Be honest. How well do you know your daycare target market? By getting clear on the types of parents and families most likely to purchase your childcare services, you can boost enrollment, drive revenue, and cut-down on wasted time and marketing dollars.
Ready to reach more potential customers for your childcare business? Read on for actionable tips to attract your daycare target market.
What Is the Target Market for a Preschool or Daycare Center?
The target market for preschools or daycares is typically parents of young children, primarily between the ages of 2 to 6 years old. These parents are looking for a safe and nurturing environment for their children while they are at work or unavailable to care for them. Understanding the needs and preferences of these parents is crucial for daycare businesses to effectively attract and retain families.
How to Define Your Target Market and Attract New Families
Your target market is the core of your childcare business plan. You can’t afford to cut corners. The following strategies will help you define and attract your daycare target market.
1. Conduct Market Research
If you’re looking to attract more parents to your daycare, you need to get to know your target audience beyond basic demographics. Go deeper with your market research to collect data on consumer behavior and industry trends.
Keep in mind that there are a variety of free marketing tools available to help you conduct market research. A great place to start is with a simple parent survey to help you gain a deeper understanding of your existing families. Last but not least, remember that when it comes to marketing to parents—especially Millennial and Gen Z parents—it’s crucial to let your market research lead the way. This data should result in actual steps and strategies to use in your marketing plan.
2. Research the Competition
Look at how other daycare businesses are positioning themselves on social media. Note the top events and activities supported by other local businesses. What are the core marketing activities that define their strategies? Do they have any local referral partnerships in place? How well do these approaches work with their intended target market? How many online reviews do they have? Are there any other digital marketing tools they’re taking advantage of?
Marketing a childcare center isn’t the same as marketing an ice cream shop. Working parents are time-strapped and overwhelmed with information on a range of different childcare options. You need a combination of stellar word-of-mouth and a spotless online reputation to stand out. Ask yourself: Which local childcare providers have the best Google Business Profiles? What other business directories are they listed in? What do their customer testimonials look like?
Go beyond Yelp lurking to notice any changes in search engine optimization (SEO) that your competition may be using to drive organic visibility and win leads without overspending on advertising.
3. Define Your Daycare Target Market
A market segment is a group of consumers that could potentially enroll at your childcare center, but be careful not to fall into the trap of defining your market as “everyone in your community.” At the end of the day, a message for everyone speaks to no one.
A common strategy when identifying target markets is to use the TAM, SAM, and SOM approaches to look at market sizes from a top-down approach as well as a bottom-up approach.
Target Market Terms
TAM: Your Total Available or Addressable Market
This should include everyone you wish to reach.
Example: Your entire local community.
SAM: Your Segmented Addressable Market or Served Available Market
This is a portion of the TAM you will specifically target because they align with your offerings.
Example: Families with young children.
SOM: Your Share of the Market
This is the group of your SAM that you will realistically reach—particularly in the first few years of your center’s opening, as you may expand and grow your service over time.
Example: Families with young children who make at least $65,000 each year in household income.
For childcare organizations with multiple brands, schools, or programs, keeping families happy is vital for healthy revenue. That means delivering a high-quality experience for potential new customers, no matter which location they connect with.
To achieve consistency across childcare facilities, make sure your corporate branding guidelines and templates are centrally stored in your lead management system and accessible to the entire team.
4. Create Buyer Personas
Before you begin writing your marketing plan, make sure you’ve defined the target market for your daycare and buyer personas.
When you understand your ideal customer’s core pain points and motivations, you can uniquely address their concerns and questions in your marketing materials, leading to increased tours, enrollments, and revenue.
Here are some simple tips to help you get started:
- Start by listing out the various kinds of programs and classes you’d like to offer at your center.
- Then, determine who the primary decision-maker is and who the primary influencers might be in each scenario.
- Primary decision-maker: the individual(s) taking financial responsibility and remitting payment at your center.
- Primary influencers: other individual(s) that are crucial in the decision-making process.
Streamline Your Childcare Marketing with LineLeader
Don’t let your marketing strategies fall flat. By conducting regular research on your target market, you can make sure you’re getting the most out of your marketing spend.
With LineLeader, you have a powerful ally in your marketing efforts. LineLeader offers automation, CRM integration, data insights, enhanced brand experiences, and community engagement tools to help you uplevel your marketing efforts at every center location.
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