4 Creative Ways To Give Your Enrollment A Boost
How is your enrollment? Do you have spaces to fill? Keeping our centers full is necessary to ensure we have enough money to pay our expenses, give great care, and run a profitable center. Here are 4 creative ways to give your enrollment a boost!
1. CREATE A REFERRAL PROGRAM – Offer current parents a free week of child care for every new family that they refer to your daycare or center. Give the free week AFTER the new family pays the registration and the first week’s tuition. Make sure you set guidelines and communicate them to parents.
Offer teachers and staff a day off with pay or a $50 gift card to their favorite store for every referral.
2. USE SOCIAL MEDIA – Create a page for your center and post often. Ask your parents to like and follow you. Post about upcoming events, crafts the kids made, field trips, outstanding teachers, picture dates, etc. Post pics of the children playing and parents will almost always share the post of their adorable kiddo. Make sure you get parental permission before posting pictures by having each parent fill out a photo release form upon enrollment.
Create a giveaway on Facebook or Instagram. Create a post about your center and ask parents to like, comment, and share your post for a chance to win a $50 credit towards tuition.
3. ADVERTISE LOCALLY – Ask your local middle and high schools if they have ads in their newsletters, yearbooks, or sports banners available to purchase. The prices are usually affordable and you get your center in front of many local parents who may have younger kids and not know of your services.
4. MAKE FRIENDS WITH BUSINESSES- Design small postcards with your center info offering free registration when presenting the card. Then, take the cards along with a batch of fresh baked cookies to local small businesses where parents visit often. Ask them if you can place your cards on their counter or info area. You can even offer a referral fee if a family enrolls and mentions their name. The cookies will soften their defenses and make it harder to say no.
Places to consider: Pediatricians, child boutiques, bounce houses, go kart and putt-putt centers, bowling and skating centers to name a few.
You may want to experiment to see what works best for your center, but no matter what you decide, never underestimate the good old fashion “word of mouth”. If parents love the care you provide, they will tell their friends! Give great service and you will reap the rewards!