Nowadays, online presence is not optional but necessary to achieve business success. When it comes to preschools and having an online presence, it does come with certain benefits, so if you are a preschool business owner, you should seriously consider it. You should focus on it despite having a full preschool and children on waiting lists. You can use many online platforms to showcase your preschool from different angles and appeal to diverse people who have kids. By posting photos and videos online, potential customers can imagine what a day in your preschool looks like. Keep reading to learn more about why preschools need a strong digital presence. We will discuss several benefits of being present online, as well as the things you can do to boost your online presence.
When it comes to the benefits of a strong digital presence, we will mention several essential ones. First of all, having a strong online presence can increase your enrolment rates, help establish your brand, strengthen your community, promote your brand, and be inexpensive and trackable. As far as building a strong digital presence, you should create a website (if you don’t already have one), register on Google Business, be active on social media, use tech in conducting your business, blog, and use video marketing.
Benefits of a strong digital presence
It increases your enrolment rates
The first benefit of a strong digital presence we will discuss is the increase in enrollment rates. What does a typical search for a quality preschool look like? Parents start with a simple Google search, typing ‘childcare center near me’, and make a list of plausible options, which is almost always (in 75% of all searches according to statistics) on the first page of results. When you have a strong online presence, your preschool will appear on the first page of the search results. However, if you don’t, people won’t even consider you, as they don’t know about you.
It helps in establishing your brand
Another thing online presence helps us with is establishing our brand. Every business is characterized by its specific logo, colors, font, and core values they practice. When you build your online and social media presence, you reinforce your brand with your community on a visual level. Also, you create feelings and impressions you want people to associate with your brand. Presenting your preschool online allows you to tell people about your brand, but t show them in practice with photos and videos. That is far more ensuring than just telling about it.
It helps strengthen your community
Social media is not used to attract new preschool attendees. It is also used to connect your community – one of the best things a preschool can do to boost its publicity. You can also use social media to inform parents, announce news and innovations, and post updates. The best thing is that you can track how people react to everything you share and figure out what they find amusing and informative. You can use such insight to create helpful content for the future. Some ideas for great social media content are live-streaming plays, showcasing children’s artistic work, and ways preschools give back to the community.
It helps in the visibility of your brand
Being present online lets you promote your brand on many channels and platforms. There is always some new place where you can promote your preschool. When creating business pages on social media channels, you should pick a few relevant for your target audience. It’s more effective to be present on fewer important ones than on all, of which not all are relevant. You should also consider Google AdWords or PPC campaigns on other search engines, besides Google, such as Bing and Yahoo, for a more extensive reach. Moreover, you can use email marketing to reach out to your existing clients. It is a low-cost way to inform your customers of everything happening or potential changes.
It is inexpensive and trackable
The two best things about building an online presence are that it is inexpensive and trackable. These two things are a winning combo if used in the right way. When we say inexpensive, we mean that plenty of things you can do for free will bring results over time. However, you also need to pay for things, such as hosting your blog or website. You can set a budget for other digital marketing strategies you want to use. What you should definitely invest in is a mobile version of your website. This is essential as more and more people use their phones to conduct different online searches.
How you can build a strong digital presence
Create a website
Now that you know of several benefits a strong online presence brings to your preschool, you may want to know how to achieve that. There are several things you can do. First, you should create a website if you don’t already have one. The website should be user-friendly, easy to navigate, intuitive, and informative. You should have an About Us page where you can present your story and core values. There should be information people are interested in, such as the curriculum, working hours, the menu, and so on. You should also showcase photos of your preschool and videos.
Register on Google Business
The next thing you should do is register your business on Google Business. This is a free marketing strategy by which you will increase your reach. Also, being listed on Google Business confirms the legitimacy of your business. When you create your account, your preschool will appear on Google and Google Maps. To make it appealing you should add photos and a website link, always reply to all reviews, answer the questions asked by various users and ensure that your contact details and working hours are up to date, among other things.
Be active on social media
You can’t have a strong online presence without being present on social media channels. We already mentioned that you should analyze your target audience and create accounts on social media channels relevant to your target group. You should be active on social media, share amusing, entertaining, or informative content, engage with people, organize contests, etc. There are many plausible ways to use social media efficiently – you can learn more about them online.
Use tech to conduct your business in a more optimal manner
With the development of the digital age, there are many handy pieces of tech we can use to make conducting our business much more optimal. You should definitely use them. It is something that will set you apart from other preschools. For instance, you can use a preschool management platform to manage billing, parent communication, children’s report, digitalize attendance, and more.
Blog and use video marketing
One more crucial digital marketing strategy is blogging. You should ensure a blogging section on your website where you can write and share helpful content. In that way, you keep your loyal clients engaged, but you can also attract new clients. Video marketing s yet another plausible form of marketing that is quite effective, so think about some ways you can use it.
Having a strong online presence is vital for any business, including a preschool. Start applying strategy by strategy and you will see results over a 6 months period of time.
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