Using Customer Journey Analysis to Increase Enrolment Conversion Rates

We are entering the year of the customer journey ~ SalesForce.com

For the first time, business owners like you can have access to the data of different touchpoints, from web to social and across both desktop and mobile.

Compared to social media analysis, customer journey analysis is the new kid on the digital marketing block. The power of customer journey analysis lies in being able to track the entire conversion path —  from website visit to enrolment; it looks beyond your Child Care Website, Facebook Page, Landing page or Email.

It is no secret that it takes many marketing touchpoints to connect with a parent of pre-schooler. But how do you know the right message to deliver at each point in that journey? How do you ensure that your investments are working and that you are not wasting money and resources—or worse, alienating your customers?

The 4 stages of the parent’s journey to enrolment

In this brief guide we will look at four crucial stages of customer journey – from Awareness, Consideration, Decision to Delight.

#1 Awareness Stage

The Awareness Stage is the first step in the Parent’s Journey. This is where initial research and general education is done to help inform and guide the parents of their options.

Typically, this might be a pregnant mother who is researching the options between possibly staying at home, taking their child to child care, or hiring a babysitter.

As a Child Care Centre, it is important to establish an early connection and relationship with the parents as an informational resource that is there simply to help them with common questions that will help them determine what’s right for them.

• Example blog topic “Benefits of a child care vs staying at home”
• Creating early child care reports and free pre-school ebook/guide downloads
• Build relevant Questions & Answers that are commonly asked by parents of pre-schoolers.

#2 Consideration Stage

Once the parents have made the decision that they are going back to work and are interested in the child care option, this is when the Consideration Stage begins. This would typically involve a parent who is now considering what are the important criteria to consider when choosing a child care for their child.

Key criteria might be topics such as location(s), activities, curriculum, enrichment programmes, student-teacher ratio, price, etc. Your child care should continue to help educate and guide the parents without “selling” them directly. This can be accomplished by enabling your website to provide relevant content and advice.

• Example ebook “Finding the right child care for your child”
• Highlighting your child care activities that are unique
• Present testimonials from other parents to be reviewed

#3 Decision Stage

The Decision Stage begins once the parents have finalized the criteria that are important to them (location(s), curriculum, price etc.). This is where most marketing and advertisers focus their initiatives, but if you have been successful with helping and educating the consumer through the Awareness and Consideration Stages, they will be 75% more likely to consider your child care because of the brand loyalty that you have created.

In this stage, you can position yourself through your unique value proposition (UVP) or unique selling proposition (USP) and why the consumer should consider your child care now that they are “sales ready.”

• Create mobile-friendly contact forms to “schedule a tour”
• Create dedicated landing page for “open house”
• Enable marketing automation processes

#4 Delight Stage

Now that the parents are your customers, your job does not end. Keeping their families loyal to your child care is a key objective for retention. This is known as the Delight Stage, where your brand can recognize your customers through various marketing techniques to help keep them happy, engaged, and satisfied with their decision.

Loyal customers are 10 times more likely to refer your child care than those who aren’t continuously engaged with your brand. This stage is often neglected and it is a key opportunity for continuing to grow your business through referrals and a stronger retention rate.

• Provide social media updates to your community
• Create email newsletters with active updates
• Offer a referral program to incentivize loyal customers

To succeed in child care marketing, you need to stand out from the crowd, but this doesn’t always mean doing something that’s far outside of the ordinary. Differentiation starts by looking at the data, understanding your customer journey, and testing different marketing approaches. Once validated, the methodology used to identify a winning conversion path can be used to further personalize the experience to increase the conversion rate.