Creative Ways to Promote your Home Child Care Center

 So, you spent weeks getting your house set up perfectly, you are registered and licensed, and all ready to run your home daycare. All you need now are clients and kids. Easier said than done! Does this sound familiar? Read on for creative ways to get new kids!

• Wrap a label or business card with info on your home daycare around the candy you hand out at Halloween.
• Instead of just putting up flyers at the grocery store, mall, etc, tape a small cardboard box to the lower corner of the poster, and put some of your business cards in it.
• Coupons! Ask your local gas station or grocery store if you can leave a stack of flyers about your daycare, and put a coupon on the page with something like 10% off your first 2 weeks.
• Have magnetic signs made and put them on your car. Make sure to park at the mall and near the school a lot 🙂
• When handing out flyers and placing ads, remember to go to children’s clothing stores, indoor playgrounds, etc.
• Word of mouth! Ask your currents clients to recommend you to a friend! Also, ask your friends and clients to post your business card on the bulletin board where they work.
• Buy a magnetic sticky sheet, put your business cards on them and clip out and give them to friends, family and clients. Also, give them to teachers, leave them at the doctor’s office, the library, the video store, anywhere there might be kids.
• After going on a field trip, send pictures and a thank you note, and of course your contact information. Most places will hang these up for the public to see.
• Make t-shirts and sweatshirts with your logo and name on them. Have all the kids where them when you go on a field trip. People are sure to notice.
• Offer three mornings of free daycare at a silent auction. Free publicity!
• Contact your local hospital. Most hospitals send out some sort of a welcome package to all the new babies.  Ask if you can put a flyer or business card in it.
• As with business cards, have some inexpensive pens made with your daycare name and number. Leave them everywhere you go! Also, give them to your current clients and ask them to pass them around.
• Newspaper ads – be sure to include your approximate location, your hours, and something that makes your daycare special (ie computer lessons, etc.). It’s best to place a classified ad in the Childcare section, rather than a big display ad, if you’re on a limited budget.
• Offer your current families a Referral Discount.  For each referral that signs a contract, their child receives a $10 discount on next week’s tuition.
• Ads in your neighborhood association newsletter – It’ll go out to every family in your neighborhood.
• Fax a flier to apartment complexes, or take some to the apartment office.
• Fax or mail fliers to new home salespersons and realtors.
• Give your local schools your name and phone number. Many parents ask the school office where they can find childcare. Some schools will even keep a stack of fliers in their reception area for you.
• Tape fliers up on the inside of bathroom stalls anywhere families and children are. People have to read something while they’re in there, right?

Be creative with your marketing efforts, and you will have a full house in no time!

Good luck!
Jenny Wanderscheid
Editor
ChildFun.com