Finding Kiddies - And Parents - For Your Business

Fortune Small Business:

Q: I own a daycare. My prices are very competitive and so is my curriculum, but I seem to have a problem getting more kids into the daycare. I do not have a problem keeping them once they get in. What am I doing wrong?

A: “You’re not doing anything wrong with your daycare service at all,” assures Lois Geller, author of Response: The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing. “Your challenge seems to be in the marketing.”

Since you’re doing a good job with keeping the kids you have, leverage their loyalty by setting up a customer referral program. In your usual correspondence to the parents, enclose a card where they can suggest a few people they know who are in need of daycare services. If they respond, you can send them a “thank you” gift in return.

You could also create an advertisement flyer and post it in all the places that your target parents frequent - local elementary schools, the library, the supermarket, the bank, the ice cream parlor, and so forth. Be sure to have a URL for them to refer to. No experience with websites? No worries: “It doesn’t have to be spectacular, just good enough to reflect the great service you already provide,” says Geller.

Photo by MSDesigns.

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