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How To Get Child Care Enrollment Leads From Social Media…

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If you’ve been waiting for the right time of the year to run social media ads for your child care business, this is it! As most of you know, the beginning of the year is usually a very busy time for child care centers. January can mean a time of change for some families, and other families are planning for changes to come. That means it’s time to get some social media ads out there to engage with the people that will need your services.

My child care clients have been seeing great results this January. Social media ads can get expensive towards the end of the year (November & December), because you are competing with all the other businesses that are running ads over the holidays. (This happens because you usually pay for the ads based on a bidding system.)

How should you take advantage of this time of the year? For many of my clients, I will run offers to potential families for a special to save $300-$1000 off enrollment. I’ll put together targeted Facebook ads that run specifically to families with the right age children within driving distance to the school. A parent will see the ad and click to input their information in order to get the flyer or coupon to save on enrollment. On the coupon will be a number to call to book a tour. If they don’t book a tour right then, it’s ok, now you have their email information and phone number so you can continue to market to them throughout the year. If you are consistent about sending out emails and engaging with your leads, this means even more enrollments down the road.

This January I’ve seen some of the best results from social media ads yet. If you have an offer or special that you’re running in a newspaper or have on a flyer, now is a great time to create an online ad for it. I started a campaign for one of my clients just a couple days ago and they have already gotten 6 leads!

If you try out this strategy, make sure to have a tracking number set up that you use on the coupon, so you know which calls are coming from the ads. The coupon should also state that the touring family should show the coupon to get the savings. The director or person doing the tour can then mark that person in your tracking software as coming from Facebook. This is a complete system that will let you know exactly how many enrollments you get from running the campaign.

If you’ve been waiting to build Facebook ads, now is the right time.

Try it out, and let me know what kind of results you get!

Do you struggle with figuring out what to post on your child care center’s social media pages? Never be stumped again…get the Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, just for child care centers.

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The Big Mistake Child Care Centers Make On Social Media

Do parents ever message your child care business on Facebook asking about enrollment?

Do you get mildly annoyed, wishing they would just call you or email you?

Does it make you feel a little uncomfortable communicating with them on Messenger?

Facebook Messenger might seem like an unconventional, maybe even slightly unprofessional, way to talk to parents about enrollment. However, Messenger is actually one of the most popular forms of communication with the new generation of parents. Knowing how to communicate effectively on this platform can help you grow your child care enrollment.

I see SO MANY child care centers simply respond by telling the person to call the center to check for availability and information. Others will respond only to the question (usually about availability and/or rates) without encouraging further communication. These are all lost opportunities to engage with potential customers. This is a great time to communicate your value beyond price, build trust, find out more about them, and get that person in the door for a tour!

Communicating on Facebook Messenger allows you to interact with potential customers in their preferred means of communication, since this is the way they reached out to you. Enrollment inquiries on Facebook Messenger should be treated just as you would treat a phone call and in this article I’ll give you some tips on how to guide the conversation. You may be surprised about the amount of tours you can book right from the online conversations you have with parents when this is done right.

1. Set up an auto responder.

Facebook has the option to set up an autoresponder to anyone that messages your business page. This is a great opportunity to let the person know you will be with them as soon as you can and the perfect time to introduce what makes your school great! You still have the option to go and answer whenever you have the time, but gives them a little bit of information in the meantime.

To turn on Instant Replies for your Page:

Click Settings at the top of your Business Page.
Click Messaging in the left column.
Below Response Assistant, click to select Yes next to Send Instant Replies to anyone who messages your Page.
To change your instant reply message, click Change, update the message and click Save.
Don’t just use Facebook’s autogenerated responder! Change the message. You have 250 characters. Let the person know that you will be with them as soon as you can and say something quick about your unique benefits.

2. Use Facebook’s personalization option in the autoresponder.

Right underneath the option to change the responder message there will be the option to add personalization. You can add in the person’s name to the message, which adds a nice touch. You can also add in your clickable phone number, which is a great opportunity to encourage people to call you for a tour if they are looking for a spot right away.

