tactics.html

Marketing Tactics

Tactics are the activities you will do to promote your service. They support your objectives and are shaped by your image, goals, and budget.

Once you have decided what your marketing objectives are and your strategy for meeting them, you need to plan how you will make the strategy a reality. This is where tactics come in.

Tactics outlined in this section include:

1	Word of mouth (referrals)
2	Branded materials
3	Make contact easy
4	Marketing focus
5	Media advertising
6	Public relations
7	Sponsorship
8	Speaking opportunities and events
9	Strategic relationships/networking

1	Word of mouth (referrals) One of your most powerful marketing communication tools in your family day care service is undoubtedly ‘word of mouth’. That means getting your existing parents to recommend you to others, either directly or through testimonials. Whilst family day care may not be right for one, it may be perfect for their friend, friend’s sister, friend’s brother’s workmate etc. Word of mouth is…
	•	the most powerful advertising in the world
	•	the most natural way to signal value to consumers
	•	the least costly way to advertise
	•	the community's way of holding you accountable
	•	eventually a part of your service, as the core meaning of what you offer is transmitted from one consumer to another
	•	sometimes the only way a consumer can be discriminating in their purchase
	•	the low-tech method our minds use to cut through all the hype that is sent to us by high-tech methods
	Access the Seven Top Tactics using Word of Mouth in Family Day Care here.

2	Branded materials FDCA has produced a range of branded materials to help schemes build awareness and recognition of family day care in their local communities. Materials include:
	•	Stationery templates including letterhead, with compliments slips, fax headers and business cards
	•	Family day care advertising material, including DL flyers, print advertisements, and a general information [square] brochure
	•	Media release template, presentation folders, posters, web banners and memory cards
	•	Polo shirts and bucket hats for adults
	•	Car magnets and event panels
	The templates and files you will need to reproduce additional quantities of these items are available as downloadable resources via this site.
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3	Make contact easy There are so many communication channels to choose from – whichever ones you select, the idea is to make it simple for families to follow up on their interest in family day care. Here are some ideas:
	•	Whenever and wherever you advertise make sure a phone number and/or website is included. Remember you can always use the national referral service if you can’t afford the cost of customising your advertising. Any contact we receive through our national 1800 621 218 number will be referred back to schemes in the local area where the call originated. Similarly, if you used the national website www.familydaycare.com.au, the scheme locator will lead potential families back to local schemes
	•	Create a website – it doesn’t have to be complicated or cost the earth – some websites are simply a page outlining the benefits and features of the service, where you can be found and how you can be contacted (FDCA can help you develop a website if you have limited experience in this area)
	•	Many people these days prefer to use email to communicate so consider establishing an email address that deals only with prospective families and include it on all your advertising and promotional material, eg enquiries@fdcscheme.com.au. Or you can be more creative, eg excellentchildcare@fdcscheme.com.au or yourchildcare@fdcscheme.com.au
	•	Make sure the scheme office is accessible for prams, is child-friendly and well signed. Street signage is also useful to position your service in the minds of people walking or driving past
	There are probably a million other ideas but the point is to make it easy for the person who has read or heard about your service to find you quickly.

4	Marketing focus Establish and maintain a focus on marketing as a key operational scheme activity. Planning your marketing activities will help to develop a strategic approach to your marketing needs and make best use of your limited resources. A simple marketing plan template has been provided on this site. Hold regular creative, planning and measurement meetings. To contribute to your progress, assess success to date, consider ongoing changes and review measurement of your marketing results and general progress. Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

5	Media Advertising The overriding goal of media advertising is to effectively and efficiently deliver your advertising to your target audience. If you have advertised before, and kept good records of results, you will be in a better position to know what works and to predict the response to any future investment by comparing it to what has happened in the past. Before investing in a local media advertising campaign you should be able to answer ‘yes’ to the following questions:
	•	Do you know who you want to communicate with? Can you describe your target audience?
	•	Do you know what you want the target audience to do as a result of the advertising?
	•	Do you have objectives that are clear, realistic and measurable?
	•	Do you have an approved budget?
	•	Do you know the timeframes for the campaign? For achieving objectives?
	•	Have you evaluated alternative media?
	•	Have you conducted a local media audit (ie know which media is active in your locality?)

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Stages in a media advertising campaign

There are seven stages involved in a media advertising campaign. It is a cyclical process in which historical information of past campaigns are used to develop future campaigns.

Stage	Activity	Consider questions such as...
1	Developing objectives	What do we want to achieve? Who do we want to communicate with? When do we want to communicate? What do we expect to achieve and when?
2	Gathering information	What media are available? What are their relative strengths? What are their audience deliveries What are their costs
3	Planning	Which media will best deliver our objectives? What size ads should we use? How often should we advertise? What are our communication goals? (how many people do we want to reach and how often?)
4	Negotiating	Which media offers the best deal? Which schedule is more cost efficient? Which media offers more added value?
5	Booking	Placing the order
6	Evaluating	Did the media deliver as expected? Did we achieve our goals?
7	Providing feedback	What did we learn? What can we do better next time?

