This blog was originally published May 27, 2022, and was updated on June 13, 2024, with new information.
A strong curriculum is what sets your early childhood education center apart from other child care centers in your area.
It’s important to market your daycare curriculum make sure prospective parents know about the great things kids in your care are learning, as well as why it matters to have a developmentally appropriate curriculum that spans from babies to pre-kindergarten.
Why an ECE Curriculum Matters
The 2024 Child Care Management Software Industry Trends Report from Procare Solutions found that about 30% of survey respondents said each teacher spends between three and five hours a week doing lesson planning and a similar percentage noted their centers create their own curriculum.
This leads to stress among teachers and other staff, who already are dealing with more children with challenging behaviors.
Procare Solutions conducted a survey of more than 100,000 stakeholders in child care on child care management software and other technology usage to illustrate benchmarks and how automation can put time back into child care providers days.
These questions included what curriculum centers are using, or not using. Check out the responses:
Notice that 31% of respondents rely on paper-based curriculum, which becomes outdated quickly and often is cumbersome to understand — especially for teachers with little experience. That number is similar for those creating their own curriculum.
At a time when cost savings rank as the biggest concern to child care programs, all-digital curriculum programs that include automatic updates (versus re-ordering sets of books and binders) typically are more affordable and easier to navigate.
The report also honed in on how much time teachers are spending on planning lessons:
Using an all-digital curriculum designed for ECE sets your program a part from other centers in your area. Let’s dive into five ways to market your curriculum!
1. Tell People Why Instead of What
Effective marketing focuses on benefits, not features.
If given the choice, would you rather buy the car that has antilock brakes and stability control, or the car that’s been rigorously tested to keep your family safe?
Most people would choose the second option. Antilock brakes and stability control are features that most people don’t understand. But everybody wants to feel safe while driving, which is the benefit that these features provide.
When it comes to marketing, features should always take a back seat because they don’t tell people why they should care. That’s what benefits do.
Don’t tell parents that your daycare curriculum is based on a certain philosophy of early childhood education. Tell them what that curriculum prioritizes, such as hands-on learning and social interaction to help raise independent thinkers who love learning.
See the difference?
When marketing your center’s daycare curriculum to parents, always focus on benefits before features. And remember to focus on the right benefits in your marketing efforts, specifically the things your specific customers care about.
You may find, for example, that many of the parents you serve are worried that their kids won’t be ready for kindergarten. If so, you can present a list of the lesson plans and activities that your child care center curriculum includes that prepare kids for elementary school. Parents will love that!
2. Share Numbers Whenever Possible
Which statement sounds more impressive?
- Early childhood education improves high school graduation rates.
- Early childhood education improves high school graduation rates by up to 20%.
If you’re like most people, you chose the second option. Why? Because numbers are powerful. Specific facts are more trustworthy than generic statements.
We suggest using numbers to market your daycare curriculum. Here are some examples:
- Our preschool teacher-to-student ratio is 1 to 8, which is below state requirements. This means your child will get more individual attention as we guide them through our curriculum.
- Children who go through a quality daycare curriculum are 39% more likely to have an IQ of 90 or more by the time they turn 5, and are 17% more likely to graduate high school.
- Offering a 52-week curriculum means your child keeps learning through the summer.
Dig up your own statistics and apply them to your marketing efforts. When you take the time to do this, you’ll be able to promote your daycare curriculum much more effectively, which in turn will help you boost enrollment!
3. Ask Your Customers For Testimonials
When was the last time you bought something on Amazon without reading reviews first?
Parents read reviews too, before they enroll their kids in daycare.
One of the best things you can do to market your daycare business is to ask your current customers to give you glowing testimonials. Said testimonials will be especially helpful if they talk about the quality of your daycare curriculum.
Put yourself in the shoes of a mother seeking an early childhood education center for her child.. She’s just spent the last two hours researching child care centers in their area. She has it narrowed down to two options and both are close to her home, employ licensed teachers and have five-star reviews.
Let’s say she reads one review in which a parent raves about the quality of the curriculum, and while the reviews for the other center are great, none of the parents mention an education program.
A good review that specifically mentions curriculum could be what makes her decide to look further into your center. So don’t be afraid to ask your customers for reviews. And when you do, ask them to mention the quality of your daycare curriculum. This will help you market your educational program to new prospective families and grow enrollment.
4. Use Every Channel Available to You
There are plenty of online ways to reach prospective parents. Use them to promote the benefits of your daycare curriculum. Here are a few ideas to get the ball rolling:
Your Website
Your daycare website is the hub of your marketing efforts. It’s the only piece of online real estate that you have complete control over and is a fantastic tool.
