Marketing Your Business During COVID-19
These are extremely tough financial times. Many family child care providers have been closed for months and others are open but have sharply reduced enrollment.
As the fall approaches, providers are worried about their financial future. Many are anxious about how they will fill their openings. In this environment, learning how to market your program to attract parents will become increasing important in the coming months.
Wonderschool is in a unique position to help you promote your program. They offer comprehensive marketing assistance to both new and existing providers. Their program can help you quickly fill your openings with:
A professional website platform that will attract parents to your program
Access to social media tools that can ensure that parents will find you on the Internet
An online tour booking program that allows parents to easily schedule tours with you
A mobile app where you can easily manage the day-to-day operations of your business: communicate with prospective parents, digitally sign families in and out and check on automatic payments
Wonderschool is now offering a 10% discount on their services. Join Wonderschool here. When you join here, you can get a 10% discount by entering this code in the coupon code box: Tom_Copeland
Learn more about Wonderschool here.
The future of marketing
It's hard to know what the next six months will bring. Here are some observations:
Don't assume all parents will come back and want full-time care
If you have staff, don't assume they will all come back when you want them to
Don't assume you will be at full enrollment within a few months after reopening - it could take much longer
You may want to consider raising your rates because of the extra costs associated with COVID-19
Part-time care
More parents may be looking for part-time care because they can't afford full-time care or they have made other part-time arrangements. If you haven't considered offering part-time care in the past, you may want to reconsider. You will need to pay attention to ratios to make sure you stay in compliance with licensing regulations. If your hours change, contact your licensor and business liability insurance agent.
School-age care
Some parents may not want to send their child back to school or use child care centers. This will probably increase the demand for school-age care in family child care settings. You may want to look at expanding your ability to care for school-age children.
Wonderschool
Here are some articles by Wonderschool that can help you market your program:
SEO 101 for Child Care Business Owners
Why you should offer an online tour booking system
Why it's important to have a high quality website
How to stand out to parents looking for child care
Despite the financial crisis we are in, there will always be a need for family child care.
Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com
Image credit: https://www.carelulu.com/resources/childcare-providers/secret-better-child-care-marketing/
For more on marketing, see my book Family Child Care Marketing Guide.
