Enhancing Admissions and Marketing for Ages 3 to 6

For early years providers, filling places is becoming more complicated.

Parents have more choice, costs are rising and, in many areas, the number of young children is changing. At the same time, nurseries, pre-prep schools and primary schools are competing for the same families.

For providers looking after children aged three to six, this makes admissions and marketing particularly important. But simply doing more marketing is not necessarily the answer.

A good early years admissions strategy starts with understanding your local market, your competitors and the parents you are trying to attract. Your nursery marketing strategy should then build on that understanding, making a clear case for why families should choose your setting.

Here are some of the areas worth looking at.

Start with the local market

Before deciding how to attract more children, it is worth understanding how many potential families there actually are.

This sounds obvious, but it is surprisingly easy to overlook.

If your nursery has spare places, the natural response might be to increase advertising, run another open day or become more active on social media. But if there simply aren’t enough children in your local area, more marketing won’t fix the underlying problem.

Equally, there may be plenty of potential demand but another reason why those families aren’t choosing you.

Understanding your local market can help answer some important questions:

• How many three- to six-year-olds live within your realistic catchment?
• Is that number growing or falling?
• Where do families with young children live?
• Are there new housing developments that will bring more families into the area?
• How much competing provision is available?
• Where are your competitors located?
• How many places do they have?
• Are there particular areas where you are under-represented?

Looking at these factors gives you a much clearer idea of whether you have a marketing problem, a positioning problem or simply a shortage of local demand.

Understand what parents want

Knowing how many potential customers you have is only part of the picture.

You also need to understand what matters to them.

Parents choosing provision for a three-year-old may have quite different priorities from parents looking for a setting for a five- or six-year-old. For some, flexibility and wraparound care will be critical. Others may be particularly interested in outdoor learning, academic preparation, pastoral care or the transition into school.

And while providers often know what they think makes them special, that isn’t necessarily the same as what parents value.

This is where talking to parents can be particularly useful.

Research with current parents, prospective parents or families who considered your setting but chose somewhere else can uncover things you may not hear through normal day-to-day conversations.

For example, you might find that:

• Parents love your staff but don’t understand what makes your educational approach different.
• Your setting has an excellent reputation locally but isn’t reaching families in newer housing developments.
• Parents are put off by something on your website that you hadn’t considered.
• A competitor is winning families because of something relatively simple, such as flexibility around hours.
• Your strongest selling point isn’t actually the one you focus on in your marketing.

These are useful things to know before spending more money on marketing.

Be clear about why parents should choose you

There is a lot of similar language used in early years marketing.

“Children thrive.”

“Learning through play.”

“A nurturing environment.”

“Putting every child at the heart of everything we do.”

There is nothing wrong with any of these statements. The problem is that almost every provider can say them and your marketing needs to give parents a reason to choose your setting.

That doesn’t necessarily mean finding something completely unique. It means being clear about what you do particularly well and what families can expect from you.

It might be your approach to outdoor learning, the relationship between your nursery and prep school, your specialist staff, your flexibility for working parents or the way you prepare children for their next stage of education.

The important thing is to explain why that difference matters to the family.

Look at the whole admissions journey

Marketing gets families through the door. Admissions needs to convert them.

That means looking closely at what happens after someone makes an enquiry.

How quickly do you respond?

Is the response personal?

How easy is it to arrange a visit?

What happens when parents arrive?

Who shows them around?

Are they given the information they need?

How quickly do you follow up afterwards?

And, importantly, what happens if they don’t respond?

A provider can spend a considerable amount of money generating enquiries and then lose potential families because the admissions process isn’t quite right.

This is why mystery shopping can be useful. Asking someone to approach your setting as a prospective parent can reveal things that are difficult to see from inside the organisation.

Perhaps your website promises a quick response but enquiries are taking several days to be answered. Perhaps the visit is friendly but doesn’t explain what makes the setting different. Or perhaps parents are receiving different answers depending on who they speak to.

Small changes can make a real difference to conversion.