3. Designate who will be answering Facebook messages for your child care business.

You don’t want just anyone handling your Facebook messages. It should be the people that are already handling the enrollment conversations on the phone, using the same strategies. If you have your teachers, an intern, or an outside company handling your social media that may not know how to handle an enrollment conversation, it’s important to make sure you have a designated person inside your company to do so.

4. Use their message as a catalyst to gather their email and engage. Do not make the conversation about availability or rates.

Many parents will message your with simple questions about your rates or availability. Make sure to keep the focus on learning more about them, letting them know about what makes your child care special and unique, getting any info from them for further marketing, and encouraging them to book a tour. If you just respond by sending along your rates, then you are only competing with other child care centers on price.

The easiest way to sidestep this question is to say something like, “Sure, I’d love to send along our info packet. What is your email and I’ll get that to you right away?”

5. Continue the conversation and engage.

Ask them questions! After asking for their email to send them the info they are requesting, start a conversation. One simple starter: what prompted you to reach out to us today? This can be a great way to connect with parents. It may be that they are unhappy with their current child care, that they are pregnant, or that they just started a new job. This allows you to connect with them on a personal level and hear more about them. This also can usually lead into you getting more information about the child and program (name, age, FT, PT, etc.).

6. Share your unique benefits.

This is your chance to highlight what makes your child care special and unique. You can say something like, “In your email is now the information packet about our program. I’m sure your family will love our (unique benefits).” Example: 30-day Happy Family Guarantee, unique and separate classrooms by age, organic lunches, diapers provided, highly experienced staff with average of ___ tenure, screen for kindergarten readiness with an average score of…

What you have done here is effectively turned the conversation from price to what makes you stand apart and why the parents should choose you, regardless of price.

7. Ask for a tour.

You can encourage a tour in Facebook Messenger by saying something like…

“We do have limited availability. I would hate for any spots to be filled before you make your decision. Would you like to schedule a tour for you and your family to come in. I have _________________ or _______________ open, what works better for you?

Have them agree to the commitment and to communicate if they need to reschedule. “Thank you for messaging us today, we look forward to seeing you at _______________. If for any reason you need to reschedule would you please promise to call _______________ so that we can give that time to someone else who’s waiting?

This time has been reserved just for you. We all look forward to meeting you!”

8. Follow up!

If they do not want to tour at that time, make sure to set a reminder for yourself to follow up with them via Messenger in a couple days to see if they have any questions. This is a great time to engage them in further conversations to answer any questions they have in their search for child care and, again, encourage them to book a tour.

Do you struggle with figuring out what to post on your child care center’s social media pages? Never be stumped again…get the Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, just for child care centers.

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Social Media For Child Care: Better Engagement Means Lower Cost Ads

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There’s one important thing you should understand about engagement on social media. It’s something I call the “Wave Effect” that happens with Facebook and Google search and riding the wave will save you money with ads!

When your audience starts responding to and engaging with a particular post, Facebook recognizes that this is happening, and is more likely to show your next post to more people (or more of your posts, if it is happening a lot). In other words, if you put out a highly engaging post one day, the next post you put out after that is much more likely to reach more people.

Facebook also recognizes when a particular link is getting a lot of click-throughs from your posts and that makes a difference in creating your ads. If you create an ad from a link that is getting a lot of social media attention, then Facebook is much more likely to show your ad to your audience, which will cost you less, since it has been deemed relevant and engaging.

For example: Let’s say you post a link on your Facebook page leading to your blog post called, “10 Questions You Should Ask Every Daycare On A Tour,” and you get a lot of natural engagement. Then, when you turn around and create an ad or a boosted post with that link, you’ll save money because it has already been deemed a high-quality link. This means you’ll reach more people for less money. So, an ad or boosted post can be used to amplify an already engaging post to reach a massive amount of people with a more cost-effective ad.

If we put out a social media post, and it’s engaging, highlights our brand, and supports our marketing, this is generally a good time to at least boost it, because it will be a more cost-effective boost, and we’ll “surf the wave” of engagement, so to speak.

