Recently, we were lucky to be joined by guest expert, Cerys Keneally, who gave us an incredibly useful talk on the best method for approaching nurseries and stand out from the competition.
(Find out how you can join future Webinars at Happity below!)
Why Is It Useful For Baby And Toddler Class Providers To Approach Nurseries?
It can feel hard initially to get your business into nurseries. There are a few hurdles to overcome, and finding an effective way to make yourself heard can be hard. But, when you finally get in, the rewards are endless!
Just some of the perks include:
- More daytime work for you or your team
- Loyal staff
- An additional, reliable income stream
- Reduced costs, more profit
- More awareness of your community classes
- A bigger impact on children’s lives
It’s a great idea to get into nursery bookings. But in current times, your biggest competition is anything the nursery staff could do themselves, instead of investing in your services.
How To Stand Out When Contacting Nurseries
We need to present nurseries with a highly relevant, useful and valuable offer that demonstrates the outcomes and impact of what you do.
A free demonstration will showcase the quality of your work and how you’re different to anything they could do ‘in-house’ and how your service provides value for money.
A relevant email or letter will be personalised and link to something on the nursery calendar that coincides with the time of year.
A useful email or letter will educate nursery staff on how you can help them – it might include statistics on the scale of the problem you solve to help you build trust and authority.
A valuable email or letter won’t try to sell them anything yet and will instead offer a session, training or resource for free.
Nowadays, the old ways of cold-calling, selling ‘what’ you do and delivering brochures or flyers are becoming less and less effective.
Learning The S.T.O.P. System
If you’ve been struggling to get into nurseries, you might need to S.T.O.P. what you’ve been doing and try the following instead:
S – Solution
Solve a problem for the nursery and discuss your solution at the start of an email. This will grab a busy decision-maker’s attention much more quickly than spending the first paragraph introducing yourself.
T – Testimonials
Showcase relevant reviews in the form of testimonials to back up the benefits of what you do and bring in the bandwagon effect. If you don’t have testimonials from nurseries, start with reviews from parents.
O – Offer
Create a compelling offer that demonstrates outcomes and impact for free. This will prevent your email from being deleted and help you communicate value for money before a nursery will be willing to invest in your services.
P – Persistence
Be persistent with your follow-up strategy. Nursery staff are busy people but they will thank you for following up when you do it in the right ways. This is how you boost your response rate and where most of your replies will come from.
Good Luck! You’ve Got This
Try incorporating some of these ideas next time you’re approaching nurseries and see how you get on.
When we get our activities into nurseries, everybody wins. You get to grow your business and have an incredible impact! Nurseries have an exciting array of activities which contribute to the overall benefits of parents choosing their setting. And parents have an easier time getting children to nursery in the morning.
If you want to grow a more profitable children’s activity business, why not try reaching out to your local nurseries this year.
Further Learning – Cerys Keneally
Cerys Keneally is a TEDx speaker, podcaster and author who delivers award-winning training for the children’s activity sector. Since starting the Approaching Schools Challenge in 2019, she has helped over 5,000 providers to get their businesses into schools and nurseries for free.
Cerys is the proud creator of the CPD-accredited “Approaching Schools Academy” where she has supported hundreds of providers to grow profitable businesses by working with schools and nurseries. She has also worked privately with over 40 leading franchise brands to upskill their networks.
Once a shy child who gained her confidence from extra-curricular activities, Cerys is passionate about building creative confidence with the providers she works with and all the children they work with.
Find out more and download your free Approaching Schools & Nurseries Workbook now
Interested In Attending A Future Happity Webinar?
If you are a Happity Member, then good news! Our monthly webinars are included with your Membership and you can attend for free.
If you are not a member however, then webinars cost just £5 to attend: an affordable way to learn new business skills for your baby classes.
Find out more about what we have up and coming in the future on our webinars page
Happity: Created with baby class providers in mind!
If you are looking for ease and a listing/booking service that’s catered specifically to you (busy parents and small business owners) then you’ve found the right blog page.
It’s free to list with Happity, and you can offer all sorts of ticket options through our site. Though we also offer cost-effective membership for when your baby class needs an extra boost in its marketing or if you would like access to our provider-catered booking system.
Get your classes seen by thousands of parents today
If you liked this post, you may also like:
What Is Makaton? (And Why Is It A Useful Skill For Your Baby Classes?)
10 Free Beginner Marketing Tools For Baby Classes (that we’ve used ourselves!)
How To Choose A Booking System For Your Baby And Toddler Classes
