Marketing your childcare business

Marketing is critical to all types of business, as it helps you better understand and anticipate your customer needs. It gives you the right tools to quickly adapt to a changing market and ensures your childcare business competes successfully.

Early years and childcare providers are a unique type of business organisation, as you are marketing yourselves to parents and carers to offer to look after and educate their children.

You should involve families in your business and marketing planning, so the service you develop meets their requirements, as much as possible. This means that you need to think carefully about the messages you want to give to both parents and children about your provision, and what you can offer.

Marketing is about more than flyers and posters. It is about being aware of what you want your business to achieve, how you want it to be viewed by others and how you communicate your message. 

A good overall marketing strategy for a business, needs to explore 3 areas:

1. Your market - who are your customers and who do you want to attract in the future?
2. Your messages - what information do you need to get across and what impression are you trying to create? What is your Unique Selling Point (USP)?
3. Your methods - what activities will ensure that the right message reaches your target market? Do you utilise a variety of methods including social media, local advertising and community engagement?

Tax-Free Childcare is available to around 2 million households to help with the cost of childcare, enabling more parents to go out to work and provide greater security for their families. See who is eligible on the GOV.UK page Tax-Free Childcare.

Families can apply through their online government childcare account. They can apply for Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as the Early Years Funded Entitlements (EYFE) for working families

Families can use Tax-Free Childcare alongside EYFE to cover extra childcare costs. They can only use these payments for extras like meals or trips if they’re part of your childcare provider’s cost arrangements.

Parents cannot use Tax-Free Childcare alongside:

• tax credits
• Universal Credit childcare
• childcare vouchers

Childcare providers must sign up to offer Tax-Free Childcare.

Only approved or registered providers can accept payments through this scheme. If you're not signed up, you won’t be able to receive Tax-Free Childcare payments from parents.

Letting parents know you accept Tax-Free Childcare can make your setting more attractive to working families.

This could lead to more enquiries and help grow your business.

Further information for parents and providers, including how to sign up to receive payments from parents using Tax-Free Childcare, is available from best start in life.