Facebook even takes into account signals from around the web. If you get a lot of website visitors because people search for “child care Dayton, Ohio” and you’re the first one that shows up in search results for those terms, Facebook recognizes you as a high quality site. This means they will more likely show your posts and ads to your website at a lower cost. It all works together!

Hate staring at your computer screen, trying to figure out what to post on social media? Get The Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, Just For Child Care Centers

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My Child Care Client Just Hired 2 Amazing Professionals From Facebook Ads

I opened my email the other day and received the nicest email from a child care client about the social media ad campaigns I just ran to recruit employees for her child care business.

She said,

“I have to say that hiring you was definitely worth every penny! I cannot believe the qualified applicants we have received from your social media campaign!!!! We have hired two amazing professionals and have a dozen or more resumes. Not only did we get great applicants but we also have had more visits to our website and Facebook page in the last month. In addition we have also scheduled a few tours from this campaign. I would strongly recommend anyone who is struggling to find good applicants to hire you. I will no longer waste valuable time or money when I need teachers. I will always look to you in the future for your assistance in searching for great professionals in the Early Childhood Field!! Thank you for your help. Of course you can use this as a testimony!!! I look forward to working with you in the near future.”

Facebook ads can be an effective way to get leads for new enrollments at your child care business but did you know you can also use Facebook ads to find staff?!

I know finding qualified staff for your child care is one of the biggest issues child care owners are facing today. If you’re struggling, it might be worth it to try out a Facebook ad campaign. I helped another client set up an ad campaign a couple weeks ago and her director just hired on 3 new people that applied after the campaign!

There are a couple ways to go about hiring from Facebook. The simplest way is to just boost a post out to your Facebook fans and their friends. Another option when boosting a post is to choose people to target. You can target people that live in your area that have interests that are related to early childhood education, preschool, pre-k, child development, etc. Try this out and see what kind of results you get. Targeting when boosting a post though is EXTREMELY limited so it can be worth it to try out Facebook Ads Manager.

Once you get into Facebook Ads Manager you can get even more targeted. In Facebook Ads Manager you can run ads to people that live in your area with certain degrees, that have gone to certain schools, that have particular job titles such as preschool director, child care provider, child care assistant, etc. You can run ads to people that have just moved to the area (so may be job hunting) or even people that work for other child care businesses! Explore around the demographics options and you will find endless options to find potential staff that might be right for your center. I have compiled entire lists of demographics and interests options that are working really well for hiring!

In the ad/post make sure to explain why your child care would be such a great place to work! Video of your employees having fun or talking about why they like to work in child care and at your business works really well. If you don’t have video, images of your happy staff and testimonials also works.

Just as with posting the job anywhere else, don’t post boring job descriptions that state pay and hours! Give people reasons to want to work for you, people choose jobs for many reasons beyond pay and hours. You’ll want to write your ad so that you find people that are a good fit.

Good luck, I can’t wait to hear your results!

Get The Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, Just For Child Care Centers

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How Do You Get Child Care Leads From A Blog?

Do you have a blog for your child care business? Even though most child care centers don’t, setting aside time to consistently create valuable content will set you apart from the competition and give you a ton of opportunities to communicate with potential families, drive traffic to your website, and get leads!

How do you get leads from a blog? With my own clients I’ll craft content with lead generation in mind. If you’re posting your blog on social media (which you should!) think about what would make someone that is actually searching for child care to click over. Sure, a craft how-to post or recipe is great from time to time, but is it enticing for leads searching for child care? More appropriate for this goal would be a child care search checklist, what makes a child care safe, a post on what makes your educational style different than other child care centers, “How To Tell If (insert your child care name) Is Right For Your Child”, an interview with the owner, “The Ultimate Resource For Transitioning Into Child Care” etc.

So now you have a topic, the blog is written, then what? Post the blog on Facebook, then create an ad with the post targeting families with children ages 0-5 (or whatever is appropriate for parents of the blog post you are writing and the age group you want to fill at the center). You will need to do this in Ads Manager, but this will give you the opportunity to show your Facebook post to your prime target market (while also getting your page more likes as an added benefit).

I’ve been sending my clients hundreds of website visits per blog post doing this. But what about the leads? Sure, I send them a click, but then what?

