WHAT SYSTEMS DO YOU NEED IN YOUR CHILDCARE?

Improve Your Creativity By Completing A Competitive Analysis

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Preparing the competitive analysis before you create your flyers, or marketing materials will provide you with the data you need to improve your creativity for your product or services. 

Several Childcare Business Owners are missing out on generating increase in their enrollment, and brand awareness due to lack of creative marketing. Creative marketing happens when you do your homework and are aware of your community supply and demand for childcare services. You can gather this info through a competitive analysis.

Competitive analysis is one of the most important strategies that I teach. Many of you are not doing it properly, effectively or at all. When you are able to be clear and really communicate your differences, it is a game changer. I have seen it happen.

In some communities, information is voluntarily shared between competitors through collaboration, but you will not get the full level of competitive knowledge and clarity unless you really dig in. Enlist someone to mystery shop on your behalf and really learn what the others are up to. Competitive analysis is a best practice of childcare success. If you don’t want to be the one closing your doors, it is an important tool to use at least every six months to stay on top of the competition in your market.

Use the following chart as a guide:

What are the names of your top five or more competitors? What is their pricing? What are the ages of children served? What are their marketing strategies? What are their unique benefits? How do they communicate what makes them special and different? What is different about their facility? What services do they provide compared to you? In what ways are you different? What are the positives and negatives of location? Do they have a website? How does the website look?

Does it offer one or several of the following: Security, playground, food, meal service, time of day, operations, shifts, length of teacher tenure, number of degreed teachers, kindergarten- readiness programs, current enrollment, openings, transportation provided (Y/N)?

You have to be very clear on what you offer compared to what others offer in your marketplace. This analysis is the first step to becoming perfectly clear about what others are doing in your market and how you are different, so that you can then communicate those differences your creative marketing techniques.

 Creative marketing is a complete session in it self. At the Motivate The Childcare Leader In Your Tour 2014,  I am going to share how to work throughout the creative process of marketing your childcare business to improve customer retention, implement enrollment building strategies and attracting success in your childcare overall.  

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