Email marketing delivers a return on investment well above other digital marketing strategies. There are also many low-cost platforms that make creating email campaigns and automations relatively easy.
Despite the benefits of email marketing, many child care businesses aren’t taking advantage of this digital marketing strategy. We understand centers’ hesitation; building an email marketing program from scratch is time-consuming and can feel overwhelming.
Break down exactly what you want to accomplish with your email marketing strategy and start by asking these questions. Then, build one or two campaigns that you feel are manageable for your center. Optimize and expand your email program over time.
4 Questions to Ask Before Starting Your Child Care Email Marketing Program
Who is your audience?
Child care centers are likely sending emails to two groups of people: current families and interested parents who submitted their email address on your website. Make sure you keep your lists of email addresses up to date so your emails are reaching the right people. This will keep your unsubscribe rates low and make people less likely to mark your emails as spam.
What do they want to know?
Different audiences are interested in different information. Current clients want to know what their kids did this week, while new parents may want to know when they can tour your center. When you collect email addresses from your website visitors, you can ask potential families what they want to know with a short form.
There may be some information that you think all of your audiences are interested in, like special daycare events or the latest posts on your blog and social media profiles.
How often will you send?
If you don’t use daily reports, you may want to send a weekly newsletter to your current families. Or, maybe an email at the beginning of the month with 4 to 6 weeks of scheduled activities and meals will work best.
For potential customers, an email automation may work well. After a website visitor puts their email address into a form on your site, a series of emails is automatically triggered. You can set emails to send just a few hours apart, or on a daily or weekly basis.
The most important thing to remember is to keep your sending frequency realistic. Don’t commit to sending parents daily updates if you and your staff really only have time for a weekly newsletter.
Who’s in charge of updates?
Dedicating a few hours of time per week for updates to both newsletters and lead nurturing automations will help you stay on track when implementing your email marketing strategy. Depending on how your child care center is staffed, you may be able to add this task to a staff member’s, office employee’s or director’s to do list. Assigning updates to a specific person can help ensure they’re done on time and correctly.
