lots of childminders? If so how can you make yourself stand out from the crowd? Are your competitors full or do they have vacancies as well? Is there anything you can do to give yourself the edge? Knowing who your competitors are and what they are doing can be helpful. Is there a gap in what’s available that you may be able to fill – perhaps by being more flexible about the days or hours that you work?

Who is your target audience?

Your target audience is parents and carers of children who live, work or go to school in your area. Are there any workplaces near that you could targets – perhaps somewhere that some of your current parent's work?

How can you reach this audience?

For many childminders, word of mouth is the most effective way of getting new customers – existing or past parents pass on your details, or other childminders may pass on customers that they can’t take.

Make sure you spread the word amongst friends and colleagues when you have vacancies.

If you need to advertise, think about places that parents of young children in your area visit. These might include surgeries, local shops, toddler groups, baby clinics, Sure Start buildings, libraries or leisure centres. Target these with cards or leaflets. Ask your existing parents for ideas on good places – you can ask them to take some information along to places they visit.

Maybe there are notice boards in the local blocks of flats where you could put some information.

What's your unique selling point?

If you're designing cards or leaflets to distribute, think about what makes you special and don't be afraid to shout about it! A simple message that says “Childminder in xxx area has vacancies” might do the trick, but think about what might make your advert stand out from the crowd if it was on a notice board with several others.

What’s special about you? Is there something particular about your home – perhaps a dedicated play room or a large garden? What sort of activities do you do with the children? Have you done any training? What can you say about yourself as a person that might make the advert more appealing? What sort of things would appeal to you as a parent?

Where are you now?

The first step in working out a marketing plan is to assess where you are now. Look at your current customers – who are they and why do they use your nursery? It may be that it's close to where they live, close to where they work or on the route between the two. If you don’t know the answers to these questions, consider a survey.

What are your aims?

Do you need to get more children of a certain age, or on certain days? Maybe you are full now, but the predicted numbers for next year are very low. Being clear about what you want to achieve is important.

Who are your competitors?

Are you in an area where there is lots of other provision? Do your competitors open or close at different times? Are their prices similar? Are they full or do they have vacancies as well? Knowing who your competitors are and what they are doing can be helpful.

Who is your target audience?

Your target audience is obviously parents and carers of preschool children. Do most of your children tend to come from the immediate area, or are they from some distance away? If numbers locally are falling, perhaps you need to look slightly further afield.

How can you reach this audience?

Do you have a local "presence"? Is your signage good so that people driving or walking past notice you? Is it clear what service you offer? For example, if you offer preschool sessions as well as full day care, make this clear.

Where do parents of young children in your area go? Think about surgeries, local shops, toddler groups, baby clinics, libraries, and leisure centres. Target these with posters or leaflets – see the separate guidance on producing written materials. Ask your existing parents for ideas – maybe they can promote your service at their place of work – word of mouth is often the best form of advertising. There may be workplaces nearby where you don't have any contacts – could you target them? If you are located on a main travel to work route look at where your parents live and consider promoting your service there.

In terms of paid advertising, look for targeted publications as well as general newspapers etc. Sometimes newspapers produce supplements targeted specifically at parents, or local community newsletters can be good if you are targeting a specific area. Monitor the effectiveness of any advertising you do by always asking parents where they heard of you and recording this information.

Make sure that you always keep the Children and Young People's Information Service informed of your vacancies. If you're registered in this directory, you can submit an update yourself, or contact them on 023 8083 3014.

Where are you now?

The first step in working out a marketing plan is to assess where you are now. Look at your current customers – who are they and why do they use your particular preschool? It may be that all their older children have come to you, because you’re close to a particular school, or some other reasons. If you don’t know the answers to these questions, consider a survey.

What are your aims?

Do you need to get more children in general, or on certain days? Maybe you are full now but the predicted numbers for next year are very low. Being clear about what you want to achieve is important.

Who are your competitors?

Are you in an area where there are lots of pre-schools? Do they open on different days or at different times? Are they full or do they have vacancies as well? Knowing who your competitors are and what they are doing can be helpful.

