earlyyears.teachwire.net
65
nursery business
EVERYTHING
INTEGRATED
Before you plough ahead with an
overhaul of your website, make sure you
have considered your options as part of
an integrated strategy that covers both
traditional and digital tools (including
social, email and advertising).
Your resources can only go so far,
so you may need to make some difficult
decisions. If you decide your front of
house makeover is the more pressing
need, you’ll just have to hope that parents
look up from their smartphone to see it!
quickly, works on multiple devices and
is easy to use and find, but I will save
those for discussion on another day.
Here, we’re going to focus on how the
content you provide your target audience
can help them turn from prospects into
paying customers.
An effective website will support
parents through the different stages of
their ‘customer journey’. Here’s what I
mean by that.
1
RESEARCH:
A parent first
investigates childcare approaches and
options available in the area.
2
CONSIDERING OPTIONS:
After
the initial research, the parent knows
more about childcare options and is
preparing to make a purchase decision.
3
CUSTOMER:
The parent purchases
your childcare services and becomes
a customer.
4
ADVOCATE:
The customer
recommends your service to
other parents!
At each stage, a parent seeks different
information. Your goal is therefore to
provide them with the information and
cues they need to move to the next stage.
So at stage 1, help parents in their research
by serving them answers through your
website. For example, consider ‘How can
I access free funded childcare?’ or ‘Why
should I choose the Montessori /Waldorf
/Reggio Emilia approach?’ You can even
group valuable content into
a guide that is accessible in
return for subscribing to your
blog. This means you’ll have
even more opportunities to
set yourself up as the premier
childcare provider in town.
Once a parent is interested in your
services, you’ll want to start serving them
more service-specific content to make
sure they choose you.
Think of ways to make each stage as
easy as possible for the parent, such as
including registration forms, the ability to
book a viewing online and bright calls to
action. For a fine example of this approach,
pay a visit to Dizzy Ducks’ award-winning
website at dizzyducks.co.uk
DON’T FORGET
EXISTINGCUSTOMERS
It costs less to retain a customer than
it does to recruit a new one, so you
should also consider how you can use
your website to deepen relationships
with parents. A great way to do so is
through a ‘Parent Portal’ where a parent
can log in to your website to access
information about their child’s progress,
daily diaries, account information and
more. There are a range of platforms that
offer this functionality (including our own
Prism nursery management software),
and they are becoming increasingly
popular with parents.
Happy paying parents can be great
advocates for your service (see stage 4!),
so make it easy for them to recommend
your website to friends and to
leave testimonials on
the site!
Follow Astec Solutions @AstecEY for
more tips about managing your early
years business. For more information,
call 020 8655 7888, email
administration@astecsolutionsltd.
com or visit astecsolutionsltd.com
45%
of companies don’t have a clearly
defined marketing strategy.
Source: ow.ly/4njybf
