328: The Best Marketing Partnership Ideas for Childcare Centers!

In this episode of "Childcare Conversations," Kate and Carriechat about a clever way to market your childcare center, by creating a neighborhood guidebook from a child’s perspective! They share how partnering with local realtors and businesses (think: restaurants, pediatricians, movie theaters) can help you connect with new families and stand out as a community leader. 

It’s all about building relationships, sharing resources, and making your center the go-to spot for families moving in. If you love creative, practical ideas (and a good story or two), you’ll feel right at home here! 

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Transcript

Carrie (00:05)
love books. You might know this if you've listened to the podcast. But I also love marketing. And so sometimes we can put the two together. And one of the ways that I think is really cool is using a service like Shutterfly. There's other services, you don't have to use Shutterfly. But one of those services where you upload pictures, and then you get to write text, and then you give them some money, and then they send you a book.

And this is one of what I consider one of the coolest ways for you to market your business with other area businesses. So I'm gonna give you the first example and then Kate, I'll let Kate talk and she'll ask me some questions. So one of the best partnerships, marketing partnerships for a lot of centers is with the neighborhood realtor.

There is a realtor in your neighborhood who sells a whole bunch of houses, the busiest realtor in your area. And that person is showing probably dozens and dozens of people houses in your neighborhood every year. Those people are going to have a family because they're buying a house.

they're more likely to be a family than to be a single person. Not that single people don't buy houses, but statistically, they're more likely to be a family when they're buying a house. So more likely to have children, which is what we need in childcare. We need families who have children who are in a state of transition. They are changing jobs or they're changing where they live. People who are buying a house, by definition, are changing where they live. Ta-da!

this is a great place to market your childcare center. One of the things that you can do is make a book and give it to that realtor that she can give out to the people who are touring houses in your neighborhood. And in that book, it says, why is this neighborhood called what it's called? And what is the best Chinese food restaurant? And what is the best Mexican restaurant?

and where is the dry cleaner and how many pediatricians are there and dentists and whatever else you think somebody would need to know when they first move into the neighborhood. I need to know where the grocery store is. I need to know where the car repair place is. I need to know where the dry cleaner is. And I personally also need to know where the good Tex-Mex is, but you may not need that in your area.

Kate Woodward Young (02:41)
Hold on, I've got, I need to say something. ⁓ So as a childcare owner or director, there's probably a pretty good chance where you know that there are some other families and some kids, maybe even your kids, who can help you with this book. Because what's great about this book is having it come from the kid's point of view. So having all of the pictures literally from four feet high.

Carrie (02:44)
Okay.

Yes. you

Kate Woodward Young (03:08)
And so, you know, it's all everything is looking at it from the kids point of view. It's also what are the things the kids are going to want to do in the neighborhood? Maybe even where is your free library in Kerry's neighborhood? There's a whole map of all of the free libraries in the neighborhood and a couple of them are specialty free libraries. One is a kids book free library. And I think in Kerry's neighborhood also has a Spanish book free library. So.

Carrie (03:30)
There's a couple, yeah.

And where the park is, and of course, where the Licensed Child Care Center, and you're only gonna list one, because you're gonna list yours, because you are the one who is putting together this marketing piece.

If you also want to put in one or two home-based programs in the neighborhood, great, because that will be some positive vibes back and forth between you and the home-based programs. Now, you don't have to fund all of this. The realtor might be willing to get them, because it's about $15 a book. And her giving that $15 book to someone,

who is going to buy a house and so she's gonna get a check for $5,000, she's willing to invest that 15 bucks. If she's not willing to invest that 15 bucks, that Tex-Mex place, that Chinese food place, the grocery store, the other businesses might be willing to pitch in towards this book. Yep, partnership marketing and awareness of your business in other businesses.

Kate Woodward Young (04:35)
So create some partnerships in marketing.

Carrie (04:46)
So this does nothing but good things and it results in a book. So then when the parents or sorry, when the shopper, when the house buyer gets the book, they have some anchoring into this neighborhood. And even if they end up buying into one of the adjoining neighborhoods, they're going to keep this book. And if they ended up buying in a whole other neighborhood,

they might pass it on to someone else they know who is looking to buy a house and who is thinking about that neighborhood. A book is going to live on. The book is going to be used and again, if you're taking pictures, if you're having the kids in your program take pictures of their favorite pizza place, and of course, there's going to be a chicken nugget place of some kind as well, because we know how much the kids love the chicken nuggets, there might be a mac and cheese place, you know.

a bakery, what are the things that the kids and the parents need to know in your neighborhood? And putting those pictures in, along with quotes from the kids at your school going, this is where I get pizza, but be worried because the pepperoni is hot, hot, hot. And putting that in with the picture of the pizza place is going to be charming and they're not going to throw that book away.

