Child Care Business Archives - Page 2 of 2

#61 – The Power Is In the Message: Child Care Business Training

What are you saying to parents interested in your child care center to build that relationship of trust and get them to enroll? The power is in the message and the key is to make the marketing message about them, not about you! Yet, I see child care owners fail at this over and over again. The other day I signed up to be on the email list of a child care center, since the owner is a client of mine in the Child Care Success Academy and I like to keep tabs on my clients to know how they are marketing :-). I signed up for her list through an opt-in form on her website.

After I opted-in, I received an automated email from the child care center. It was a message that was written with the child care center as the focus, not the prospective parent. I’d like to share this with you as an example of what not to do. (And give you an example of what to do.)

The email said:

Dear Kris,

Thank you so much for your interest in XYZ Academy. We believe we are among Springfield’s finest early education programs and can meet, if not exceed, all your child care needs. We understand your choice of child care is a very personal and important decision. I will be contacting you within the next couple days to answer any questions you may have and to arrange a time to visit us at your earliest convenience. In the meantime please feel free to contact me for any information.

From,

The Director

Are you wondering what the problem is with this email? The second sentence starts with “We believe that we are….”. Well, of course you do, it’s your child care business!

The key is to have parents and teachers tell the message and story of your child care center for you, in a way the prospective parent can relate. Your emails shouldn’t be coming from your perspective, talking about your wonderful child care.

An effective message needs to be readjusted to, “We want to serve you. Here’s how you will benefit. Here are testimonials and quotes from Springfield families.” This is a message that is more centered on the prospect. They can easily relate to it because the story is coming from other parents like them.

When you look at the headline on my website, www.childcare-marketing.com, you’ll see an example of a more prospect- focused headline. The headline is:

“Do you need help growing your enrollment and revenue, managing your child care business more effectively? If so, you’ve come to the right place.” That’s four times that I used the word “you”. “We” and “I” aren’t in there once.

When you use this technique, the reader will identify with the message. They’ll understand that this business was created and tailored for them. Using this sort of language will allow you to speak in a more targeted way, identifying the perfect customer that needs what you have.

Your prospect doesn’t care if you think you have the finest child care. They just want to know what’s in it for them.

Action step: Take a look at the messaging on your child care website, your email, brochures, signage, and every other marketing message and think about how many times you use we vs. you. Use testimonials to communicate what makes your child care different and unique instead of it coming from you. That is a powerful message that should be at the top of your marketing. Take some time to flip your message to be prospect focused and make it about them, not about you.

Let this be your next step in running a more successful child care!

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#59 – Discover A Simple Shift To Transform Your Child Care

Pinterest is a great social network to reach prospects for your child care and the company has just announced that they are rolling out promoted pins. This platform just happens to be one big social media where all the Moms are hanging out. So let’s dig in and talk about a new way to reach the prospects out there that could be your next enrollment.

The new promoted pins in Pinterest are fairly similar to promoted posts in Facebook (which we can help you figure out if you’re still stuck.)

Promoted pins blend in with the other non-paid pins, so it’s fairly hard for the user to tell which pins are being promoted (which is good for you!)

The ads show up on the web and in mobile and the majority of the parents you want to reach are on mobile.The promoted pins can be CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or CPC (cost per click), similar to any Google campaign you might be running.

Clueless about Pinterest? It’s simply a website offering an image based way to “scrapbook” photos, videos, products, and objects to a relevant digital board and share these with friends. It is a powerful, growing vehicle.

Many users generally interact with products by pinning items they want to buy and collecting information about services they are interested in. If you want to learn more about how to use Pintrest to market your child care I can show you how.

So give promoted Pinterest posts a try and make sure to experiment with different pins to see what gives you the best results!

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#58 – Two Resources Helping Owners Hire Staff

Good help can be hard to come by these days. One question that keeps popping up in the Child Care Success Academy and in my Insider’s Circle group is where to find good, quality teachers and employees for child care centers. I have two resources for you to help you in your search for top notch staff for your preschool, daycare, or childcare.

One great resource is Indeed.com. This website can be a powerful place to find teacher talent and fill other positions such as cooks or administrators. It’s fairly simple to use and I’ve seen some child care owners get some great results with the website.

Once you visit the website click on the resume search link in the upper left hand side of the page. You can type in “early childhood education teacher” and other related terms to look around through people in your area.

You can also click on the “Employers” link and post your child care jobs onto Indeed.com. Oftentimes child care owners and directors are finding dozens of qualified teacher candidates through this method.

