Do you notice a recurring drop in occupancy during the school holidays? Are your families regularly pulling their children out of care to help their financial status?
Read below to see our 4 helpful tips to maximise leads and occupancy during School Holidays from an Australian childcare expert.
1) Analyse Your Past Results
If you ever thought reporting was meaningless – you might want to rethink that and take another look. Analysing your past occupancy levels will help you distinguish what time periods you need to focus on and how much marketing spend you should be putting towards them.
Types of reports that can give you the right results:
Source of Families
Where are your enquiries and prospecting families coming from? This result will help you gain insight into how much you should be spending on each platform and what kind of strategy you put towards it.
Occupancy
When did your occupancy drop the lowest? Review these numbers in your center management system to determine when and how to focus your marketing campaigns. Releasing campaigns at the wrong time this could lead to a lower result than expected.
Current Opportunities
Who have you been in touch with lately and who do you need to get back in touch with? During the busy week, we sometimes forget who we have touched base with and who we haven’t. Either way, all families need consistent communication so they don’t forget about your centre and what’s to come!
Learn more about reporting and how to manage school holidays at your center in this guide.
2) Plan Ahead
Nothing is better than planning your days or even months in advance. It helps to reduce your overall workload and stress! Just like an educator would plan their programs ahead, it’s also time to plan your marketing campaigns.
You’ve already become friendly with the first step – reporting. Gather all of the information you have and start to plan your marketing campaigns around your analysis. Your planning strategy should go a little something like this:
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Review & analyse your data and reports.
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Determine your goals for the current time period.
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Check in with your families about their current plans for school holidays.
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Meet with your team to brainstorm ideas. Remember - no idea is a bad idea.
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Start organizing your campaigns by: date, time, resources, the people involved and the priority or urgency.
Once you have a plan and strategy in place, your entire team can start working towards the centre’s goals and accomplishments.
3) Hold In-Centre Events
In-centre events are a great chance to:
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Meet families and answer questions
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Offer extended tours of your facility
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Provide families with a chance to experience your programs
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Let parents and educators get to know each other
Events such as open day, information night, or a stay and play are easy to prepare and allow in-person interaction. Despite the popularity of virtual tours and meetings, in-person events still provide many families with a sense of belonging and help first-time enrolling parents ease their nerves.
Get more ideas for in-centre events in this step-by-step guide to maximising your leads.
4) Don’t Be Afraid To Share
The hard work that you and your team put in should never be left in the dark. Share the news and success of your marketing campaigns with friends, families, and of course, social media. Prepare to take photos and get testimonials from your families to post on your social media platforms! You can even provide a QR code at your event where families can access your Google or Facebook page to leave a review.
*Quick tip – if you have shared a post on Facebook or Instagram and it receives a lot of engagement, put some money behind it and make it a sponsored post. This will not only help the post reach your followers on Facebook, but also their friends and other families similar to them in your local area. This can help you gain more enquiries and enrolments.
Learn more about building marketing campaigns to maximise leads during school holidays by downloading our free guide here.