Kate Woodward Young (06:09)
You want the book to tell a story and you want to tell the story of your neighborhood, why your neighborhood is awesome. We just got done talking to like 600 folks this week and it has been awesome to talk to folks and help them think through who are their ideal clients, Carrie. And this is a great way for you to start to identify who are your ideal clients. And so if your ideal clients are people who move to your neighborhood,

then what a great way to connect with them because you are telling them the story and you are their first guide into the neighborhood.

Carrie (06:50)
And if you are not a place that is serving pizza and chicken nuggets, then maybe you're instead showing pictures of the vegan restaurant in town or the Indian restaurant in the neighborhood. So again, you're gonna attract the right type of ideal customer. Because if you are not a chicken nugget school, do not put a picture of the chicken nugget restaurant. If you are a nature-based school,

put in pictures of the parks or the walking trails ⁓ and maybe information about how their yard can be recognized as a natural wildlife habitat and that kind of stuff. Cause you're thinking about what is my ideal customer? What do they want? What is that family that when they walk in the door, you're just like, great. I'm so glad they're here today. And what are the things that they do? What are the things that they want?

what makes this neighborhood the right fit for them. We want more of those people living in the neighborhood and fewer of those people running their boom boxes during nap time. Well, I know it's not a boom box. It's, you know, those little speaker, but it's still a boom box because I'm old. We don't want those people who walk outside your building with their speaker blasting during nap time. We want more of those people who match your school's philosophy.

Kate Woodward Young (08:00)
their speaker.

Carrie (08:16)
And if you are all about the chicken nuggets and the kids helping to cook, put those things in.

Kate Woodward Young (08:21)
Absolutely, and you don't ever have to show the kids faces. You can just have the backs of their heads. You can just have their hands. You can just have them make the picture. Heck, you could even have them draw a picture of the tree in the park and include that with the tree in the park. For some of you, you might be a little confused because maybe you have never seen a Shutterfly Scrapbook kind of book or you're still not quite connecting. So think about your favorite children's book.

Carrie (08:47)
Yeah.

Kate Woodward Young (08:51)
You've got a few of them probably in the building. Think about what makes it your favorite. And a lot of times it's rooted in a memory. Well, guess what? You get to write the children's perspective of your community and you get to create that memory for somebody. You don't have to be an author. You don't even have to figure out how to use publishing software. You don't need an ISBN number. You're making 10 of these.

Carrie (09:15)
Yep.

Kate Woodward Young (09:19)
Maybe, maybe 15. You could have one on the CVS app and one on the Walgreens app, whoever's got them on sale.

Carrie (09:25)
Yep.

Kate Woodward Young (09:27)
Right?

Carrie (09:27)
because Walgreens

does them, CVS does them, there's 20 different companies who do this. Shutterfly was just the one I used when my kids were little. So pick one of those things and again, also you can give it to your existing parents or here's the thing, when somebody enrolls or when somebody comes on a tour of your school, you can say, ⁓ do you live in, I'm gonna go with Glendale.

Do you live in Glendale? And they go, no, but I work right over there. And it's like, do you know much about the neighborhood? And if they say, no, ⁓ I don't, then you can go, would you like a book about the school? And you give it to them when they're touring your school. How many other childcare centers are giving them a book about their neighborhood when they go on a tour of the school? I hadn't even thought about that. But I like giving it to people who are touring your school also.

Kate Woodward Young (10:24)
Well, when we first came up with the idea and talked to some of the very first folks who did this project with us, were with folks who had brand new ⁓ housing developments going in. So basically they created a few of these to sit in the model homes. Again,

Carrie (10:40)
Yes.

Kate Woodward Young (10:43)
the outside cover needs to match really more the aesthetics of whoever is going to be buying the book on your behalf. So if it's a realtor, then you want the book to match the realtor's aesthetics and who they identify as their ideal client. If they're looking for seniors, then they're not the right realtor for you. know, so, ⁓ but I just want, can I dovetail into some other partnerships and marketing? We got about another four or five minutes.