Who is your target audience?

Your target audience is obviously parents and carers of preschool children. Do most of your children tend to come from the immediate area, or do people travel? If numbers locally are falling, perhaps you need to look slightly further afield.

How can you reach this audience?

Do you have a local "presence"? For example is it clear to anyone passing your building that there is a preschool there? If you cannot have any kind of permanent signs, perhaps you can put boards out during your opening hours. This way people passing by will notice you.

Where do parents of young children in your area go? Think about surgeries, local shops, toddler groups, baby clinics, libraries, leisure centres. Target these with posters or leaflets – see the separate guidance on producing written materials. Ask your existing parents for ideas – you can ask them to take some information along to places they visit. Maybe there are notice boards in the local blocks of flats where you could put some information.

Which schools do most of your children go on to? There will be families at the school who also have preschool children and may not know about you. Perhaps you can get an article in the school newsletter. Are there other local community newsletters such as church ones?

Written material is important but a personal approach can be good – are there opportunities to talk to parents – perhaps a stall at a school fayre or a local community event?

Make sure that you always keep the Children and Young People's Information Service informed of your vacancies. If you're registered in this directory, you can submit an update yourself, or contact them on 023 8083 3014.

Where are you now?

The first step in working out a marketing plan is to assess where you are now. Look at your current customers – who are they and why do they use the service? Do you have lots of working parents who need the service? If parents don't work, what other reasons might they have for using an out of school club? Your knowledge of your school community will be very important here. If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then consider a survey – see Know your existing customers.

What are your aims?

Do you need to get more children at breakfast or just after school? Maybe you would like to attract more children of a certain age, or more on certain days of the week. Being clear about what you want to achieve is important. Who is your target audience? Do you serve just one school or more? Remember your target audience is both parents and children – both need to be happy with the service you offer.

How can you reach this audience?

Hopefully you have ready access to parents via the school or schools that you serve. You can send written information home with all pupils but if this doesn’t seem to give results think about other ways of reaching your audience. Then think about other approaches – how can you reach parents of children who are new to the school each September? Written material is important but a personal approach can be good – are there opportunities to talk to parents – perhaps fundraising events at the school where you could have a display and talk to parents? Make sure that you always keep the Children and Young People's Information Service informed of your vacancies. If you're registered in this directory, you can submit an update yourself, or contact them on 023 8083 3014.

What messages do you want to get across?

Think about it from a parent's point of view. If your aim is to raise awareness of your club then a "drip, drip" approach is needed – little and often. Peoples' circumstances and needs change so regular reminders are important. Try and have a standing item in the school newsletter at least every half term just reminding people that the club exists. Make it clear that parents are welcome to visit for a look around and give them a contact number if they want to find out more. If you’re flexible about what days children can attend, make sure you say this – people may assume that they have to attend every day or on fixed days each week.

Emphasise the benefits – what are the benefits to parents and children of using your club? Ask your current users what they like about the club and use their quotes (anonymously) on your marketing materials – potential customers like to hear what other users think of the club, not just what you say. Don't be afraid to sing your praises – if you've had a good Ofsted report make sure people know about it.

Often marketing only becomes an issue when a setting finds itself with lots of vacancies. In fact it's about keeping existing customers as well as attracting new ones. Marketing should be on ongoing and planned activity, and not just something you think about when you have a crisis.

Parents and children have an increasing range of choices available to them, and their expectations and needs may have changed over the years so you need to make sure you are giving them the service they want.

The definition of marketing talks about 'anticipating' demand, so planning ahead is an important part of marketing. All your places may be full now, but what about next year when the next group of children moves on to school?

What information do you have?

What do you know about your existing customers – who are they and why do they use your setting? What do they particularly like about it, and what bothers them? A simple survey can help you to get up-to-date information if you don’t have it. It is a good idea to ask all new customers how they heard about you and keep a record of this.