Make sure to end every blog with your phone number and/or a button to your inquiry form. Here’s an example of what I end every blog post with:

Does this sound like it might be a perfect place for your child to thrive? Give us a call at [preferably a tracking number so you can measure success] to book a tour and come see for yourself what a [your school] education is like!

Or for more info about our programs click the button below and we’ll send you an email!

Then we’ll end the blog with a button like this, sending people to the online inquiry form:

That way you are leveraging your blog posts into a lead generation machine!

The next step is to create Facebook ads to people that have visited your blog post (this is called REMARKETING) but that is a whole other article! For now, think about how you can leverage your blog for lead generation. Stay tuned for future tips on how to write a good blog!

Never Be Stumped About What To Post On Social Media Again…Click To Get The Social Media Content Cheat Sheet, Just For Child Care Centers

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Just For Child Care: 10 Social Media Hacks

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If you are wanting tips on how to grow your social media audience and connect with new families, then look no further.

Here are 10 Social Media Hacks for your child care to help you grow your presence and kick start your social media…

1. Add all of your social media links to your email signature. Every email you send should automatically give people a connection to your website, Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, blog, etc.

2. Boost a Facebook post. Even with a $5 budget you have the potential to get HUGE reach! By playing around with strategy and carefully selecting your target audience, you can connect with families right in your area and market your child care center to the right people. You can tweak your settings and gain the best reach by logging into the Facebook Ads Manager and following the prompts.

3. Always include graphics with your Facebook posts. Adding graphics to your posts can dramatically increase the number of people that view, comment and share them, helping to build engagement

4. Schedule your daily social media posts ahead of time. Rather than throwing up a random post at a random time of the day, set aside some time once or twice a week to plan and schedule. It will save you time in the long run and make things much easier! Scheduling also helps create consistency for your audience and sets expectations for when they’ll see posts from you. A user-friendly scheduling site such as Buffer gives you the ability to send out one post on multiple accounts- Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest! And because Buffer allows you to see all of your posts at a glance, you can evenly spread out the different types of content you share.

5. Optimize your posts for engagement. Use hashtags, add descriptive text, and ask questions. A ‘call-to-action’ will significantly increase engagement on your social media posts.

6. Use Geotags. A simple way to build your local network and attract new clients is to add geotags for the location of your photos posted to Instagram and Facebook. After you’ve posted, click into the geotag you used and start browsing through the photos others have shared using the same tag. Now you can connect with local families and businesses, and start a conversation that could potentially lead to new clients and enrollment for your child care center.

7. Use popular #hashtags. Hashtags are great for visibility, and increased visibility leads to follows, likes, clicks, and more engagement. Websta has a running tally of each day’s most popular Instagram hashtags. If any of these fit with what you’re posting, it is a good chance to see the effect a popular hashtag has on your engagement! Hashtags can also be used on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

8. Create ‘Pinnable’ content on your website & blog. Pinterest can be one of the most effective ways to promote your child care center online. Have pinnable images on both your website and on every blog post you publish and post them to your Pinterest page. You have two opportunities with each pin to add your link: one in the description and one in the source for the pin. Linking back is always key!

9. Keep it brief. Try to keep posts relatively short. Aim for between 100-250 characters in length as they generally receive 60% more comments, likes and shares.

10. Engage and communicate. Search out new people and local businesses to follow on all social media platforms. Take time to comment on their posts. ‘Liking’ posts is great, but making a comment gets more attention from both that person and the public. Get your child care center noticed!

Get the content guide to help you with your child care’s social media content.

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Child Care Owners: Do You Have Facebook Reviews? Now Is The Time.

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Facebook is testing out a new service similar to Yelp that could impact your child care business. It is a search engine of local Facebook business pages based on reviews.

So therefore, a potential client can go in and search for child care services near them and see all the top reviewed child care businesses. You can check it out for yourself here.

A search for “child care” in my area turns up results like this:


You probably already know how important reviews are for your child care business and Facebook is one hot spot where you should be collecting them, alongside the others. But this new service is all the more reason to start doing it NOW.

