"Advertising your daycare/child care business ... watch your budget, stress your advertising dollars, advertise for free wherever possible, build a website, and place ads within magazines or newspapers. See sample business card below."



Advertising & Promoting Your "Baby": Daycare/Child Care Business
Copyright 2008, Teena Rose. Written by Teena Rose, author of Starting a Home- or Office-based Resume Business. Learn why starting a resume writing business is one of the smartest and most profitable businesses to start today. She'll teach you how to start, operate, and profit! Download her book today at http://www.resumebiz.com.

Keywords: flyers, business cards, yellow page advertising, stretching your advertising dollars, advertising exposure, advertising books, networking, online marketing/advertising channels


As with any small business, it can be difficult to find affordable advertising for your business. In the case of a local daycare business it can be even harder as a professional website may not do much good reaching the local market.



The first thing you should do in figuring out how to make your advertising dollars reach the furthest, is to consider what the competition in your area is doing. For example, when you look up childcare in your local yellow pages, what do you find? Are there ads that jump out at you? By paying a little extra, you can get your service listed in bold or include a larger ad with pictures or a logo. You can also list ads on the Internet yellow pages for free, or if you want a larger ad, for a monthly fee.

Another way to attract the local market is to post flyers. Design, or have designed, a colorful and professional looking flyer to post in various places. Many word processing programs have templates specifically for this purpose. Post your ads anywhere that you think a busy parent might look. The gym, church, grocery store, and doctor’s office are all great places. Make sure you have permission before you put up your ad.

Another great way to reach local customers is to request a mailing list with specific demographic boundaries. By doing a Google search on "mailing list by demographic," you will find many sites which offer a range of prices and demographic filters. Select a reasonably priced or free site and specify that you want addresses of people who have small children. These lists are usually very low cost and your post office can inform you of how to create an advertisement post card. Depending on your budget, you can decide how many you wish to send out and can be confident that your advertisements are reaching the right people.

Some additional ideas to stretching your advertising dollars include ...

* Gift giveaways
* Advertising in magazines and newspapers
* Advertising in schools
* Networking at charitable kid events

Don't be afraid to create advertising campaigns that possess a bit of humor, while focusing on recession proofing your business since the coming year is expected to show sizable signs of recession. Your advertising ideas and concepts are limited only to your imagination.
 

Website Magazine. A high-information resource that is printed and mailed. A neat, neat magazine. What you'll find more interesting, it's free. That's right. Because the magazine is financially supported by advertisers, the publisher doesn't charge a fee for the publication.

Sign up for your copy now: free copy of Website Magazine.

Online classified sites are another great way to reach locals. Most of these sites are organized by region so are great at targeting people in your area. Be wary though, some of these sites charge for the ad but there are free options available. Most social sites also have a classifieds area that you can access by simply creating a free profile. Although they are free, you will want to keep an eye on your posting and repost frequently to make sure you remain visible.

Advertising doesn’t have to be expensive. By utilizing any or all of these suggestions to can ensure good exposure without breaking the budget.

Google

Suggested topics to research: daycare advertising ideas

Other Relevant Articles ...

* Start a Daycare Business Website
* Staffing Your Daycare Business

Sample Business Card
Understand that your card and company letterhead doesn't need to be overly creative. The below sample is really over-powered by the cuteness of the baby, so no extra graphics or over-the-top font is necessary. The company name, address, and domain name are fictitious, of course. But, the below sample card should be enough to get your creative juices flowing for writing and designing your own business card.

Your card could incorporate a number of business specifics, such as:

Business Hours
Certifications
Age of Children Accepted
Company Name/Slogan
Contact Information (Phone/Fax/Email/Website)
Contact Name
Specialized Care
Summer/Weekend Programs
Meals Served
Medical Staff Availability
Teaching Methods/Techniques
Mild Directions/Rural or City Availability (i.e. "located 10 minutes from city")
Arts & Crafts Offered
Licensed/Certified Teachers

Enjoy!

Copyright 2008 Teena Rose, All Rights Reserved