Setting up a Nursery
Marketing
Many people hear the word marketing and automatically think advertising. For someone considering setting up a nursery or running their own business for the very first time, the prospect of spending money on advertising in addition to the numerous other costs associated with a new start business is likely to be daunting.
The good news is that marketing doesn’t mean advertising and it certainly doesn’t mean you wasting your valuable time and money.
So what is marketing?
Marketing is identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.
The key part of this sentence being the word profitably so any marketing you do for your nursery should be based around meeting the needs of your customers but in a way which actually makes you money.
If you are serious about setting up a nursery, the chances are you are doing it because you have a genuine passion for providing high quality childcare. In our experience, that is the motivating factor behind many people who look to set up their own nursery. However, we all have bills to pay so I’m sure making money is important to you as well. And if it is then marketing is going to play a crucial role in your ongoing success.
At NCi Nursery, our expertise is really in insurance but our experience of the childcare sector combined with a high level of marketing experience means we are ideally placed to provide you with just some ways in which you might use marketing to help establish and grow your nursery.
Here are just some ways in which nurseries can use marketing:
1. Market Research
Market research for any new start business is vital and this certainly applies to people considering setting up in the Nursery World. It may have been your life long ambition to set up and run your own Nursery but is it really a viable option?
In fact is there even a demand for a Nursery, Pre School, Kindergarten or Day Care Centre in the location you're planning on opening one? You can check the census to find out local birth rates and the number of children of nursery age in the area.
The internet, local councils, libraries and speaking to people in the area you're planning on opening your new nursery can all give you valuable information into what is required. As can visiting the useful links section of this website.
Finally on the matter of research it's important to remember that many new start businesses and new nurseries fail because there is simply no demand for them. Check out your competition and never forget that without enough children actually attending, your nursery may well be doomed before you even begin.
2. A Marketing Strategy for your Business Plan
Your Business Plan really goes hand in hand with market research and finances. Do your research so you know how many children your new Nursery is going to have as this will have a direct effect on how many staff you need, what size premises you need and how much you can charge parents. And ultimately how much money you need to borrow.
When it comes to writing Business Plans many people over forecast what the first year is likely to bring. You have to be realistic in that if this is your first venture into owning and running your own nursery it will take time for people to become aware of what you have to offer. Work hard in the first 12 months and you could well have a full nursery at the end of year one. Don't assume you're going to be full from day one though and make sure this is reflected in your Business Plan.
And how are you actually going to get children into your Nursery? Include in your business plan a simple marketing strategy like a SWOT analysis to show people how serious you are about your new venture.
A SWOT analysis looks at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Your strengths might be your location or your vast experience in the pre-school education sector. Your opportunities might be that having checked the census you know there will be a real demand for Nursery places in your location.
Your weaknesses might include that you’re a new start business whilst your threats are likely to include other nurseries, pre schools, kindergartens and day care centres.
Ultimately your goal with be to turn your weaknesses and threats into strengths and opportunities and on that note let's look at one of your main threats – your competitors.
3. Your Competitors
Unless you’re extremely lucky there is likely to be other nurseries, pre schools, kindergartens and day care providers in the area all wanting to provide a service to the same children and parents as you. So what can you do to make your Nursery stand out from the crowd? And what shouldn't you do?
Here are just a few tips:
Make sure you:
a. Focus on the benefits not the features of your Nursery and tell parents and anyone with an interest in your new Nursery how they would benefit from using you. If you have a new purpose built Nursery then explain exactly what this means – your children will be safe and secure and will benefit from the latest learning tools.
b. Have a unique selling point (USP). As a new start nursery, standing out from your competitors will be vital. Your USP might be your location, it might be the quality and qualifications of your staff or it might be that your have extremely competitive rates or low staff to child ratios. Whatever it is – tell everyone and make sure you constantly tell them.
And when it comes to your competitors:
c. Don't tell people how bad your competitors are (even if they are). Instead just focus on the positives of using your new Nursery and let the people decide.
d. Don't forget that you can learn from them. If they do something well then do the same thing – but do it better.
e. Remember that to stand out from your competitors you can join trade associations, become involved with the local community, chamber of commerce or make sure the service providers you use are experts in their fields.
4. Marketing on a budget
As we touched on above, marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Simple things you can do include telling everyone about your new nursery (word of mouth and recommendations are likely to bring in more new children than anything else).
There are numerous other ways in which you can use marketing to gain exposure and fill places. Some of these include:
- Have an open day and invite local children, parents and the media. The press love stories relating to children so get them on board and become their expert in the nursery industry. This may give you exposure in the press without having to spend money on advertising and long term they may come back to again for other news stories. Put a twist on such days and make the media's job easier by making it a newsworthy story. Public relations can be a great way to get exposure for your new nursery – and it can be free!
- Many nurseries and kindergartens have nicely designed websites or advertise in the local paper or yellow pages and these can be highly effective ways to promote the business. However, they can cost money and in many cases, money that could be put to better use elsewhere. Get media savvy as building relationships with your local media be it a local newspaper, magazine, radio or television station could put your nursery in the news for all the right reasons. And better than that, it is free and is often even more effective than traditional advertising as hearing, viewing or reading about your nursery in the media is almost a third party endorsement that what you are offering is good.
- Consider attending local networking events and speak to people. The local chamber of commerce or just a group of people who meet on a regular basis can help you spread the word. Get some brightly coloured business cards printed up and hand these out to people you speak to. Even if they don't have children of their own they may know people who do and are looking for a nursery.
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Get yourself a website. You no longer have to spend hundreds or thousands of pounds setting up a website. In fact, the Getting British Business Online (GBBO) campaign is aimed at providing you with your very own domain name and website totally free of charge. For further information visit www.gbbo.co.uk
These are just a few ways in which you can use marketing to help build and grow a nursery and as you can see, there is no expensive advertising anywhere to be seen. Marketing done badly can be expensive and a waste of money and a waste of time. However, marketing done well can be highly effective and can make the difference between you and your nursery being successful or not.
For further information on the Getting British Business Online (GBBO) campaign visit www.gbbo.co.uk
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Once you have a website, don’t neglect it. More and more parents are using the internet to find out about nurseries so if you have a strong online presence, you will gain a competitive advantage over nurseries who either don’t have a website or have one which frankly isn’t very good. Here are just some ways you can use your website to help grow your business:
- Put on testimonials from parents whose children attend your nursery. You can tell as many people as you want how good you are but a testimonial from an existing customer is so much more powerful
- Offer parents the chance to sign up for regular newsletters which tells them about events happening at your nursery. This newsletter could be emailed to subscribers to cut costs and yet it could prove to be a highly effective way to stay in touch. And as many parents choose a nursery based on a recommendation or word of mouth, this could be another way to make your nursery stand out for all the right reasons.