While Facebook is still testing and perfecting this service (there were some non-related search results in there for my area) it is definitely something to keep an eye on. It’s yet another area where parents (potential clients) will be able to find you, judge credibility, and do their information gathering on their enrollment decision.

If you don’t see any way for people to give you reviews on your Facebook business page you need to make sure your page is categorized as a “local business.” Only local businesses can receive reviews. You can change your category in the “About & Info” section of your business page.

How to collect reviews? Just ask. Send out a link to your email list. When you send out a link to the reviews section of your Facebook page people will automatically have the option to leave their own review at the top if they are signed in to Facebook (which most are). Offer an incentive for leaving a review such as a drawing for a gift card. Getting these reviews is not only great for where you show up in the Facebook Services listing but also where your Facebook page shows up all around the internet (Google, Yahoo, etc.).

Now go out there and get some reviews for your business!

Want more tips on how to do social media for your child care? Click here.

 

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10 Social Media Post Ideas For Child Care Centers

Coming up with content to post on social media that is both engaging and has high organic (free) reach can be a little overwhelming. It’s important to have an even mix of “outside content,” such as articles, quotes, etc. (which we provide for you in the Done For You program), as well as “inside content,” which are posts created by you to illustrate your school’s personality and brand. But what if you’re stumped, staring at the computer, trying to figure out what to post beyond all those pictures of cute kids that you have?

Here are 10 social media post ideas to help you craft interesting content and increase engagement and reach on your Facebook business page:

1. Video

Video is the hot topic this year in the social media world as a strategy to increase engagement on social media, especially Facebook. I’ve noticed better results when uploading a video directly to the Facebook page. It doesn’t have to be completely professional, just take five minutes and use your phone to get some quick video. (And don’t film vertically!) Film an activity going on in the classroom. Record you or a teacher giving a parenting or early childhood education tip. Have a new staff member say hello and introduce themselves. Anything that is relative to your childcare and conveys a positive message can be a candidate for a video subject. The possibilities go on!

2. Behind the scenes

Take pictures or get a quick video of everyone saying “hello” at your team meetings or staff get-togethers. People love seeing what it’s like “behind the scenes” at your business and it gives your school more of a personality.

3. Teacher and staff features

Feature different teachers or staff (with fun pictures!). Tell an interesting “did-you-know?” about the staff, their favorite quote, or a picture of them with their family. Get creative!

4. Your school’s story

Craft posts that tell the story of your school, or “the why” of your business. Tell about features and unique benefits that set your school apart and make it different. Illustrate with photos or take snippets from your “about us” page.

5. Personal posts and photos

Yes, your audience wants to know more about you. Don’t be afraid to share your own photos or snippets from you own life. The most engaging posts on Kris’s page are usually ones of her with her family or on trips. Let your audience get to know you a little. This is a great opportunity and platform to create a level of trust that parents need to have with you.

6. Blog posts

The biggest mistake people make with a blog post is posting the link to the blog on social media once and then never posting it again. If you have a blog, leverage it! Post about your blog posts multiple times (spaced out, of course) but use different wording. Brainstorm different titles, take a quote from it, or create a different image for it. You put all the work into posting the blog, now get the word out!

7. Testimonials and reviews

Testimonials and reviews provide great content! If you have video testimonials, post them on social media. Grab quotes from the testimonials and reviews and create a graphic to post. Canva.com is a great tool to help you easily create graphics. You can also take a screenshot of any online review and repost it to your company page and say something like, “Thanks for the great review!”

8. Quotes from you or your staff

Create a graphic of a quote from something you or your staff have said or written that illustrates your school’s philosophies on early childhood education, that supports your brand, or that create a little bit of fun. This is another chance to get creative!

9. Cross-promotion

Team up with a business that offers a complimentary product or service (kids hairstylists, pediatricians, etc.), and help cross-promote each other. Tag each other in Facebook status posts, recommend that your fans ‘like’ each other’s Pages, or simply share each other’s content.

10. Throw-back Thursdays

People love seeing old photos! Post some old photos of your school and the kids. Make sure to hashtag #tbt (which means throw-back Thursday).