For more information click through to our Guide to Media Advertising resource. Developed specifically for family day care this guide provides more detail about the various options available to you, demystifies the jargon and outlines how to plan a campaign and evaluate results. The following media are covered in depth:

•	Television
•	Newspapers
•	Radio
•	Out of Home (public billboards etc)
•	Cinema

Other advertising

•	‘Walking billboards’ Carers and scheme staff can be ‘walking billboards’ when out and about. This can be achieved by wearing family day care branded t-shirts and hats, driving vehicles with family day care bumper stickers and/or car magnets, keeping a stock of children’s t-shirts to pop over outer clothing when out on excursions in the local community, and wearing name badges with scheme details etc. There are many variations on this theme but the idea is make the service visible. (A family day care t-shirt worn by a carer when out and about with four small children will help take the guesswork out of what she is doing by advertising the fact that she is a professional childcare worker!) Consider investing in car magnets or decals on your scheme and carer vehicles that show the scheme name and telephone number with the national logo – this is a low cost way of promoting your service in and around your community. We can help you with car magnets – go to http://www.fdca.com.au/logo_merchandise.html
•	Ads in Yellow Pages Make sure your scheme is advertised in the local Yellow Pages – that’s where most people go when they are looking for a business, product or service. Combine your hard copy listing with an online listing that includes key points about your service, location and contact details. Consider pooling resources with neighbouring schemes to place the biggest and best ad in the childcare section. Your ad should be at least comparable in size and colour with your competitors, if not bigger and brighter, and your marketing message should stand out from the crowd. Get clear on what you have to offer and make sure your point of difference is the focus of your marketing message. Remember, think like a parent and answer the question, ‘what’s in it for me?’ Don’t forget to add your website and email details.
•	Web banner advertising A web banner or banner ad is basically online advertising on the worldwide web. Advertising this way involves identifying websites that your target market is likely to visit and then negotiating to embed a banner ad into that web page. If of interest, the web viewer will click on the banner ad which will then take them to your website. For example, if you have a maternity wear shop in your local area that has its own website you can arrange to place a banner ad on their website directing potential mums to your family day care scheme’s website. A ‘click through’ is the term given to each time a viewer goes from the original website to your website. Payment can be negotiated on a per click through basis (usually several cents each click) or a monthly or annual fee. You might also look into contra ads, eg where the maternity shop places a banner ad on your site in return for you placing one on theirs. The design, wording and ‘call to action’ of your banner ad are all important. Justin Michie (www.justinmichie.com) offers the following tips:
	-	Keep the copy short. Write compelling copy and use action words that motivate. Try posing questions rather than as they statements, eg ‘Want your child to experience great childcare?’
	-	Put your call to action, ie ‘click here’ or some variation thereof into a button on your banner ad to make it obvious
	-	There’s no room for subtlety in banners. Your banner should scream your message! Use bright primary solid colours and use simple animation. Moving images and blinking animation attract visitors to your banner
	-	Use wide banners or tall skyscraper banners. They’re clicked on significantly more than smaller, skinnier, or square banners. And make your banner file size small so it loads quickly; 10-30kb is typical for a 468 by 60 pixel banner
	-	Keep track of all your banner statistics if possible so that you can measure the effectiveness of your banner ads
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	When thinking about suitable websites to place a banner ad, ask the question, ‘If I were expecting a child, or I were a parent of young children, which websites am I most likely to visit?’ These are some examples:
	-	councils
	-	local newspapers
	-	community and health centres
	-	libraries
	-	toy or sport stores
	-	maternity wear stores and baby equipment suppliers
	-	local swimming pool or sports centre
	-	churches
	-	play groups
	-	schools
	-	hospitals
	…and don’t forget that well placed banner on your own operator’s web site!

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Radio advertising
Radio is probably the most widespread medium – most homes, cars and workplaces have a radio, and just like TV each timeslot during the day has a different audience mix. During the week the breakfast session (from 5:30am–9am) generally attracts the highest audience, followed by the morning session (9am-12 noon or 1pm), then drive time (4pm-7pm). On weekends the morning session attracts the highest audience.
The radio station will help you produce a voiceover commercial and then you can negotiate when you want the ad to run.

If you have never used radio advertising before we have developed example several scripts to help get you started.

Access Radio ads here.

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Scheme website and scheme e-newsletter
If you have a scheme website, use it to its fullest advantage to promote marketing activities and brand awareness. Develop an electronic newsletter that requires no labour intensive and costly copying, folding and posting. Use the website and newsletter to keep families up to date with what your service is doing, and to encourage word of mouth activity.

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6	Public relations Develop relationships with local journalists and contact them every time you have something newsworthy to report. Your benchmark is to achieve an article about some aspect of your service in every issue of your local newspaper. Click on the following link for more ideas on how to use the media in your local community. http://www.fdca.com.au/documents/marketing/Promote_FDC_in_Media.pdf

7	Sponsorship Supporting local school initiatives or sponsoring a children’s artwork competition – eg ‘portrait of my family’, amongst local schools with a cash prize (for school or individual) is a great idea to raise awareness amongst parent/school groups. In exchange leave a stock of brochures in the office foyer for parents. One innovative scheme we’ve come across sponsors a local netball team to raise awareness.

8	Speaking opportunities and events Develop a Powerpoint presentation with speaking notes to use at the local level for speaking engagements at eg schools, pre or post natal classes, playgroups, mothers groups and specific community events on childcare. Your talk doesn’t necessarily have to focus only on family day care (that can be the secondary message), but speaking about local and national issues to do with childcare and children is always a hot topic. Attend local events and promote your service with brand material and handouts.

9	Strategic relationship/networking
	•	Develop strategic relationships with local target groups eg mothers groups/playgroups. Approach mothers groups (and other relevant target groups) to have an open forum of discussion of benefits of family day care when considering childcare. Invite them to your service and show them how family day care operates – have a special morning tea. Invite some of the carers to join you to share their knowledge and expertise with the visitors.
	•	Develop strategic relationships with local schools – provide ongoing presentations and advice on childcare at local schools. Present to parents on options at Parent-Teacher nights.
	•	Develop relationships with the HR departments of local employers where parents have to work shift work or difficult hours and therefore need flexible childcare, eg a large factory or call centre.

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