When opening a day care you are constantly and desperately looking for ways to market your new business. . A well publicized Open Day is the secret, highly effective marketing event that anyone starting a day care can organize. I held one when opening my day care and it proved to be my most successful marketing endeavor reaping rewards to this day.
This magical ‘Open Day’ can be organized just before or, shortly after, you open a day care. The purpose of the event is to allow prospective clients to come and view your facility, ask questions and generally discover your amazing day care service. I deliberately organized a fantabulous event so will detail exactly what my Open Day entailed thus giving you some ideas for when you start a day care.
- I bargained with my local radio station prior to the big day and organized some on air advertising. I figured most of my customers would be commuting so I arranged to have the ads run during drive time. - The radio station threw in a guest appearance by their fleet of personalized, fun cars plus staff handing out fun gifts. They really added to the festive, special feel of the day. - Rounding up a few local kids I had them distribute some promotional flyers locally. An Open Day needs to be fun and family oriented thus encouraging people to attend so I arranged the following party like activities; - A bouncy castle. - A couple of drama students to be clowns. - Story telling. - A few art students to do face painting. - Snacks for everyone. - The official opening ceremony was performed by a local politician and the local rags followed him to take pictures and write a piece for free. I opened my day care for tours so people could see first hand what I had to offer; - Polished presentation is very important when showcasing your day care. I carefully arranged the layout of all equipment in every room in order to show the day care to best effect. - Staff were positioned in all the rooms ready to talk, answer questions and hand out business cards. - As the day care owner you should be around to welcome people and answer questions. - We also arranged a raffle and asked people to provide their contact details (nice little database thank you) with the prize being a voucher for the day care. The results of that wonderful day are still felt today as many of my enquiries remembered attending the event or hearing about it. Word of mouth advertising resulting from this event was also phenomenal. Word spread like wildfire as people who attended told friends and relatives. . A well organized, properly planned open day will be fun and memorable and people will talk about it. Impressed people will return or will spread the word to those they know to be seeking childcare. So, when opening a day care put your events hat on and utilize the best day care marketing tool out there.
Fiona Lohrenz draws on her 10 years of running a day care to write articles on all aspects of child care. She also pours this wisdom into her childcare website and has used it to produce a ‘How to Start a Daycare Business’ DVD guide: Starting A Daycare Fiona can be found at her website, which is all about Day Care.
- Rene Sandan
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