Traditionally nurseries have traded on their good reputations and made use of word-of-mouth as their major marketing tools, but in the current economic climate many chains are now starting to use innovative and proactive ways of promotion.
Just as chains differ in their approach and style, the methods they employ to raise brand awareness are many and varied, ranging from e-marketing to hiring dedicated marketing staff, and from establishing ring-fenced advertising budgets to orchestrating free publicity in the local media.
There is a temptation when times become tough to reduce advertising budgets, but that can be a false economy. What is needed is to ensure that any marketing and PR effort is cost effective.
'We have really upped the ante in terms of advertising,' says Lindsay Grant, business development manager at Bertram Nurseries, which has 18 nurseries in Scotland and 12 based in Manchester.
'We set aside a separate budget to focus on advertising in the last two quarters of the year. Over the summer months most nurseries are the same position and lose many of their children who start at school, so it is important to make sure you keep your brand very visible.
'The advertising is paying off. Every month at our board meetings we analyse the occupancy rates, the numbers of enquiries and their conversions into places. We look at how it will be panning out in the months ahead. You know you are going to lose children over the summer so you have to start working on recruitment in plenty of time.
'During these difficult economic times we have noticed a small percentage of parents reducing sessions across some of our nurseries due to change in circumstances,' says Caron Pardoe, marketing manager at Childcare Corporation.
'But occupancy is looking strong for the future. We market to parents on a corporate and local level, with our marketing strategy focusing on e-marketing tools - search engine optimisation and cost per click.'
New routes
Louise Skinner has recently been hired as PR and marketing manager for the Hadland Care Group, which includes the Tops Day Nurseries chain.
Until her appointment marketing had been an administrative role with the backroom staff at each setting writing the promotional letters and placing advertisements. A PR agency had been approached in a bid to give the marketing more structure for the organisation, but it was realised the most cost-effective route would be to employ someone full time with the expertise and experience to maximise publicity opportunities across the organisation.
As she says, 'The organisation is heavily involved in the community and in fundraising and helping people, but it did not have the time and resources to tell others.'
Ms Skinner's role is to 'broaden the perspective of marketing activity enabling Hadland to venture down new marketing routes and benefit from new avenues other than advertising. This will include forming good relationships and partnerships with other organisations, getting more involved with the community through events and more fundraising, sponsorship and exhibitions, and better relationships with the media'.
She has scored one PR coup already by gaining publicity for the chain on BBC's South Today as well as local radio stations when Tops took over the nursery at the Isle of Wight College, saving it from closure and the loss of 22 jobs.
The Exeter-based Puffins chain also discovered the power of radio this summer with a successful six-week advertising campaign. 'Traditionally nurseries have marketed themselves by word of mouth,' says Gemma Rolstone, director of operations. 'We felt that we just needed that extra boost. Occupancy levels are OK but we wanted to make sure we did more to push numbers up because of the continued threat of recession. Some of our nurseries are very community based with all the children living locally, but a couple are situated close to large employers.
'We had found initially that we had a drop in numbers as redundancies hit and some families were taking their children out so they could be cared for by other family members. We are starting to see an increase in numbers. We are particularly finding we are looking after younger babies. In some families, mothers are not taking their full maternity leave because they need to get back to work.
'We had a radio campaign with local radio across Exeter and east Devon. It was mainly focused as a recruitment slant, which was very successful, but it was also about getting our name out there.
'This is the biggest marketing campaign we have done and it worked really well. We had the staff coming in saying, "I heard us on the radio".
'It was very structured. It was spread across the week and times of the day. To make the campaign last longer it ran for six weeks with one week on and one week off. We did that because we wanted to get started as soon as possible, but we also wanted to tie it in with the company's open day.
'This year we had all our nurseries open on the same Saturday morning as a charity fundraiser - the niece of one our members of staff has Rett syndrome and that is our company charity this year.
'We put out posters and flyers and staff did house drops and we contacted local companies for support and invited parents and children. Each nursery had a raffle and activities.
'At one of the nurseries, the supplier where we get all our fresh meat held a barbeque and the police came along to another event. As a company we sponsor a couple of the Exeter Chiefs rugby players so they came along and had their faces painted.'
Bertram Nurseries have also held fun days and open days this year.
Ms Grant says, 'Our staff get involved and not only are they providing a fun day out for existing parents and children, they are trying to promote awareness among the local community and attract potential parents.
'We advertise these in the local press and local magazines and promote them at our nurseries.
'It depends on the community how we target the publicity. In Manchester the nurseries operate under the brand name of Holyrood, are pretty evenly spread across the Greater Manchester area and have a good reputation, so it is easier to market them.
'In Scotland it is a different situation because the nurseries operate under their own names and some are situated in small villages and towns so the marketing is specific to each nursery. We also do charity days and have them picked up by the local or national press. We try to vet everything at head office before it is sent out to make sure we are getting the same message out.'
Target areas
'Mainly our PR has to be done in the regional areas,' says Ms Skinner, 'as the nurseries are spread from Taunton to Winchester, and from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight. Each setting has specific publicity to suit the families living in its local area.
'I am talking to all the nurseries to find out the events they are already planning: fundraising activities, parties, mothers' nights, outings and competitions as well as their involvement in local events.
'They are all very active and so I am establishing which events are newsworthy and then giving guidance. I am able to draw up plans for press releases, photo calls and editorial stories. I can also bring new ideas to nurseries who are not as financially successful to help them along too.
'There are often opportunities for free publicity if you come to agreements with other organisations, who will also benefit from marketing to your parents/families. There are also good publicity opportunities if you are able to give some gifts away or source prizes for competitions.
'Good photos can help arouse interest in editors to include your story. I take photographs of most events - and if they are not good enough to send to the media, they are great for parents and prospective parents to see on the Tops' website.'
Ms Rolstone says, 'I would definitely recommend radio. We had control over the campaign even down to the type of voice used and were consulted on the script. The people from the radio station had no idea what I was talking about when I first mentioned EYPS, but they quickly gained a good understanding of what we're aiming for. They know their audience profiles and so advised us on what would be the best times to run the advertisements, such as around school pick-up times.'
'The company open day was a great success. We raised £2,000 and we have already put the date in the diary for next year.'