As the world is slowly beginning to reopen and head into the “new” normal, it’s time to start shifting your mindset out of crisis mode and into enrollment mode. With everyone eager to get their enrollment rates back to pre-COVID-19 levels, you need to focus on up-leveling your marketing strategies more than ever before. You and your competitors down the road may be implementing the same new health and safety precautions, but the school that showcases those precautions through creative and attention-grabbing marketing strategies is the one that will gain the most enrollments. Implementing creative and attention-grabbing marketing strategies doesn’t always have to mean coming up with something new – it can mean revising and revamping your old ones.
In the video below, I’m going to share a “Tale of Two Postcards,” as I refer to it, and walk you through how to leverage your house list of addresses during this time to gain the attention of parents to take action and enroll in your preschool by using an old-school marketing strategy.
Here Are the Key Takeaways From This Video:
- When sending any piece of direct mail, instantly capture the attention of the receiver by including graphics and emphasizing your USP’s (unique selling propositions).
- Even if you have 10-15 USP’s, only focus in on what your best top three or four are so you can attractively display them on the postcard and reduce a feeling of clutter.
- A USP that The Child Care Success Company has seen great success with among their Child Care Success Academy members is the total number of combined early learning teaching experience that their staff has. To get this number, add up the number of years of early learning teaching experience that each one of your staff members has, including yourself. Sharing that large number with prospects adds a “wow” factor to your school and it will have a tremendous impact on the level of trust that parents have with you.
- Always include a call-to-action on any piece of direct mail that you send out (and any piece of marketing material) – it doesn’t matter if it’s a hard or soft CTA, long as you include one.
- Consider making your call-to-action digital – invite parents to visit a landing page rather than calling a phone number. Providing parents with a convenient option of fulfilling your CTA that they can do during any time will significantly increase your number of respondents.
- If your call-to-action includes an offer, be considerate of your market when making one. Not every offer will have the same success rate in every market, so take the time to key in on the personality of your community.
- Take advantage of every inch of space on your direct mailer and fill up any empty space with parent testimonials and reviews. A great tip to make them appear more authentic is to capture screenshots of your best Facebook or Google reviews and directly place that screenshot onto your mailer.
- If you have yet to develop a house mailing list, start by pulling addresses from your CRM of your currently enrolled families. Continually build your list by using a phone script to capture the addresses of any phone inquiries that you receive.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Child Care Success Academy or how working with our team can be of service to your child care business, we invite you to schedule a free 45-minute Coaching Call with one of our Coaches!