Make your website answer parents’ questions

Your website is likely to be one of the first places prospective parents go when they are considering you.

They shouldn’t have to work hard to find the information they need.

At a minimum, your website should make it easy to understand:

• Which ages you cater for
• What a typical day looks like
• Your approach to learning
• Fees and funding
• Opening hours and flexibility
• What makes you different
• Where you are located
• How admissions work
• How to arrange a visit
• What happens when children move on

It should also give parents a feel for the setting.

Good photography, staff profiles, parent testimonials and examples of children’s experiences can all help.

Most importantly, make the next step obvious. If you want parents to book a visit, give them an easy way to do it. If you want them to enquire, don’t make them search for a contact form. If you need advice and support on your website, including audits and UX reviews, we recommend Lykke Education.

Don’t market to everyone

One of the most useful things a nursery marketing strategy can do is help you become more targeted.

If you know where your strongest potential market is, you don’t necessarily need to advertise everywhere.

For example, catchment analysis might show that you have a large number of families living five miles away but relatively few families in a particular neighbourhood only two miles from the setting.

That raises an interesting question: why?

Perhaps those families don’t know you exist. Perhaps there is a strong competitor nearby. Perhaps the transport links aren’t convenient. Or perhaps your provision simply doesn’t appeal to what those families are looking for.

Understanding those differences means marketing can become much more focused.

Instead of simply trying to increase awareness, you can decide where to concentrate your efforts and which families you most want to reach.

Think about where future families will come from

Admissions planning shouldn’t only look at this year’s numbers.

What does your local market look like in three or five years?

Population changes can happen gradually, but their impact on early years providers can be significant.

A fall in the number of young children may not be obvious today but could mean fewer applications in future years. Conversely, a new housing development could create a significant new source of demand.

This is particularly important when making decisions about capacity, staffing and investment.

If demand is likely to increase, you may need to think about how you will accommodate it.

If demand is likely to fall, you may need to consider whether your current model, staffing structure or marketing approach is sustainable.

This is where demographic forecasting and local market analysis can be much more useful than simply looking at your current occupancy figures.

Look at your competitors properly

Competitor analysis is another important part of an early years admissions strategy.

It isn’t enough to know which nurseries are nearby.

You need to understand what they offer and how parents might compare them with you.

Look at things such as:

• Fees
• Opening hours
• Age range
• Location
• Facilities
• Educational approach
• Wraparound provision
• Website and social media
• Admissions process
• Parent reviews and reputation
• Key messages used in their marketing

You may discover that you are competing against settings you hadn’t previously considered.

For example, a school offering nursery places may be competing for families you would traditionally have considered part of the nursery market. A new setting attached to a larger education group may also have a very different marketing budget and proposition.

Understanding the competitive picture helps you decide where you need to compete — and where you don’t.

Measure what actually converts

There is a big difference between generating interest and generating enrolments.

It is worth tracking the journey from the first point of contact through to joining:

Enquiry → visit → application → offer → enrolment

This can quickly highlight where things are going wrong.

If enquiries are low, you may have a marketing or awareness issue.

If enquiries are high but few families visit, something may be putting them off.

If lots of parents visit but don’t apply, your proposition, pricing or admissions experience may need closer attention.

And if applications are strong but families don’t ultimately take up places, you need to understand why.

Without this information, it is easy to keep spending money on marketing without knowing whether it is working.

A better approach to early years admissions

For providers serving children aged three to six, successful admissions and marketing aren’t simply about generating more enquiries.

They are about understanding your market and then making sure everything from your messaging to your admissions experience reflects what families are looking for.

That means looking at the numbers, but also talking to parents. Understanding competitors, but also understanding what makes your setting different. Looking at today’s occupancy, but also thinking about where future demand will come from.

At MTM Consulting, we work with early years providers to understand their markets, from demand and supply analysis and catchment mapping to competitor research, parent surveys and strategic consultancy.

If you are reviewing your admissions performance or considering how to grow your early years provision, getting a clearer picture of the market can be a useful place to start.