Every year billions of people depend on childcare. According to 2024 research, 70% of children under the age of six have working parents, so childcare centers for infants and toddlers, as well as preschools, are essential for them. For those who operate a childcare facility, email marketing can be a valuable method for attracting new customers and maintaining contact with current ones.
Before you start creating your email marketing for schools or a childcare business, it’s important to understand what kind of emails you should send to your audience. Childcare marketing email should be:
Your marketing email should be relevant to your audience. For example, parents need to know if your center extended the hours or has slots open on high-demand dates such as holidays. To do this, conduct surveys, focus groups, or analyze the data on your audience’s behavior and preferences in other ways.
Your marketing email should provide value to your audience. This means offering something that they will find helpful or interesting, such as tips on childcare, updates on your center’s programs, or exclusive promotions. By providing value, you can establish a strong relationship with your audience and encourage them to remain engaged with your brand.
Now that you know what your marketing email should look like, let’s go over the steps needed to start your campaign.
Email marketing software allows you to create, send, and track your communications with parents and potential clients. So it’s critical to choose a platform that provides you with all the tools to make marketing efforts smooth and easy.
Here are some important factors to consider in an email service:
There are many email marketing software options to choose from, including Selzy. Check out our article on the best email marketing services and a comparison tool to compare two services back-to-back.
Once you’ve chosen your email marketing software, it’s time to start building your email list. You can gather email addresses from a variety of sources, including:
Make sure to comply with email regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the CAN-SPAM Act. This includes ensuring that your subscribers can unsubscribe from your email list and that your emails are not misleading or fraudulent.
Before you start sending out emails, determine what you want to achieve with them. Some common goals for childcare providers include:
The clearer the goal, the better. This will be helpful for crafting your overall email marketing strategy and messages and then for tracking your marketing efforts’ progress later. Depending on the goal, you can utilize different metrics, such as the number of new subscribers, click-through rate, etc. For example, if you are looking to build connections and engage with the members of your email list, then guidance, tips, or news related to the industry will likely make a bigger impact.
Audience segmentation is an effective way to create relevant and valuable emails. This means dividing your email list into smaller categories based on specific characteristics or interests.
Here’s how you can segment a list for a childcare email marketing campaign:
These are just a few examples of how you might segment an email list. The key is to think about what information you have about your clients and how you can use it to create more targeted and relevant messaging.
Your email subject line is one of the most important parts of your message, as it’s the first thing your recipients will see. Make it as catchy and clear as possible, so your subscribers would want to click and check the message.
Consider using personalization (including the subscriber’s name or their child’s name), asking a question, or using action-oriented language in your subject line. And be sure to keep it short and sweet — most email clients only display the first few words of the subject line (generally, up to 60 characters).
Here are some examples of catchy subject lines for your email campaign:
Here are some tips for preparing and proofreading your childcare marketing email content:
A clear call-to-action (CTA) encourages customers to respond to your offer or proposal. Here are some CTA examples for your campaigns:
The preferable format for any CTA is a button since it easily catches the recipient’s eye, but you can also highlight it and put a hyperlink if you are using plain text.
Most email marketing software includes tracking and analytics features to measure the success of your campaign. Make the most out of these features and analyze your email campaigns’ open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
Over time you will craft even more engaging copy with the data you’ve gathered. You will also get insights into your subscriber’s preferences and behaviors. For example, you might find that they make important decisions in the evening. That will help you correct your email marketing strategy and make informed decisions about your future email campaigns.
You also might want to test different hypotheses, and experiment with subject lines, CTA, or content. That way you’ll know for sure what’s working and what’s better to be left behind.
To start your next email marketing campaign, let’s explore some topics that you can cover in your marketing emails.
The first and the most important topic for a childcare center’s email marketing campaign is enrollment. Notify those on your waiting list about the openings. Include all the relevant details about the programs you offer along with the requirements. Think about creating a drip campaign to cover all the enrollment steps: welcome and onboarding emails or payment notifications.
Here is a template you can use as an inspiration:
In the following example, the center invited parents to download a PDF file containing all the relevant information.
Another example of an email about enrollment:
Charity work is a good strategy for strengthening relationships with your customers. And, of course, it sets a great example for kids to follow. Use upcoming community days, partnerships with a nonprofit, or any other good deed to elevate your email marketing campaign. Encourage parents to participate, spread the news, or share your plans — anything goes!
Here is an example to follow:
If you regularly support charitable initiatives, check out our guide on nonprofit email marketing.
The cornerstone for marketing any business, including childcare, is promotions. Email is a great tool to promote new services, a discount for first-time enrolments, or special offers to your loyal customers.
Here’s an example of what your email could resemble:
And this is a real example of an email with a discount on childcare services:
Parenting is an anxious task, wouldn’t you agree? Parents want to know that you are improving and providing the best care possible for their children. So make sure to notify them about upgrades, and changes in your programs.
To give you an idea, this is how your message could look:
In this day and age, feedback is everything since people find it the most trustworthy source of information about any product or service. Got a new Google review or an amazing mention on social media? Don’t hesitate to share it with everyone! You can express your gratitude and invite your clients to provide additional feedback, thus coming into a never-ending amazing loop of compliments (well, hopefully!).
Consider this as a template for how your message could be composed:
Use new additions to your services to boost business through your email marketing campaign. Opening an after-school care or starting a summer camp? Notify parents with a detailed program description, and list of participation benefits. End your message with a call to action. Voila! Your subscribers got a clear picture of the offer and now are in a hurry to make the list.
This is an illustration of how your email may take shape:
Below are great examples of real emails announcing new programs and the start of the summer camp:
Special events are common tools to get your customer’s attention. Highlight all the valuable information, like dates, hours, addresses, and contacts. That way nothing will get lost along the lines. Another good idea is mentioning the benefits of participation.
If you need some inspiration, here are the templates:
Make sure you are setting a good marketing strategy by following these steps:
This article was originally published in May 2023 and was updated in February 2025 to make it more relevant and comprehensive.