Education / Childcare, Tutoring & Learning Programs
Childcare marketing built around the tour
Childcare marketing from MBI is enrollment outreach to the families with young children who live near a center: a 6×9 postcard that invites them to tour it, Facebook and Instagram enrollment ads that send them to book that tour, and an automated text sequence that books the visit and reminds them before it.
Not sure where to start? Talk with our teamEnrollment marketing
How does childcare enrollment marketing invite a family to a tour?
The short answer
Childcare enrollment marketing is outreach that ends in a booked tour. Targeted postcards reach families with young children near the center and carry an enrollment offer; Facebook and Instagram enrollment ads send prospective families to book a tour; an automated text sequence books the visit and reminds the family before it. One team runs all three.
One team. MBI plans, produces and delivers direct mail, print and digital campaigns from a single team in DeLand, Florida, and data, print and delivery have been in-house since 1989.
direct mail marketing services direct mail and digital marketing
Postcard · Direct Mail
Direct mail
Who receives daycare direct mail postcards, and what do they carry?
The short answer
The drop goes to families with young children living around the center, and it carries an enrollment offer and an invitation to visit. Local mailings repeat rather than going out once, so a family still deciding meets the center again. MBI builds the list, designs the 6×9 postcard, prints it and mails it.
The documented mail. Childcare case studies and providers document targeted postcards to families with young children, including enrollment offers and repeated local mailings.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5 provides that each address, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices is subject to the Move Update standard, and that each address and associated addressee used on the mailpieces in a mailing must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date with one of the USPS-approved methods, which include Address Change Service and the National Change of Address Linkage System (NCOALink).
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5
Postcard · Direct Mail
Facebook and Instagram
Where do daycare Facebook ads send a parent?
The short answer
To a booking step rather than a general page about the center. Facebook and Instagram enrollment ads carry area-specific messaging and send prospective families to book a free tour. MBI builds the audience around the center's own area, writes the ad, and points it at the place a family picks a time.
The documented ads. Childcare marketing sources document Facebook and Instagram enrollment ads and a case using area-specific Facebook messaging to book free tours.
Meta's advertising standards state that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices.
Meta Advertising Standards
FTC advertising guidance for small business states that advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive and that advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims, and that an ad is deceptive when it contains a statement, or omits information, that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances and is material to a consumer's decision to buy or use the product.
FTC, Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business
The booking step
Meta ad · Facebook
SMS
When does childcare text message marketing start?
The short answer
After the family has opted in. CTIA's messaging principles say messages should be sent only after a consumer has opted in, and list entering a number on a website or signing up on site among the ways consent is shown. The sequence then answers quickly, prompts a tour time, and reminds before the visit.
The sequence. Childcare enrollment sources describe rapid text follow-up, tour-booking prompts and pre-tour reminders, run as an automated multi-step lead-nurture sequence.
CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that message senders should support opt-in mechanisms and that messages should be sent only after the consumer has opted in to receive them, and list entering a telephone number through a website, clicking a button on a mobile webpage, sending a message containing an advertising keyword, and signing up at a point-of-sale or other on-site location among the mechanisms by which a consumer might demonstrate opt-in consent; senders should also document opt-in consent by retaining the timestamp of consent acquisition and the medium by which it was acquired.
CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices
CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that message senders should not use opt-in lists that have been rented, sold or shared to send messages and should create and vet their own opt-in lists, that consumers should have the ability to opt out at any time through multiple mechanisms, and that senders should acknowledge and honor all opt-out requests by sending one final opt-out confirmation message per campaign.
CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices
SMS
SMS
The sequence
Three channels
Which channels bring families to a tour?
The short answer
Three, running together: a local enrollment postcard and tour-invitation campaign, Meta enrollment ads that drive prospective families to book a tour, and an automated SMS lead-nurture sequence to book and remind for a facility tour. All three name the same destination, so a family meets one center rather than three offers.
One destination. The three researched childcare campaigns share one destination: a local enrollment postcard and tour-invitation campaign, Meta enrollment ads that drive prospective families to book a tour, and an automated SMS lead-nurture sequence to book and remind for a facility tour.
direct mail and digital marketing direct mail marketing services
Meta carousel · Facebook
Reel · Instagram
Printing
What does MBI print and mail for a childcare center?
The short answer
The enrollment mailing is a 6×9 glossy postcard, and MBI prints it. Data, print and delivery have been in-house since 1989, so the trim, the run and the mail date are one team's answer rather than three suppliers', and the piece that is designed is the piece that is mailed.
The format. 6×9 glossy postcards.
In house. Printing at MBI is commercial and variable-data printing produced in house.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1 sets card-price physical standards at not less than 3-1/2 inches high, 5 inches long and 0.007 inch thick, with a card more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long required to be at least 0.009 inch thick; at not more than 4-1/4 inches high, 6 inches long or 0.016 inch thick for each stamped card or each half of a double postcard; and at not more than 6 inches high, 9 inches long or 0.016 inch thick for each postcard. 201.1.1.1 sets letter-size mailpieces at not more than 11-1/2 inches long, 6-1/8 inches high or 1/4 inch thick, and 201.3.7 requires an aspect ratio (length divided by height) of 1.3 to 2.5 inclusive.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201
printing services postcard mailing services direct mail cost
Guide · Printing
Kit · Printing
Six by nine
Questions
Questions a childcare center asks before it mails
Searched for daycare marketing, preschool marketing or child care marketing? Same work, same answers.
What is childcare marketing at MBI?
Childcare marketing at MBI is three campaigns run together: a local enrollment postcard and tour-invitation campaign, Meta enrollment ads that drive prospective families to book a tour, and an automated SMS lead-nurture sequence to book and remind for a facility tour. MBI designs, prints, mails and sends them.
What should a daycare postcard offer a family?
An enrollment offer and an invitation to come and see the center. Targeted postcards go to families with young children living near it and repeat as local mailings rather than going out once, so a family still deciding meets the center again. MBI selects the households, designs the piece, prints it and mails it.
What size is a childcare enrollment postcard?
A childcare center mails 6×9 glossy postcards. At commercial card prices a postcard must be no more than 6 inches high, no more than 9 inches long and no thicker than 0.016 inch, and a card more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long must be at least 0.009 inch thick.
What does a childcare mailing cost?
No list price exists for direct mail: a quote resolves to producing the piece and mailing it, and seven decisions move those two numbers, among them quantity, format and finished size, paper, data and personalization, and postage and sortation. The direct mail cost page, /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost, walks a childcare center through all seven.
What happens after a family asks about a spot?
The text follow-up answers quickly, prompts the family to pick a tour time, and sends a reminder before the visit. Rapid replies, tour-booking prompts and pre-tour reminders run as an automated multi-step sequence, so nobody at the center has to chase an inquiry by hand.
How does a childcare center collect numbers it may text?
From the family, on the center's own forms. CTIA's messaging principles say messages should be sent only after a consumer has opted in, list entering a number on a website or signing up on site among the ways consent is shown, and say senders should not use rented, sold or shared lists.
What can a childcare ad claim about a program?
Only what the center can back up. FTC guidance says advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive and that advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims, and treats an ad as deceptive when a statement or omission is likely to mislead a reasonable consumer and is material to their decision.
How does the mailing list stay accurate when a family moves?
A childcare center's list is run against the postal file before the drop. USPS requires each address in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices, or USPS Marketing Mail prices, to be updated within 95 days before the mailing date using an approved method such as NCOALink or Address Change Service.
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Start a childcare campaign.
Say which of the three it is, and the area around the center it should reach. It goes to a real member of the MBI team, not a queue.