Advertising Your Daycare, What Do You Do?

[Doodlebug]

Our licensor seriously frowns on us using the internet or FB to promote or advertise and our business openings.

I've never had a referral from Child Care Resource and Referral. When I advertise in the newspaper I seem to get the kids that have been kicked out of other daycares.

I need your creative ideas! Help!

[AnneCordelia]

I advertise:

*with colour flyers in grocery stores
*on library bulletin boards, in school staff rooms, at the bank/gov't offices
*putting my ad on 'superbox' mailboxes
*kijiji/craigslist
*other daycare specific websites.

Does your licensor have any control over how you advertise, although having a negative opinion about the 'net? Dispite all my paper ads I have gotten every single one of my current clients via internet advertising. It's where all the saavy parents are now. Your licensor needs to get with the times or all her daycares are gonna run out of clients.

Basically I googled "home daycare in *mytown*" and made sure that my name came up on the top 4 or 5 of the sites that come up.

[Michael]

Suggest you advertise in our Daycare.com Registry. We are ranked #1 on Google, Yahoo and Bing for the term "daycare" and because of that ranking many websites pay to be listed in our database since our page rank helps lift their page rank. We also get thousands of daycare searches each day.

If you reach 100 posts in this forum I also give a free listing.

[daycare]

Suggest you advertise in our Daycare.com Registry. We are ranked #1 on Google, Yahoo and Bing for the term "daycare" and because of that ranking many websites pay to be listed in our database since our page rank helps lift their page rank. We also get thousands of daycare searches each day.

If you reach 100 posts in this forum I also give a free listing.

Sorry to hijack the thread, I looked for my daycare in my zipcode on here and found nothing do I need to sign up again?

[LittleCrawfishCC]

Ha, there is no daycares listed less than 15 miles away from me

[familyschoolcare]

Sorry to hijack the thread, I looked for my daycare in my zipcode on here and found nothing do I need to sign up again?

No it depends on how many day care are listed on your zip code. The site only pulls up 10 at a time but if 15 or listed then 5 or missed each time on a rotating bases. Michael should be able to explain better.

[daycare]

Only 6 were listed when I pulled up my zipcode

[familyschoolcare]

Only 6 were listed when I pulled up my zipcode

PM Michael ask him

[Crazy8]

Our licensor seriously frowns on us using the internet or FB to promote or advertise and our business openings.

This is ridiculous.... are they that old fashioned?? The internet IS the place to advertise. I called my CCR&R to get licensed again (mine expired and I moved, we don't have to be licensed here) and she told me if I was doing it for the referrals not to bother - that they don't get that many calls anymore - she said it was due to the economy but I told her no, its due to this thing called Google and she laughed. I have gotten more calls/emails from my website in the last 6 months than I got from CCR&R in the last 10 years.

[Christina72684]

I've gotten several clients from our Facebook page, and the majority of them from Word of Mouth. Our daycare is on the same road as an elementary school, about 1/4 a mile away, so our sign helped too. We told our clients and people that we know that if they refer someone who signs up, we'll give them a $50 gift certificate to their favorite restaurant, or $50 off their bill here. I think that's helped people spread the word in a positive way.

[Michael]

Sorry to hijack the thread, I looked for my daycare in my zipcode on here and found nothing do I need to sign up again?

PM me your info.

[sharlan]

This is ridiculous.... are they that old fashioned?? The internet IS the place to advertise. I called my CCR&R to get licensed again (mine expired and I moved, we don't have to be licensed here) and she told me if I was doing it for the referrals not to bother - that they don't get that many calls anymore - she said it was due to the economy but I told her no, its due to this thing called Google and she laughed. I have gotten more calls/emails from my website in the last 6 months than I got from CCR&R in the last 10 years.

I have not received a single call from CCR&R in the past year.

I've got one call from here, have that one. The rest of my calls have been from Craigslist.

[Sprouts]

I use:

Vistaprint and made car door magnets
Signs for my lawn ( I am close to a main road, but anyone driving by can see)
On vistaprint i made Post cards and they were even mailed out for me! You just choose which type of persons you want to receice, I chose people who are new home buyers.
I made a website through Wix.com, very easy and cute looks professional, some people think I am a center. ( sproutinglearners.com )
If you get Metroparents in your area you can also advertise through them, I got A LOT of phone calls through this parent magazine metroparent.com
I also made a logo and going through the trademark process.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any other questions about any of these.

[Doodlebug]

Thank you! All of your ideas were very helpful! Time to get my info on the internet for sure!

[Meeko]

Our licensor seriously frowns on us using the internet or FB to promote or advertise and our business openings.

It's none of licensing's business how you advertise!

I have a listing in the phone book yellow pages (which automatically puts me on google too). My phone rings daily and I fill spots as soon as I have one. Been the same way for years now. I have a constant waiting list. It was never that way until I was in the yellow pages under "child care". It costs me $16 per month, which I claim back on my taxes.