Expert: Sean Trapani - 11/26/2007

Question
Hi!  We are a family of teachers trying to advertise our 12 student preschool, and I'm afraid we are better at teaching than advertising.  We started it at a slow time of year (Holiday time), and could really use some advice:

We have under $1000--really more time than money--to advertise this preschool in a small rural area with few businesses in the vicinity, so what would you suggest we spend your time and effort doing?
(The preschool will cater to 2 1/2 - 5 year olds and cost $700 per month per child)
Our local assessment of the area businesses/housing/ nonprofits:

Housing--There are new subdivisions nearby
Businesses- Ballet school, mechanic, realtor and one restaurant are the closest businesses.  About 15 minutes away is a large mall, community college and shopping a center with Kohl's/Petco/WalMart/HomeDepot/Target/Shoe Place/Bakery.
Nonprofits- Churches, schools and a huge ball park for kids are very close. This ball park is less than 5 minutes from our preschool, which is on the corner of two busy roads.  

Thanks so much for any ideas you have to offer.  We are stumped.

Answer
Hi, Teresa

I'm a writer and brand strategist - not a media planner, so this is really outside of my area of expertise.

But, I've worked around media planners enough years to give you a couple of suggestions.

If you are the only pre-school option in the area, you have a great advantage. If you are not, then this would require a deeper discussion about your brand. But I'm going to go from the assumption that there is not any competition in your own back yard.

Overall, lean toward non-conventional and guerrilla-style advertising. In other words, it's a lot cheaper (and often, more effective) to put flyers on windshields than it is to pay $250 to run one ad in the newspaper. People often need to see your message several times before noticing it - and then a few more times before acting.

Your mission should be on the frequency of your advertising messages, the more the better. Flyers, standing on the roadside with a sign (in a cartoon character costume) and events are a better call. For example, you could get some of your friends together and hold a car wash for your school in a parking lot. You really don't care about washing cars - but now, hundreds of people see your "_______ Preschool benefit carwash" sign, which means you've done the same thing as paying for a billboard.

Flyers are cheap. Workshops are cheap, too. Go to the local library and have a "Bedtime stories that makes them smarter" seminar - invite parents and their children and teach them how to read stories to focus on vocabulary development. This establishes you as an expert, and it gets your business name in front of everybody who sees the flyer at the library, not to mention the people who show up to your seminar.

Try to think along these lines of non conventional exposure. In the short term, maybe do something holiday themed. It's practically free, with the exception of your time.  

Use the $1,000 to pay for a respectable-looking yellow pages ad (no more than $300-$400). Save some money for printing costs of the flyers. And then, consider putting a small, recurring ad in the church bulletins of neighborhood houses of worship (usually very inexpensive).

Then, save a few hundred dollars for "loyalty" incentives. Your best source of new customers are always going to be your current customers. Give parents a nice incentive to recommend your school. When they do refer a new student, give the referring parent a $20 gift certificate or a free month, etc. Then, deduct that cost from your marketing budget.

Remember. Frequency is the key. Don't blow all your money on a one-time ad.

Take care and good luck.


Sean