Hurray!… You’ve finally created a website for your home daycare business!

Ok, now what? How do you go about advertising your new website without breaking the piggy bank wide open? It’s not at all hard to do if you know where to start.

Listed below are 8 free ways to begin driving traffic to your cozy little home on the web:

1.) Classified Ads

Free Online Classified Ads are not just for used cars and yard sales, they also offer an easy no-cost solution for promoting your home daycare business online.

2.) Daycare Directory Submission

This is another free and easy way to get qualified traffic to visit your website. When you think about it, who would be more qualified than a prospect that’s willing to search through an online daycare directory? Make sure that you’re there to be found!

3.) Email Signature File

Creating a signature in your email program is a simple and easy way to promote your website. Remember, emails get forwarded all the time, so take advantage of this free exposure. Take your email program for a spin to see what it can do.

4.) Forum Signature File

Much like an email siggy, most forums allow you to add a signature line to your profile that will be added to the bottom of each of your posts. Utilize this feature to include a link to your website. The key here is to never blatantly advertise, but let your signature do the work for you.

5.) Press Releases

Send a press release to your local newspaper announcing the launch of your new website. This is an excellent way to gain publicity and exposure for your home daycare business and stand out in your community giving you a distinct advantage over your competition.

6.) Search Engines

Be sure to submit your website to all the major search engines. They are still one of the most effective ways to bring targeted traffic to your website. This process can be a little slow in the beginning, but don’t get discouraged. The end results will be well worth the wait.

7.) Social Networking Sites

Think Facebook, MySpace, and the many other social networking sites out there are for the teen scene only? Au contraire, mon amie! Think again. If you’re a member, be sure to link back to your website.

8.) Voice Mail

Most of us have answering machines or voice mail services nowadays. What better way to put your marketing on auto pilot than to direct prospects to your website to learn more about your program while you’re juggling morning snacks between twin 9 month olds, 4 toddlers, & Fido.

Bonus Tip:

Invest in you own domain name. Not only does it make you look more like the professional that YOU know you are, but it’s also easier to verbalize, print, and remember for both you and your prospects. It’s a win-win.

Visit http://www.FamilyDaycareMarketing.com for more articles, tips, and marketing resources for your Home Daycare Business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allison_Toney

When the dust settled (and I had quit my job), got my license in place, organized the house, etc none of them actually enrolled! It dawned on me then and there that I would have to get more serious about getting the word out.

Below is a list of the marketing activities that I tried. Some of it was a complete waste of time and money; some of them worked beautifully. Here’s what I tried:

· Print ads
· Mailers
· Door Hangers
· Car Sign
· Chamber of Commerce
· Mom’s Groups
· Internet Referral Network – Called the 3 C’s
· Flyers
· Website
· Others
· Word of Mouth

Print Ads

Let me start off with print ads. Print ads were probably the least effective and the biggest waste of money. It was one of our first marketing efforts. In Metro Detroit we have a publication specifically devoted to moms/parents. We really thought that it was a no brainer, due to the focus of the publication and that it was centered right in our community.

I put together a really nice inch by inch classified ad and signed the contract. We receive three calls from the ad but did not sign up one child. We tried the ad for 5 months for $189 per month, for a total of $950. With no results. Not the direction we wanted to go!
So, much to our surprise print ads, where not the right path. Not to say that it wouldn’t work for you but if you’re on a limited budget try something else to promote your daycare.

Mailers

Mailer’s where marginal. The first concern was having to put together something presentable to send the letters on. We chose to be traditional and printed out letterhead and envelopes. To print out a thousand of both was approximately $200 total for one color. The next issue was coming up with a list to send the letters to. We were able get a list from the city but it had issues. We only had the actually names of the residents on roughly half of the addresses on the list.

What do you normally do with a letter that’s entitled “Dear Resident”? I know what I do – round file. The alternative was to buy a list from a list company but that is another $100 that we just did not want to spend.

Another negative of the mailers was just the amount of time it took to print out, fold and stuff the envelopes.

As mentioned above, one of the main things we learned in general was to market directly in our neighborhood. And mailers can do just that. Unlike the print ad that was spread out throughout Metro Detroit we were able to focus our marketing dollars on our best possible prospects. Basically all our kids lived within 2 miles and most of them lived within 1 mile from us. So with mailers you’re able to control exactly who gets the letter, and keep your costs down.

All in all, this was a mediocre route for me. Looking back I guess if I could have gotten a list of homes with families, kids in my age group, and just sent out a mailer to 100 names or so when I had a vacancy that would have worked – though I don’t know how or if a list like that exists. Perhaps you could get a list like that from your local elementary school.

Stay tuned for part 2 -4 on Starting a Home Daycare – Marketing

Tania Rauth wrote a book on how to start and run a home daycare. More info at starting a daycare or how to run a daycare

In general there are a few common marketing themes that you want to keep in mind in order to start a daycare. Number one is you want to keep all efforts very focused in a three to five mile radius of your home. Most of your kids are going to be coming from your neighborhood. Also, you want to show your location on all of your advertisements via a simple and easy-to-read map. The most important thing here is to point out your daycare’s location relative to the parent’s home or job. The more convenient/close it appears the better.

Number two is to create “urgency” and legitimacy right from the beginning with your ads (I talked a lot about this in my book and the other articles). In other words, you want to let the parents know that a rare vacancy has popped open. Say something like “Spot just opened for 12-24 month old” on all of your ads. Wording your ad like this implies a couple of things – the spot won’t stay open for long. And that you have customers, which seems to imply that other parents trust you so you must be ok.

Number three is consistency. Whatever marketing tools you decide to put into place, you have to be patient enough to see if they will work or not. They all take time, some more than others, but I certainly learned that you have to give them enough to see if they are working or you will just waste your time.

Last word, I have to admit the marketing aspect was a good kind of challenge for me. It was fun and exciting to see what worked. It was one of the aspects of the daycare that really felt like a business. We had to get clients and do it in the most cost effective way so that we would still make a profit. Getting the phone to ring felt really great and was rewarding. So use your creativity, with the idea of getting in front of as many parents as possible with the least amount of effort or cash to reach them.

Tania Rauth wrote a book on how to start and run a home daycare. More info at starting a daycare or how to run a daycare