Finding out more

You could ask your current customers:

• How did they first hear about you?
• Did they seek the views of others before choosing you? If yes, who?
• Why did they choose you?
• What do they particularly like/dislike?
• How could the service be improved?
• Would they refer others to you? Why?

Asking for customers’ views may seem a scary prospect, but customer surveys are a great way of finding out about your strengths and weaknesses. The positive feedback is really good to have, and quotes from parents and children can be used (anonymously) in your marketing activities – prospective customers like to know what other parents think of your service. If the survey reveals issues that are bothering parents, then it is better to know so you can then address these issues before parents move their children elsewhere.

Children are your customers too, so think about some questions that you could ask them.

Designing your survey

Keep your survey fairly short and make sure it’s anonymous so that parents feel they can express themselves freely. Try to keep it fairly simple – people are more likely to fill it in if it only takes a couple of minutes.

Some questions could have a number scale such as 1 to 4, while others could be simple yes/no questions. Other questions will need to allow space for comments.

Plan to repeat the survey perhaps once a year.

What do you do with your findings?

Think about how you're going to address any issues that have been raised. As the survey is anonymous you probably won’t know who has raised issues. Show parents that you have read their responses and tell them what actions you are planning in your next newsletter.

You may decide to produce leaflets or posters advertising your setting in general, or a particular event such as an open day. There are many ways of going about this - they don’t all have to be expensive, but before producing lots of paper you need a clear plan for what you’re going to do with it! Before you start planning a design, be clear about who your target audience is and how you are going to reach them.

Ask yourself “If I produce leaflets or posters how am I going to distribute them?” They won’t work if they sit in a cupboard!

If you are promoting a one-off event you are unlikely to have a large budget so plan for something that will look good just photocopied in black onto coloured paper. If you are going for materials that are professionally printed try not to make the information too time specific. It is much cheaper to print large quantities than small, so it best to come up with something that you can use over a long period of time.

All publicity materials should have a contact number for enquiries – there’s nothing worse than wanting to know more and not knowing how to find out.

Keep it simple

Don’t be tempted to cram your materials with too many words – most publicity materials aim to be eye catching and stimulate people’s interest. Big blocks of text can be off-putting and won’t be read. Main headings and pictures or logos are what you need. You may or may not have children from a broad range of backgrounds in your setting. However, it is important that the images you use are inclusive so that anyone looking at your materials will feel welcome.

Ask yourself “If I saw this on display would I pick it up and read it?”

Highlight the benefits

Focus on the benefits to adults and children of using your setting – include some quotes from existing parents or children. Don’t be afraid to sing your own praises – if Ofsted said your were good, quote a key sentence from the report.

What makes you special?

Think about your “unique selling point”. What makes you stand out from your competitors? Maybe it’s the long experience of your staff, or the fact that they’re all local. Maybe it’s lots of new equipment or a lovely outdoor play area. Knowing what your current customers value most will be useful here.

What does printing cost?

If you decide to print publicity materials in full colour what will it cost? A popular format is a 6 page leaflet made by folding a sheet of A4 three times and using both sides. If you provide the basic text and some photos you are likely to pay about £150-£200 for someone to then design a leaflet like this. Actual printing costs are about £350 for 500 leaflets, £375 for 1000 leaflets and £400 for 2000 leaflets.

As you can see it is relatively expensive to print small quantities. Therefore it would be best to produce leaflets that will have a long life – avoid references to specific dates and prices. Try and give more than one phone number in case this changes. A slightly cheaper way is to print in two or three colours only. Obviously this doesn’t work for photos but can be effective if you just use logos and children’s artwork.

Please note that charges vary widely and the costs above can only be a rough guide.

The effect of good press coverage is priceless. It’s free, and it carries a lot more clout than advertising. So a news item or a feature on your setting could be worth its weight in gold in terms of publicity.

Good media coverage requires persistence and a concentrated effort, but your work will eventually pay off and one success will quickly lead to another. Try not to get demoralised if it doesn't work immediately - it takes time to build media interest.

What might the local media be interested in?

