| In the other 3 articles I discussed mailers, door | | | | old" on all of your ads. Wording your ad like this |
| hangers, car signs, etc. In this last segment of | | | | implies a couple of things - the spot won't stay |
| marketing you home daycare (4 of 4) I discuss | | | | open for long. And that you have customers, |
| more general topics of focus, urgency | | | | which seems to imply that other parents trust |
| consistency. | | | | you so you must be ok. |
| In general there are a few common marketing | | | | Number three is consistency. Whatever marketing |
| themes that you want to keep in mind in order to | | | | tools you decide to put into place, you have to be |
| start a daycare. Number one is you want to keep | | | | patient enough to see if they will work or not. |
| all efforts very focused in a three to five mile | | | | They all take time, some more than others, but I |
| radius of your home. Most of your kids are going | | | | certainly learned that you have to give them |
| to be coming from your neighborhood. Also, you | | | | enough to see if they are working or you will just |
| want to show your location on all of your | | | | waste your time. |
| advertisements via a simple and easy-to-read | | | | Last word, I have to admit the marketing aspect |
| map. The most important thing here is to point | | | | was a good kind of challenge for me. It was fun |
| out your daycare's location relative to the parent's | | | | and exciting to see what worked. It was one of |
| home or job. The more convenient/close it | | | | the aspects of the daycare that really felt like a |
| appears the better. | | | | business. We had to get clients and do it in the |
| Number two is to create "urgency" and legitimacy | | | | most cost effective way so that we would still |
| right from the beginning with your ads (I talked a | | | | make a profit. Getting the phone to ring felt really |
| lot about this in my book and the other articles). | | | | great and was rewarding. So use your creativity, |
| In other words, you want to let the parents | | | | with the idea of getting in front of as many |
| know that a rare vacancy has popped open. Say | | | | parents as possible with the least amount of |
| something like "Spot just opened for 12-24 month | | | | effort or cash to reach them. |