Marketing your new service is an ongoing and vital concern when opening a day care.
A well publicized Open Day is the secret, highly effective marketing event that anyone starting a day care can organize.
I speak from personal experience having held just such an event when opening my day care and the business that resulted from that one day was phenomenal.
When you start a day care you should plan to hold this event just prior to, or shortly after opening.
Showcasing your amazing day care service is the primary reason for holding an Open Day allowing potential customers to view your facility and ask questions.
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.
- 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.
My intention was to entice people in by providing a fun, family day out and to that end I arranged; - A bouncy castle.
- Face painting.
- Story telling.
- Clowns.
- Snacks for everyone.
- Local politician to do the official opening ceremony (so all the local newspapers came to take pictures and do a feature - free!).
Arrange that people can tour your day care on the open day in order to see your facilities and find out more about your service; - 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.
- Allocate staff members specific rooms and business cards and instruct them to deal with any questions or queries.
- As the day care owner you should be around to welcome people and answer questions.
- I organized a drawing with everyone writing their name and phone numbers on the back of my business cards and gave a voucher to the day care as a prize (this is a nice way to start a marketing list).
The results of that wonderful day are still felt today as many of my enquiries remembered attending the event or hearing about it.
Word spread like wildfire as people who attended told friends and relatives.
Take the time to fastidiously plan and organize a perfect open day and you will reap the rewards.
Impressed people will return or will spread the word to those they know to be seeking childcare.
Use this amazing marketing tool and have fun as you open a day care watching it fill up quickly with little kids.