How to Advertise a Daycare - Methods and Examples

There are many different advertising and promotional methods that you can use to get word out about your daycare business. Below we offer ideas on how to advertise a daycare and we set out a variety of methods that may be worth testing.

Launch Party

Organize a launch party to celebrate the opening of you new daycare business. This is a great chance to thank everyone who has helped you out through the planning stages of your business and is also a great way to meet prospects. Invite influential people such as community leaders and journalists as well as families that you know with children in your targeted age group.

Business Cards

Make yourself a mobile advertisement for your daycare. Have business cards made up and hand them out to people that you come across as you go about your daily business and socialize.

Building Signage

If you are renting space in a commercial building to run your daycare then you should be able to make use of signage to draw attention to your business. This option may not be so simple for a home-based daycare as many residential areas have ordinances that forbid households to install advertising signage.

Flyers and Postcards

Flyers and postcards are another great way to get the word out about your daycare. Even simple, inexpensive flyers can be effective and there are so many ways that you can distribute them. The response rate for advertising material that is mailed or handed out to clients can be pretty low. However, you will probably only need to get a handful of leads out of it to justify the cost. Buying a mailing list of postal addresses of families in your target market is one way to do it but you would likely do much better just by delivering them in the area that you are targeting by hand. If you hand deliver them door-to-door you should first check with your local post office as some cities have regulations that forbid unsolicited mail.

Community Notice Boards

Once you have had some flyers made up there should be numerous places where you are able to post them for free. Think about areas that get good exposure and then go around placing your daycare advertisements on notice boards at schools, churches, doctor's clinics or anywhere else that is appropriate. Always ask for permission first.

Vehicle Advertising

Whether you are using your vehicle for business purposes or for personal reasons you will be spending a lot of time driving around the area close to where your daycare is located. Having an advertising wrap fitted to your vehicle has an initial cost but offers years of free, highly targeted exposure. Try to increase the attention that your vehicle gets by parking in prominent positions outside of schools, hospitals or sports stadiums.

Local Publications

An advertising campaign in a local newspaper or magazine is a great way to launch your new daycare center by introducing your business to the community. Newspapers are often desperate for advertisers and if you negotiate with them you should get some good discounts. If you really push them they may also do a small article on the launch of your new business. Other local publications like community newsletters can also be promising.

Yellow Pages Advertising

The Yellow Pages is still often the first place that people look when they search for a local business. Even though consumers are starting to search more online, The Yellow Pages still offers most people a faster, more convenient solution for finding a local service provider.

This advertising medium can be expensive but due to its potential it is definitely worth testing. Find out the deadlines for submissions early on in your business planning process so that you don't miss out on getting in the next edition.

The design of your advertisement will determine its success as it is likely that it will be surrounded by the ads of your competitors. Most people will only contact the first two or three ads that catch their eye so it is important that your ad is the one generating these responses.

Large advertisements are not always cost effective whereas small ads can pay for themselves many times over if they are designed effectively. It is well worth doing some research into the design elements that can help your ad to stand out against the others.

Online Advertising

Many people search for services on the Internet these days. Online advertising is great because it is easy to zero in on your target market and you can easily track results to see which online advertising methods are cost effective.

The best way to advertise your daycare on the Internet is to have a website and attract targeted traffic to it. This can be done by optimizing your website for the search engines (SEO) or by buying traffic through advertising platforms like Google's Adwords. You can also try to buy advertising space on websites that are visited by local people who fit the demographics that you are targeting.

Even if you don't have a website though there are many opportunities to advertise for free online. Many daycare business owners use classified sites like Craigslist to generate leads.

Well planned advertising campaigns along with a wider marketing strategy can really make the difference between the success and failure of your daycare business. Be sure to devote a good deal of time to this area and you should have a steady stream of calls from prospective families in no time.

Additional Articles

Daycare Advertising Ideas and Tips

Effective Daycare Websites - Design Tips and Content Ideas

Daycare Flyers and Postcards