Brisbane based marketing agency operating since 2010.
Brisbane based marketing agency operating since 2010.
Amidst the growing population and fierce competition in Brisbane’s childcare industry, The Brook Early Education and Care, a long-day care center in Gordon Park and the inner-north suburbs, sought to increase its occupancy rates with state-of-the-art facilities and a dedicated team of highly qualified educators and staff. They reached out to us in April 2017 to improve their low occupancy rates, just five months after their November 2016 opening.
With a two-stage approach, our marketing strategy aimed to reach three-quarters of capacity by July 31st and full capacity by October 31st, 2017, utilising social media, community engagement, content creation, website optimization, digital marketing, and branding. Thanks to an “all hands-on deck” effort, we not only met but exceeded the occupancy targets, fostering an ongoing relationship with The Brook to provide continuous support for their marketing and communication activities.
Our comprehensive marketing plan involved running a digital campaign alongside traditional mediums in a two-stage process over six months, focusing on increasing awareness, enrolments, and positive experiences to generate word-of-mouth referrals. In the last three months, the emphasis shifted to presenting a consistent and professional image in line with the center’s branding to enhance brand equity.
This two-stage process can be broken down into six key elements:
Our Social Media Manager created a comprehensive strategy, including weekly blogs, testimonials, profiles, and boosted posts, to engage potential families and secure six advertising opportunities within local family-focused Facebook groups to highlight The Brook’s unique offerings.
Expanding beyond social media, our team focused on community involvement by reaching out to over 80 local businesses and establishing reciprocal marketing relationships with 23 of them, resulting in successful collaborations, paid advertising in key school newsletters, and an exceeding rating in Quality Area 6 of the National Quality Standards.
Our Content Marketing Manager played a crucial role in social media and website optimisation, creating weekly blogs and articles covering educational topics, recipes, and activities, while also organising a photo and video shoot, resulting in high-quality content used for online and print collateral.
Our team improved The Brook’s existing website by creating new pages, optimising content with specific keywords, and adding calls to action on every page to streamline the enrollment process and center tours.
To enhance online visibility and attract potential families, we utilised both Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) by incorporating targeted keywords into website content and weekly blogs, and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) through a Google Ads Campaign.
In stage two, Outsource2Us focused on creating consistent branding across all elements of The Brook, aiming to impress new parents and build brand loyalty to generate word-of-mouth referrals, the best type of advertising for childcare businesses.
The biggest challenge with The Brook wasn’t our ambitious targets, but rather the timeline we were given to develop and implement our strategy.
In a mere three months, we committed to delivering substantial results – full occupancy within 7 months. It was our intimate industry knowledge of the childcare sector, specific marketing expertise, and collaborative teamwork that allowed us to achieve such impressive results.
Throughout 2021, we drove a significant number of enquiries to each of the centres, with Cannon Hill receiving the most (215). In fact, over the 12 months, we had 732 enquiries, averaging 61 per month. Some of our other results included:
Stage 1 (May – July 2017):
Stage 2 (August – October 2017):
Overall (May – October 2017):
Outsource2Us successfully achieved The Brook’s ambitious targets within a short time frame, leading the centre to reach 100% capacity with a 190+ long waitlist. By creating a strong community both online and offline, providing consistent branding, and supporting the centre’s exceptional team, our marketing efforts garnered impressive results, and we continue to support The Brook with ongoing marketing activities and social media training for key team members.
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