You may have sourced premises, registered with the relevant governing body, talked with parents and even started your marketing efforts. Phew. You deserve a medal! Or possibly a lie down and a nice cup of tea. Actually we can go one better than both of those.
Why not kick back with that cup of tea and catch up on our top tips; all designed to help you achieve real results.
Let’s be honest, everything is moving online (you will have heard that before) but actually in the kids activity market it’s all about parent power. One friend tells another how great your club is in facebook message, they in turn pass that onto a mum at the school gates who mentions it to her husband who mentions it in a whatsapp group. You get the picture. This network - both virtual and real - is the currency of your club.
Let’s return to that mum at the school gates for a moment. Parents, as we know, are very busy. They are also very good at being organised; arranging shared lifts and taking kids to classes on a rota basis. Are you utilising this in your own business.
How much do your own staff sell? Or how much do parents sell for you?
Try this simple parent referral idea and watch your business grow.
Bring a friend for a £1. If you have free spaces then you will haver an outlay the same every time you run the class so why not try some offers to get these places filled?
The worst case is they don’t come back after the offer but the best chance to get a client in your class is to get them there once. We know there is a high chance they will come back and if a friend already goes there is even more of a chance. And remember. Happy children = happy parents!
It’s the classic mistake that is so easy to make when running Holiday Camps/Workshops.
You get all these new children into holiday camp classes and then never approach them to get to join the term classes. Parents are always willing to try different things with their kids in the holiday season.
Their own routine will change when the kids are off from school so undoubtedly an increase in new kids appearing in the classes is very natural.
Capitalising on this is crucial. You have the details so why not pick up the phone? Tell the parents how much you enjoyed seeing their child and how you would like to offer them a discount code they can use for the new term of classes.
Tell them the code or text it to them later and then send them the link to book so they can book into the class. Make it easy for them.
There are many frustrations for parents - choosing what clothes their kids wear (obviously this is for younger children), what meals to cook, homework duties, the dog walking roster. The list goes on.
Parenting has its challenges and the fact is there are only so many hours in the day and for working parents each of those hours is generally allocated to a task. Don’t they deserve a break? Booking or re-booking an afterschool class for their child is a small part but can be very challenging with online options usually poor.
We are always amazed at ClassForKids how very few clients have a “Book Now” button on their Facebook page. We hear it’s what they use to communicate to parents but have no link through to a booking page. We have created a simple guide on how to do this.
In very geeky technical terms this is called a ‘call to action’ adopted by major businesses. If it works for Amazon, there's no reason why it can’t for the same for you too, right?
If you make it easy for parents to book and rebook then it gains even more loyalty; the simple fact is you take one more stress away from parents and convert more interest into bookings.Class4Kids regularly posts on hints and tips when running your kids activity business.
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