LinkedIn has also been another really popular resource to find good teachers. You can post jobs right in LinkedIn by clicking on the jobs tab. On the right hand side of the screen will be an option to post jobs, specific to your area that will target the child care teachers and professionals that you would like to reach.

There are also many early childhood education groups you can join, many even specific to your area or network. If you go to LinkedIn and search for early childhood, early childcare, early child education, and other related search terms, you’ll find different levels of groups. You’ll find different teacher groups, especially one large one in particular called the Early Childhood Education, Child Care, and CCR&R Professionals Forum, that you can join.

Within all these groups is a separate jobs tab, where you can post your positions. Yes, with some of the larger groups everyone from around the country will see it but if people want to relocate to your area they may be interested and also people within your area will be able to see it as well. Give it a try!

These are the two latest and greatest tools that child care owners are using to find teacher talent! Use it to find some great staff for your child care or daycare.

Something to think about when hiring – one super important strategy to grow your enrollment long-term is to hire the ideal person for conducting tours of your child care facility. Persuading prospective new parents is a role that is often filled by the childcare center director or assistant director. But what if the strengths of these two top administrators do not lie in that arena? How can you still have amazing tours that create the rates of enrollment that you need to grow your program? There is a simple and strategically crucial answer.

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#54 – Eliminate Enrollment Tour No-Shows

Have you had a parent book a tour at your child care center, only to not show up when it’s time for the tour? It happens a lot in our industry; parents are busy and forget, or decide on another child care option. However, it is a big time waster for you and your business, and there are actions you can take to prevent this from happening.

I have two strategies you can use to virtually eliminate enrollment tour no-shows.

First is to choose the closing language of your phone conversation very carefully. In my Child Care Success Academy coaching programs I provide my clients with a whole phone script on inquiries. This includes how to close the conversation so that you create a verbal contract with the parent.

I recommend saying something such as, “Now we realize emergencies happen and things can come up in your schedule. Could you please do me a favor and give us a call if something comes up so that we can reschedule.”

Then pause.

Give them the chance to say yes and create a verbal contract with you. They will be much less likely to no-show if you frame it right from the beginning that they are expected to call you if their plans change.

You can also say something along the lines of, “We have a lot of parents calling us to book tours and we’d love to be able to provide that slot to someone else if your plans do change.”

This creates a sense of scarcity at your program and makes it all that more desirable. Just this one strategy will help you reduce tour no-shows by at least 30-40%.

The other strategy is to send a reminder to the parents. Towards the end of the conversation you can let them know you would like to offer them the service of a text reminder or an email reminder that you can send an hour before the tour.

This also provides the opportunity to get or verify their phone and email if you haven’t done so already. Then you also have permission to text the parent which also provides another opportunity for follow-up after the tour.

Don’t forget – get the parent to make a verbal agreement with you on the phone and, second, send them reminders. These two strategies will reduce no-shows and help you to better manage and maximize your time!

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#51 One Quick Way to Propel Your Business – Become An Author!

Have you ever thought about becoming an author?

Writing a book can be a powerful way to propel business at your child care center, daycare, or preschool, elevating you to an authority figure and immediately making you a local celebrity.

I’ve used this strategy myself by writing The Ultimate Child Care Marketing Guide, and it’s become a go-to resource for those in the child care industry and a key factor in the success of my business. I knew when I got into the child care industry that my credibility as a trainer, speaker, and coach would be skyrocketed with one single tool – a book. And it did! You can do the same thing at your own business.

If you write a book related to the child care industry, parents will start to see you as an expert on the subject of child care, creating a sense of trust and admiration. This will carve you out as a leader in the field helping you attract more clients, allowing you to charge more, and helping you get the name of your child care center out there.

Some of you may have already wanted to write a book for a while but you’re not quite sure how to get published. There are actually some very easy ways to do this.

My husband Devin just went through the process with his book, Child Care Marketing Online. He was able to write, edit, and publish it on a tool called Create Space, which then has Amazon print it on demand. There is even a way to get a Kindle version published via Create Space. This is an extremely inexpensive way to get your book out there and have instant fame!

Some examples of topics you could write about relate to early childhood education, curriculum, parenting, discipline, behavioral problems or whatever you may be passionate about that connects you to your core business. You can start out by writing a guide, a pamphlet, or even a quick consumer’s guide. Whatever it may be, becoming an author immediately makes you an authority in your field.

So take some time to think about how you can become the publisher of your own ideas to get more local celebrity attention at your child care center, daycare, or preschool. Get started today by thinking about a topic you want to write about, create a book outline and set a goal for yourself for 2014 to become an author!

Check out my own book, The Ultimate Child Care Marketing Guide, here.

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