• Local success stories
  • if your setting is expanding
  • if you have just gained an accreditation award
  • if one of your children has done something unusual
• Special events or activities
  • fundraising events
  • something which ties in with a national day or event
  • e.g. Mother's Day, National Play Week, a Diwali celebration
  • fun days, carnivals
  • local community get-togethers
• Local angles on national news e.g. a government announcement about childcare or new legislation

Write a press release

• Write press release in large letters at the top
• Type the date of your release at the top so that the editor knows it's a current story
• Give your release a heading which encapsulates the story e.g. Local pre-school gets quality award. Keep it simple and factual
• Summarise the story in the first paragraph so that if everything else is cut, your release is still publishable
• Use double spacing and wide margins so that its easy to edit
• Keep it clear and to the point - a maximum of one side of A4
• Avoid extravagant adjectives – you are writing a news item, not an advertisement
• Include a photo where you can, or phone the Picture Editor at the paper and invite them along
• Put two contact names and telephone numbers at the end of the release - journalists have limited time and if they cannot contact you, it will go into the bin and someone else will get the column inches
• Phone the paper and find out who to send it to. Make sure it is personally addressed.
• If the press release is about an event or activity, send it about 10 days before it's due to take place
• Be persistent, not rude. Phone the person you have sent it to a few days after you have sent it to make sure it arrived. Be prepared to send or fax another copy of your release.
• If you can, provide it on email – journalists get a lot of press releases, and they are likely to use yours if it’s the one in a user friendly format.
• A list of the key local media with contact details is available.

Write a letter to the editor

Letters pages in the local press are widely read. Writing to the editors of the local newspapers is a good way of getting your message across. Keep the letter short - to ensure that it is used and read.

Contact local radio

Would your local radio be interested in an interview with you on aspects of childcare? How about a phone-in? Make the most of any opportunity with the media. You will find that if you come across well, you will be asked back again.

• If you are invited to be interviewed on the radio, always make sure that you are well prepared.
• Find out who else will be on the programme and don't be afraid to ask who they are if you do not know.
• Find out how long the interview will last, whether it is live or recorded and what sort of questions you will be asked. Also try to anticipate what questions will come up and think of an answer beforehand.
• Make sure that you know what you want to say and try to keep one or two good facts in your mind. Facts and figures make you sound like an expert - whether you are or not!
• Preparation doesn't necessarily mean being available for comment all the time. If someone in the media telephones you for an interview, do not feel obliged to answer their questions straight away. Buy time to think through what you want to say and call them back later.

Media contact list

Southern Daily Echo

• Tel: 023 8042 4777
• Email: newsdesk@dailyecho.co.uk
• Visit the Southern Daily Echo website

BBC Radio Solent

• Tel: 023 8063 1311
• Email: radio.solent@bbc.co.uk
• View the BBC website - Radio Solent

BBC South Today

• Tel: 023 8022 6201
• Email: south.today@bbc.co.uk
• Visit the BBC website - South Today

Wave 105

• Tel: 01489 481 058
• Email: news@wave105.com
• Visit the Wave 105 website

Where are we now?

The first step in working out a marketing plan is to assess where you are now. Look at your current customers – who are they and why do they use the service, or why would they refer people to your service? How did they hear about you? Are there any particular days or times when you need more children?

Who are your customers?

Try and think widely – you customers are obviously parents, but your customers could also be people you want to influence, such as health visitors or school governors, and the children at your setting are definitely customers too!

What and when?

What are the key messages you want to get across? Is it that you want parents to know that you offer afternoon sessions? Or that pre-school helps children to be more confident? Or that the after school club is childcare you can rely on?

When is the best time to get your message across? At the beginning of term? Just before the summer holidays? At the school gate first thing in the morning?

What are your aims?

Maybe it is to fill vacancies or to attract different sorts of customers – such as more of a certain age, or more on certain days of the week. Writing down your aims and a timescale for achieving them will help you to be clear about what you are trying to achieve. This is the beginning of a marketing plan.

Drawing up a marketing action plan

A good plan will list actions, identify a responsible person and set a timescale.