Tell your website viewers about your daycare curriculum. Why did you choose it? Is it based on a certain child care philosophy? What do your current customers think about it? Has it helped kids in any specific ways that you can share?
Mention your child care center curriculum in your website copy. If your website has a blog, talk about it there, too. Just make sure that all of your website visitors are exposed to your curriculum.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with prospective families and tell them about the benefits of your child care curriculum.
So talk about your curriculum in your emails from time to time. Share what lesson plans each classroom has completed. Describe the curriculum your center uses, with links so parents can learn more.
Social Media Marketing
You’re on Facebook and Instagram, right? Of course you are — everybody is. So why not use these channels to market your daycare curriculum?
Post photos of your kids going through your curriculum. (Be sure to get their parents’ permission first.) Share parent testimonials that speak to the quality of your curriculum. And post facts and statistics that explain why your curriculum is effective.
Social media networks are free to use, have incredible reach and are a lot of fun. Put your socials to work and promote your daycare curriculum!
How Procare Early Learning Can Help!
The early childhood education curriculum that you offer is an important element of your business. Once you invest in an educational program for your daycare, you’ll be able to teach your kids important life skills, while making your business more attractive to parents.
Procare Early Learning powered by Learning Beyond Paper is an all-new, all-digital curriculum specifically designed to meet the unique needs of educating children from infancy through pre-kindergarten.
It embeds Learning Beyond Paper’s early childhood curriculum, which was designed by educators with decades of combined experience, into the Procare platform, making it easier and less time-consuming for busy teachers and administrators to provide high-quality education.
With Procare Early Learning powered by Learning Beyond Paper, child care centers can:
- Equip teachers with state-of-the-art online curriculum at their fingertips
- Dramatically reduce the amount of time spent on lesson planning each week
- Offer children a high-quality, developmentally appropriate curriculum
- Save money with this cost-efficient solution that’s integrated with Procare
This curriculum can be used in ALL child care center classrooms, with 52 weeks of lesson plans and more than 4,000 daily activities for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and pre-kindergarteners. Learning areas include STEAM, language and literacy, physical development, cognitive, music and movement as well as interactive reading. Plus, teachers get tips and tools they can use in real time!
Want to learn more? Visit www.procaresolutions.com/curriculum and check out these resources as well:
• Download Procare Early Learning Powered by Learning Beyond Paper: What a Digital Curriculum Can Do For Your Child Care Center,” a free eBook, here.
• Learn how Procare Early Learning will save one West Virginia child care center up to $1,600 a month.
• Get more child care marketing tips from the experts at Procare
• And check out this article on Procare Early Learning to learn more about this cost-effective solution that benefits children and sets your child care center part from competitors!
Procare is the only solution that can deliver the entire early childhood education ecosystem — lesson planning, lesson delivery within the classroom as well as assessment and parent engagement. Being able to do all of these with one platform simplifies classroom management and planning!
How much time and money could your child care center save using a digital curriculum designed for young learners? Enter your number of staff, number of students and type of program into our online calculator to learn your potential savings!
Procare Cost and Time Savings Calculator Automated Payment Processing Cost & Time Savings Calculator Digital Curriculum Cost and Time Savings Calculator
Calculate your potential cost and time savings by using Procare’s all-in-one child care management software. All we will need from you is some information about your child care location*: Calculate your potential cost and time savings by using Procare’s secure and effortless child care payment processing. All we will need from you is some information about your child care location*: Calculate your potential cost and time savings by using Procare’s classroom management. All we will need from you is some information about your child care location*:
* Our data model is based on our experience working with over 100,000 child care centers, before and after school programs and youth organizations since 1992.
Switching to will save you hours and a month!*
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We understand that smaller centers and in-home daycare providers are operating on a tight budget, and that is why we provide all these features for the affordable price of just $25 per month. Let us handle the business of child care so you can get back to caring for your children.
To learn more about Procare home version, click below.
*Please note that the report you see only factors in cost and time savings for the in-home solution features. For Procare home version users that are interested in seeing how they can benefit from Procare’s full suite of capabilities, contact us today to speak to a Procare representative. *Please note that the report you see only factors in cost and time savings for the in-home solution features. For Procare home version users that are interested in seeing how they can benefit from Procare’s full suite of capabilities, contact us today to speak to a Procare representative. *Please note that the classroom management functionality is not available for in-home users. For Procare home version users that are interested in seeing how they can benefit from Procare’s full suite of capabilities, contact us today to speak to a Procare representative.
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Procare Cost and Time Savings Calculator
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