How to Take Your Marketing from Blah to BAM!
We are in the middle of our 6 Weeks in 6 Days Back to School Challenge. Where we hope to help you get your program full this fall. We are spending this 6 weeks focused on this Back to School Challenge to get you prepped, prepared and ready for a fabulous fall. Here on the Early Childhood Business Made Easy podcast we are going to spend this last 6 weeks of summer together reviewing many of the key strategies and systems that will help you be successful.
Last week we covered the key elements to building your winning team:
The Importance of Quality Team Members
Why It's Important to Invest in Quality Team Members from the Start
How To Identify and Attract Top Talent
Making Sure the Process Is Streamlined and Efficient
This is WEEK 4 of the Back to School Challenge and we are talking all about strategies for adding fresh, new marketing ideas that will attract more families to your early childhood business.
So… are you ready to take your marketing up a notch? If you're looking for ways to make your marketing more effective, look no further! Today, I am sharing some of the exact tips and tricks I have used for over 20 years. All designed to show you how to take your marketing from blah to BAM!
Your marketing strategy is the engine that drives your business. It is what determines how you'll find and attract families, and how you'll convert them into paying customers.
To create a winning marketing strategy, you need to think beyond traditional marketing tactics.
You need to understand your families’ needs and desires.
You need to be able to reach them where they are.
You need to how to convert them into paying customers.
To do this you need to take your marketing up a notch. Why? Traditional marketing tactics are just not enough to engage today’s busy parents. And more importantly, there is not enough time in YOUR day to do the traditional marketing tactics and keep up with them on a regular basis.
Today I am sharing with you these 4 factors you need to get clear on to help you take your marketing strategy up a notch just like I did.
1. Know Your Audience
2. Create Engaging & Unique Opportunities
3. Reach Parents Where They Are
4. Convert Leads Into Customers
Know Your Audience
The first step to creating a winning marketing strategy is to understand who your customers are. This is the first and most important step. You need to know who you're marketing to before you can even begin to create a marketing strategy.
Who are your ideal customers?
What are their needs and desires?
What motivates them?
Once you have a good understanding of your audience, you can create a marketing strategy that resonates with them.
Create Engaging & Unique Opportunities
After you have identified the needs and desires of the parents you are hoping to serve, the next step is to create compelling, engaging and unique opportunities. This is what will attract and engage your potential parents. It needs to be interesting, relevant, and valuable. If it's not, they'll quickly move on to something else.
Your marketing needs to be compelling and interesting enough to get parents to take notice. It should be relevant to their unique needs and desires, and it should be presented in an engaging way.
I am not talking about the core pieces every quality early childhood business should be talking about in their marketing. Things like, curriculum, amazing team members, beautiful facilities, quality care and education, etc. Remember, we said we were taking this up a notch!
I am talking about coming up with creative ways to meet the needs of of the families you are hoping to serve and use those as part of your marketing strategy. Now, some of the things I am about to share are not new. And that is the great part! What might be new is helping you use them as a tool in your marketing strategy to attract more families.
Three quick wins I want to share with you are:
No School Day Camps
Enrichment Programs
Hi Neighbor Baskets
These are three easy ones you can start with today!
Reach Them Where They Are
Another way to take your marketing up a notch is to use different channels. Don't just stick to one or two channels that you're comfortable with. Experiment with different channels and see which ones work best for you and your business.
Your customers are not all in the same place. They're on different channels, at different stages of their buyer's journey, and they have different levels of interest. To reach them where they are, you need to create a multi-channel marketing strategy.
Because not all marketing channels are created equal. You need to use the channels that your target audience is actually using. There's no point in investing time and money into a channel that they're not even aware of. Do some research and figure out where your target audience hangs out online, and that's where you should focus your efforts.
Convert Leads into customers
Once you have attracted customers with your engaging and unique opportunities, you need to convert them into paying customers. This can be done through effective lead conversion tactics such as providing a free trial or offering a discount for signing up.
One of our best lead conversion tools is our Bring a Friend Fridays. Preschool and playdates are best with a friend! We allow families to help spread the word about us and offer new families the chance to see how amazing we are.
Now we do have a sign-up process and management plan that we share in more detail in our Membership, but overall it is a pretty easy process to manage with ratios and meeting licensing standards. It costs nothing and fills open spots if when we have them. Truly a win-win!
I discuss all of this in more depth in the episode above, so make sure to give it a listen!
Talking Points
To create a winning marketing strategy, you need to think beyond traditional marketing tactics. (00:22)
It is important to be creative and tailor your marketing by coming up with engaging and unique opportunities for the parents you are targeting. (05:19)
it does not matter how much money you spend on beautiful marketing if you cannot execute a strategy that converts it into enrollments. (06:48)
Your marketing needs to be compelling and interesting enough to get parents to take notice. It should be relevant to their unique needs and desires, and it should be presented in an engaging way. (12:20)
Resources
