Early Years Marketing 3: Promoting your setting

Having created an image and made good use of market research information to shape the range of services provided, it is important to make the wider world aware of your organisation and the services it provides. Good marketing and promotion is essential to the ongoing success and development of any early years setting or school and should not be overlooked.

Defining the USP
The unique selling point, or USP, defines what makes one early years setting different from every other. It is what make it stand out in a crowd, and what might make a parent choose one type of provision over another. By definition the USP will be different for every individual setting but might, for example, be related to:

• quality assurance accreditation
• extended opening hours
• special facilities for children with disabilities
• on-site adult learning opportunities
• a pick-up and drop-off service in partnership with local schools.

By asking the right questions in a market research questionnaire it is possible to find out which of these services might be important to any particular group of customers. The service can then be marketed to them as a reason for choosing to use one particular early years provision over another.  When promoting a setting’s USP it is a good idea to spell out to potential customers why a particular service will be of benefit to them.

For example: ‘Update Childcare is open from 7.30am which means that you can drop your child off and still be at work on time’.’

Marketing opportunities
Marketing an early years setting or school is important for its long-term sustainability as, by the very nature of the services provided, there will be a constant turnover in customers. As children grow up and move on the viability of the setting or school will be dependent on attracting new families to use the services provided.

Marketing opportunities come in many different guises, including:

• personal recommendation
• press releases and coverage in the local media
• childcare directory listings
• printed promotional material
• websites and e-brochures.

This article will look in more detail at the first three of these – personal recommendations, coverage in the local media and childcare directory listings. The two remaining areas will be covered in future articles.

Personal recommendation
This is potentially the most powerful marketing tool any early years setting has. Parents who are satisfied with the service the setting provides will be happy to recommend it to friends and family. The way in which the setting is viewed by its local community – neighbours, visiting professionals, local schools, suppliers and local tradespeople – will generate a reputation which will either attract or deter new customers.

In order to build a good reputation the way in which the setting or school evidences how it values partnership with parents and the local community must be a very obvious feature of its day to day running.

This will include:

• the quality of the setting’s communication with parents – by letter, telephone and e mail
• how visitors to the setting are treated
• the visual appearance of the setting, indoors and out
• the degree to which the setting involves itself in the life of the local community
• time spent on building up strong partnerships with schools and other providers in the area.

Press releases and coverage in the local media
The local media is a wonderful source of free publicity. News editors are always on the lookout for interesting stories, and events involving children are popular. Newspaper articles or radio/TV interviews linked to particular events or projects provide a promotional opportunity for the event itself and for the setting in general.
To make the most of this free publicity try to make life easy for the reporter who might be covering the story. Be proactive in contacting the media, give them plenty of notice and compile a well-structured press release.

Stories which will gain media attention are:

• an anniversary event involving the setting
• celebration of an award for achievement – member of staff or the setting itself
• an activity involving the local community, not just parents
• a contract for new business, the establishment of a partnership arrangement or the creation of new jobs
• a link to a national initiative – use this as an opportunity to provide childcare information for parents and potential parents
• fundraising or sponsorship of an educational/childcare project in another part of the world.

Newsletters produced by the Early Childhood Services department of your local authority often feature news and events from local settings and the  Childcare Information Service provides information for parents on all registered childcare provision.

Writing a press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:    Tel:
Mobile:    Fax:
Email:    Address:
Date:
TITLE
(Not too long. Eye catching. Possibly linked to a local or national initiative)
Include all the relevant details in the first paragraph in case your press release is shortened for publication.
Start with an unusual opening sentence – something that will make people want to read on. A quote from a parent or a child always works well.
Think about the press release from the readers’ point of view – what would they be interested in?
Try to incorporate your vision and values statement in each of your press releases.
Keep the sentences short and uncomplicated – 17 words to a sentence.
Use double or 1.5 line spacing for the text.
Complete paragraphs on the same page.
Indicate when you have come to the end by using: ###

Read the other articles in this series:

Part 1: Creating an image
Part 2: Knowing your customers
Part 4: Promotional material
Part 5: Running a marketing campaign