Need to spread the word to attract more parents to your class? Here are 9 top marketing tips for children’s activity providers.
To help you work out where to advertise, how much (if anything) to spend and to start filling your children’s activity classes fast.
1. Hit the streets armed with flyers
Flyering in person near your class venue can be effective. You have control over where you hand your flyers out and can go where the local parents are! It’s also a good way for raising brand awareness in your local area compared to digital channels.
However, physical marketing does tend to be expensive. Especially once you factor in the time/cost of designing your materials, printing them and the time it takes to hand them out.
Our suggestion is to pop flyers or posters on noticeboards in popular venues and cafes. These have potential to give you a better return than giving out flyers, because you won’t have to hand out hundreds to get a result. You could also try your GP surgery where antenatal and mum and baby clinics are run, your local nursery, school noticeboards and any church or community halls.
An additional note: it’s cheaper to print out business cards than flyers and these are just as easy to hand out. Definitely do your research and set your budget before you decide on what’s best for you.
2. Make the most of free listings
There are lots of places where you can list your classes for free. The more places you are, the more parents can find you. So research all the places that list children’s classes in your area and add yours. That might mean local listing sites, local family magazines and local ‘What’s On’ magazines and sites.
Of course, make sure you’re on Happity, as it’s free to list with us too. We have plenty of additional marketing opportunities for your business and various promotional offers throughout the year. For example, if you display a Happity badge on your marketing materials (letting potential customers that they can find/book your classes on Happity), you can easily receive up to £20 of credit for free.
3. Marketing your children’s activity with Facebook ads
These are great for generating awareness amongst local parents, but it does takes some research to learn how to get the best out of them properly. You do need to create a nice image or video that will stand out when parents are scrolling. Canva is a great tool to do this.
4. Supercharge your listings on Happity
Once you are a Happity member you can boost your class listings with our marketing features. You can use our Promoted Listings to get your classes to appear at the top of search results and as a ‘Top Pick’ in our newsletters. We only charge 1p per search it’s a really affordable way to get your classes seen by more potential customers.
5. Get involved in local events
Look out for family events taking place near you and see if you can be involved. You could run mini taster sessions at a local school fayre, for example. Make sure that you have all your branded banners and flyers easily visible at the event so that anyone who has enjoyed your activity knows who you are and how to find and book with you again.
6. Marketing tips for your children’s activity – embrace email
This is a really powerful tool for small businesses like yours. It can take time to build up an email list but once you have this you can email your customers (and potential future customers) once a week to let them know about your classes and any special offers or exciting news you have to share.
You could also offer tips and advice for parents. For example, if a parents feels nervous about coming to class you could reassure them that they will feel welcomed and share testimonials from customers who felt the same but now feel part of the group.
Hoping to build an email list of your own? With a Happity membership (and the Happity followers feature) we can help make your hopes a reality!
Find out more about the Happity followers feature here
7. Word of mouth is a powerful thing!
Care as much (indeed more) about the customers you have than the ones that haven’t been to your classes yet. Do all the wonderful things you do to make sure they feel welcomed and have the best experience at your classes. Greeting them by name, taking time to talk to them before and after class, thanking them for coming…
A happy customer who loves coming to your classes will tell other parents about how great they are too. And word of mouth is one of the most effective ways of winning new customers.
Remember, part of what makes customers come to you over your competitors is you.
8. Reach out to local playgroups and nurseries
Talk to local playgroups and early years groups to see if you could run some mini sessions for free to give parents a taster of what you do. Be sure to hand out something with your class name on so that the children and parents remember who you are. This could be stickers or certificates for each child. Or flyers or business cards for the parents.
9. Social media competitions
Run a competition on your social media channels. You don’t need to offer a huge prize. It could be a free class. Or something related to what you do. If you run an arts and crafts class you could put together an activity pack as a prize, for example. Competitions on social media often get people sharing and tagging to help spread the word.
Getting the word out there about your children’s activity class can take some time and effort – and money too. But it if worth it once your classes start filling up with happy customers who then spread the word and continue building up your marketing efforts too.
We know how lonely it can be running your own small business as a children’s activity provider. Join our Facebook group to find a community of other providers to share support, tips and advice.
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