And ok, yes, post all the cute pictures of the kids at your school. But make sure to tell the story behind the photos. What are the kids learning? How are they learning it? Who is teaching it? Illustrate your philosophies and school’s brand when you are posting these photos to remind people about what makes you different, unique, and awesome!

For more ideas of what to post on social media, get the content guide.

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Boosted Posts vs. Dark Posts in Facebook

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If you are new to advertising your business on Facebook it’s important to understand the difference between boosted posts vs. “dark posts”.

In short, a boosted post is published from the News Feed on your Facebook business page. A dark post is created and published with Facebook Ads Manager or Power Editor. A dark post DOES NOT show up on your Facebook business page, although it shows up in the News Feeds of other people (that you choose through targeting) as coming from that business page.

Think of your Facebook business page as a “store front,” “community center,” or “brand center” where you can create messaging that supports and engages your audience so you can build a relationship with people that are already interested in what your business has to offer. Now think of dark posting as a function of “Ads Manager” which is more the back-end advertising machine of your business.

Dark posting allows you to run multiple ad posts with different messaging to as many different target groups that you need. You can run ads to people that have visited your website, ads to different demographic audiences you create, lookalike audiences, etc. And it doesn’t all show up as an advertising mess on your Facebook business page. It is all organized in Facebook Ads Manager.

You can also split test. You can switch out images if one isn’t working for a particular audience or test different copy or offer ideas. You constantly want to be split testing your ads for improvement and using dark posts allows you to do this.

Hopefully this clarifies a little better on what it means to advertise on Facebook. Happy marketing!

For more tips and tricks, get the social media content guide cheat sheet, just for childcare centers. 

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Should You Create A Landing Page For Your Facebook Ad?

Something to consider when marketing your childcare business on Facebook is WHERE you are sending new potential customers to. If you just send them to your child care website then you probably aren’t capturing their information. Why do you want to capture their information? Studies show that you need to have at least 7 connection points with a potential customer before doing business. This is ESPECIALLY true in child care, an industry heavily based on trust, with a lot of time and consideration put into the decision making process. If you capture their email and telephone number, you then have endless opportunities to follow up with them and create a RELATIONSHIP with them via email, text, a follow up call, etc.

A landing page is a spot where the potential customer can sign up for more information/events/giveaways, coupons etc. This is the key way to collect important data and contact information from your potential customer. Landing pages are a great way to utilize Facebook ads to capture the information of families in your area.

First, its important to understand that a landing page is a standalone web page distant from your main website that has been designed for a single objective. The main reason for this is so not to distract your visitor from the intended goal, such as joining your email list. You can use websites such as www.leadpages.net to aid you in creating beautifully designed landing pages. They have tutorials and templates which make the whole process easy to handle.

The main type of landing page for a child care center to focus on is Lead Generation. A Lead Generation landing page is used to capture visitor data such as name, email address and telephone number. A lead page will have a form to enter details and a description on what the visitor will gain in return for submitting personal data. For example, you could be offering a coupon if they book a tour of you childcare center and for a visitor to be able to book an appointment they would need to hand over their contact details.

Below are some tips to get the most out of your landing page to drive your business…

1. The best way to get your visitors to sign up is to keep the data required to the bear minimum, people don’t like giving over personal details at the best of times so keep it as streamlined as possible.

2. Make your call to action (CTA) big and prominent and above the fold (able for people to see without scrolling down too much) so viewers can’t miss it.

3. A landing page should have a single purpose and thus have only one single focused message!

4. Make sure you show your service or product being used in context, pictures of cute kids works well. Imagery is key here.

5. Use testimonials if you have them. Viewers are more likely to sign up if they read positive feedback on the service you are offering!

6. Experiment with A/B testing, testing different imagery or copy and letting your viewers decide.

7. Make sure you include contact details and social media links so viewers can read up on your childcare services, you’ll look more trustworthy and viewers are more likely to sign up!

That is all for now, I hope this information helps and guides you to creating a successful landing page to further your childcare business and get the most out of your social media ads!

Want more tips on how to do social media for your child care? Click here.

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