Start A Day Care - Ultimate Marketing Event
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.
When you start a day care you should plan to hold this event just prior to, or shortly after opening. 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. . My big day was particularly fabulous and impressive (I'm very modest) so I figured what better way to give you some tips than to detail exactly what I did to create the perfect Start a Day Care Open Day.
- Prior to the event, I contacted my local radio station and arranged to run some advertising for a couple of weeks. I arranged to have the ads run during drive time when I knew my potential clients would be traveling to and from work. - As part of the deal the station provided their fleet of novelty cars to attend the event with staff on hand to give out freebie promotional materials. That really provided the X factor! - I had promotional flyers printed and paid a few kids to distribute them 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 few art students to do face painting. - A couple of drama students to be clowns. - Some more drama students to tell stories. - A fun bouncy castle. - Nibbles for all. - 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; - The day care is on show so excellent presentation is vital. Every playroom was laid out to best showcase the space and equipment. - Staff were positioned in all the rooms ready to talk, answer questions and hand out business cards. -I personally floated around, greeted people and addressed queries. - 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 is somewhat of an expert on child care having run her own day care for a decade. She writes about her experiences on her childcare website and shares even more on her 'Start a Day Care Business' DVD guide: Open Daycare You can find her at her Day Care focused website.
Published August 14th, 2008
Filed in Business, Home Business