MARKETING BLOG

Effective marketing for nurseries

28/2/2018

For the past 5 years we’ve been working with a successful chain of independent children’s nurseries with various settings located across the UK.  Our brief was simple, ‘create and implement an effective marketing strategy that would ensure all 16 nurseries stood out from their competitors, acquired more children and addressed the changing engagement behaviours of their customers’.

 

The first phase involved an in-depth review of the existing marketing, PR and advertising activities. We visited and interviewed each of the nurseries and parents to gain a better understanding of the demographics, nursery environment, USP’s and any local marketing opportunities.

 

Our market research highlighted a number of areas we could improve on and make a difference. One of our first tasks was to re-brand all 16 nurseries, complete with new logos and branding designed to modernise and identify each of the nurseries more clearly.

 

 

As part of the rebranding process, we created a suite of bespoke marketing material for the nurseries to promote themselves locally in magazines, at events or online, these included; a range of banners, signage, magazine adverts, leaflets, posters, Facebook adverts, GIF’s, branded flags, bunting, T-shirts and editorial.  

 

 

The next phase was a complete overhaul of their digital marketing strategy. With increasing numbers of parents searching online and engaging with social media to find the best nursery places for their little ones, it was evident that the existing, out-of-date and static website they were using to promote all 16 nurseries was simply not fit for purpose.

 

So, together with our Web Designer, Jane Horwood at Catfish Web Design we set about creating 16 bespoke, fully-responsive and attractive websites; combing clever branding, bespoke photography and video with unique SEO rich content.

 

 

The result – The Headstart Day Nursery website won a Silver Award at the Cambridge Digital Awards in 2016, and all 16 nurseries are performing well, with some regarded as outstanding by Ofsted. Armed with their new websites and bespoke marketing material, the nurseries are well-placed to attract and retain a significant proportion of the market for a number of years to come.

 

However, a note of caution, it's all too easy to become complacent in times of success. As with all businesses it's very important for us as marketeers to continually evaluate the market and our competitors, and to effectively address the changing behaviours and needs of our customers.