Carrie (11:03)
Yep. Yeah,

go for it.

Kate Woodward Young (11:13)
Awesome. So you've now had conversations with the local pizza place. You have walked through the neighborhood. You have reached out to other people who they probably also want families with kids. And these businesses are perfect to create these partnerships with.

A lot of times preschoolers, immediately think of something else that does something with preschoolers, such as a pediatrician, right? Or a pediatric dentist, right? We know that they're in line.

Carrie (11:44)
It has the word pity in

it, therefore it must match.

Kate Woodward Young (11:48)
Right? They also want children. Okay? So, but don't forget that you also have those retail settings

that look for kids, but you've also got businesses that are definitely family friendly. So if you've got that pizza place in the neighborhood, the Indian restaurant, the Ethiopian restaurant where the kids get to eat with their food, their fingers, their food, get to eat with their fingers, then reach out to them and say, hey, you know,

Carrie (11:55)
you you

Kate Woodward Young (12:17)
What if we did, just a little secret, right? What if we did a parent night or we did a date night event where my families can have free childcare, you can sponsor the childcare and you can give them free dessert.

Carrie (12:35)
So that new people are trying their food and maybe they don't wanna do all of that and they're like, okay, we'll do the free dessert and we'll split the cost of childcare, whatever.

Kate Woodward Young (12:36)
and we'll come back.

Carrie (12:47)
Find something that works for both of you to build both of your businesses up because then when the Ethiopian restaurant hires a new person who's got a two-year-old, where is that Ethiopian restaurant going to suggest that they send their two-year-old? To your center.

Kate Woodward Young (13:05)
Absolutely. So they promote it as date night in their program. So they get flyers and they send it out to all of their regular customers and get encouraged the families to have a date night. It can be a fabricated Hallmark date night like Valentine's Day or something like that. Or it can just be a random Saturday or even better a random Wednesday, Thursday when their volume is probably a little lower and they could use a little bump. Maybe it's a Tuesday night.

Carrie (13:13)
Okay.

Kate Woodward Young (13:33)
Right? And so the kids are coming, they're at your program, maybe they just stay a little later and you feed them at your program dinner. And then the parents go out and do date night on Tuesday night at the Ethiopian restaurant. And it's a win-win for everybody. And you get new families that come and check you out because they found out that they got to, they could leave their kid with you. And you know.

And, but you, you put time limits on it, right? Carrie, this is not a, this is not an eight hour evening.

Carrie (14:03)
Yeah, it's not a four hour thing.

This is not a four hour thing. This is like two hours max.

Unless you're doing it with the neighborhood movie theater, and then it's three hours max. The movie theaters also are a good place to try this out. They have less active mailing lists. But if you put a poster up at the movie house, ⁓ those people who go to the movies every week are gonna be like, I could save 50 bucks by bringing my kids over there instead of hiring a babysitter. Uh-huh, I'm gonna do it. ⁓

Kate Woodward Young (14:38)
They save 50 bucks by not

bringing them to the movies also, because you know, just buying their ticket and their popcorn and...

Carrie (14:41)
That true. Yes. Also.

Yep. So having that up a month and a half before you're going to have the movie night or the date night ⁓ celebration at your center and that it's $10 a head for them to drop their kids off to babysit at your center while they're at the movies. Yep. If you tied that in with some big blockbuster that's coming out, you're going to do all kinds of nice things to your bottom line and to theirs because

those families are more likely to change to your center. Like they may not now, but they will, you know, they're more likely to. It's a way to get in front of the right people. So do you guys think you could write a book? I bet they could. I bet they could do this. This is not really writing a book.

Kate Woodward Young (15:19)
You are an E-

They absolutely

can and what's great is now you become the leader in the community who is making an impact You aren't just the child care center. You aren't just a babysitter You are a leader who's bringing the families together. You are bringing the businesses together That is how you frame it when you are

Carrie (15:30)
you you

Kate Woodward Young (15:43)
at the Chamber of Commerce functions. This is how you frame it when you're having conversations with the parents and you talk about how you build community and you build

collaboration. And now you can actually put your literal money where your mouth is.

Carrie (15:57)
Okay, guys, I think you've got some writer downers from this one. Please share this show with someone else in your organization who needs to know. And if you want to make sure that you are getting notified of all of the podcasts that we have coming up, make sure you go on to childcare conversations.com and sign up for the newsletter so that we can get you good information like this twice a week. Talk to you soon.