If you’ve been in the daycare business for a while, or even if you haven’t, you’ve probably figured out the importance of having a daycare website. But what about a blog? A lot of people don’t want the hassle of maintaining a blog — I get it. But it can really help you connect with both current and potential customers.
Blogging also is huge for search engine optimization (SEO), which is what helps future clients find you when using Google and Bing to search for a new daycare provider.
WordPress is great for blogging and can give you an easy start for very little upfront cost. Bonus? Here’s a fantastic guide for getting started using WordPress.
Editor’s note: And to go along with that guide, you’ll need a Managed WordPress solution. With the Quick Start Wizard already ready to go, you can start a daycare blog in no time.
How a daycare blog can help your business
It can be easy to tell customers the important aspects of your business: how your business operates, expectations of your customers, the things you do during your hours of operation. But nothing beats seeing these things. And that’s something a blog can help with.
Pictures of your day-to-day activities during business hours and brief explanations of them can really attract new customers and keep your current customers informed.
A blog is an easy way for you to let your customers find out about your daycare. Have a potential customer who wants to learn about your business? Refer them to your blog. Don’t have a lot of time to speak to your current customers at the end of the day? Refer them to your blog. You’ll be shocked how many of your customers will appreciate being able to see what their children experience while they’re away. And you’ll be even more amazed at how easily posts can create interest in your business.
Fresh ideas for your daycare blog
One of the trickiest parts of blogging is coming up with fresh topics. No problem! We’ll help you get started with these nine post ideas for your daycare blog:
1. Arts and crafts
Any and all crafts you do should go on the blog. This can be as simple as snapping and posting a few pictures of them, or you can create a “How To” post
2. Activities and games
All activities the kids do — think sensory bins, free play, games, songs they sing — can be topics for your blog. Even a quick post about the kids’ favorite songs to sing at the moment can be insightful.
3. Meals and snacks
Share pictures of what you serve the kids or what their favorite foods are. You could even share your meal plan for the week.
4. Favorite toys that always keep the kids busy
Bonus to this is you can use affiliate links to bring in some extra income.
5. Naps
Share how you manage (or don’t manage) to get all of those littles to sleep. Share your tricks or stories about how naptime goes at your daycare.
6. Your daycare setup
Show and talk about what centers you have, where the kids sleep and eat, and your outside space. Creating posts about this topic can help new customers get a sense of your daycare and decide if they’re even interested in setting up an interview, therefore creating a more informed customer.
7. Daily routines
What does your daily routine or schedule look like? Does it work for you, the children, and your customers? Are you flexible with your routine? Tell people about it.
8. How you handle the day-to-day
This blog post could include disciplining, the stress, crying kids, illness. I wouldn’t post your daycare contract, but sharing your views or policies on these things will give customers a look at you and how your business is run.
9. Funny sayings or stories
Kids say and do funny things. Post them! Everyone loves a good laugh.
How to get the most out of your daycare blog
Be sure that each blog post contains high-quality images. If you intend to use any images of your customers’ children on your blog, be sure to get a signed photo release form.
A post that contains quality images is more appealing and will likely spike more traffic to your site.
The most important thing to remember as you create a blog post is keywords. Your SEO keywords are the words and phrases within your content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. " target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article has some great tips that can walk you through how to use keywords to gain new customers.
Once you’ve drafted, edited, and published a blog post, you obviously want people to view your blog. Here are a few ways to get the word out there:
- Social media can be an important part of the equation. Ideally, you’ll have a Facebook business page set up where you can share a link to your blog.
- Share a link to your blog on Facebook community groups and mom groups to help reach new customers in your area.
- Instagram is also a great way to gain interest in your blog topics, as long as you have quality images to share.
- Create a flyer and promote your site at local libraries — most have a community board — and hand it out to current customers to give to anyone they know.
Maintaining a daycare blog doesn’t have to be daunting, as long as you use an editorial calendar, which can really take the pressure off the daily management of your site. Having a couple posts in draft mode makes it easy to meet your posting goals, even when your daycare business might be too busy for you to create new content that day.
Pro tip: Keep your post ideas to what you know. As a daycare business owner, you know daycare. Tell about your daycare as much as you can. Use your posts as a tool to grow your business and reel in potential customers by giving them a first-hand look at your daycare business.
