Childcare Marketing Plan: A Free 90-Day Template for Centre Owners

Most centre owners know what marketing they could do. The hard part is deciding what to do first, who does it and how you'll know it worked, while you're also running a centre. That's what a childcare marketing plan is for.

This post gives you a free template you can copy straight into a document or spreadsheet: a one-page plan, a 13-week calendar and a weekly scorecard. It's built for Australian long day care, kindy and OSHC services, so the calendar includes the checks that are specific to our sector. If you'd rather have a plan built and run for you, that's what our childcare marketing team does.

If you're still deciding which tactics suit your centre, start with our guide to childcare marketing strategies. This post is about turning those ideas into a plan you'll actually follow.

Why 90 days?

A year-long plan is easy to write and easy to forget. A 90-day plan is short enough to stay specific and long enough to see results from local search, ads and better follow-up. It also lines up with a quarter, so you can review it with your enrolment numbers at the end.

The federal government's business.gov.au advice is a good base for any marketing plan: set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound), and for every activity note the target audience, channel, description, estimated cost and timing (business.gov.au). The template below applies that to a childcare centre.

Part 1: Your one-page plan

Fill this in before you spend a dollar. Keep it to one page.

1. The gap you're filling

• Room or age group: ______

• Days with vacancies: ______

• Places to fill: ______

• Start dates you can offer: ______

• Date you want them filled by: ______

Be specific. "Fill 4 places in the 2 to 3 room, Mondays and Fridays, by 31 January" gives you something to market and measure. "More enrolments" doesn't. Our occupancy guide shows how to find exactly where places are sitting empty.

2. The families you're trying to reach

• Suburbs they realistically travel from: ______

• What they care about most (hours, location, program, fees): ______

• Questions they ask on every tour: ______

3. Why a family would choose you

Write one or two sentences in plain language, for example "a small centre with a big outdoor area, five minutes from the station". Every ad, post and web page should back this up.

4. Your goal for the 90 days

• Enquiries per month: ______

• Tours per month: ______

• Enrolments by day 90: ______

5. Budget and owner

• Monthly ad budget: ______

• Other costs (photos, video, printing): ______

• Who answers enquiries: ______

• Who updates the website, Google profile and Starting Blocks: ______

• Who reviews the numbers each week: ______

Part 2: The 90-day calendar

Work through this week by week. Adjust the order if your gap is urgent, but don't skip the foundations.

Weeks 1 to 2: Fix the basics

• Check your vacancies are correct on Starting Blocks, the government site where families compare services by quality rating, fees and vacancies. Vacancy and fee details come from what you enter in the CCS Provider Entry Point (directly through PRODA or via your software), and changes can take 24 to 48 hours to show (Starting Blocks).

• Update your Google Business Profile: hours, phone, website, categories and fresh photos. Google says complete, accurate information helps you show up in local results, which are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence (Google Business Profile Help). Our local SEO guide goes deeper.

• Make sure your website shows rooms, availability, how fees work and a "Book a tour" button that works on mobile.

• Set up the scorecard in Part 3.

Weeks 3 to 4: Get enquiries handled properly

• Agree a same-day reply rule and give one person ownership.

• Publish set tour times each week so parents can pick one.

• Write a short follow-up message for after each tour.

• Our enquiry to enrolment guide covers this step by step.

Weeks 5 to 8: Turn on demand

• Launch one paid campaign aimed at your biggest gap. If families are already searching in your area, start with Google Ads. For a new centre or a quiet catchment, Facebook and Instagram ads can build awareness first.

• Name the room, days and start date in every ad, and send clicks to a page with a tour booking form.

• Ask happy families for Google reviews, and reply to every review without naming children.

Weeks 9 to 10: Build trust

• Add a short walk-through video or a virtual tour to your website and Google profile.

• Introduce your educators on the website, with their permission.

• Refresh photos, using shots taken with written parent consent or where children can't be identified.

Weeks 11 to 12: Review and adjust

• Compare each channel's enquiries, tours and enrolments.

• Pause what isn't producing tours and move the budget to what is.

• Fix the weakest stage first. If tours aren't turning into enrolments, more ad spend won't help.

Week 13: Plan the next 90 days

• Update the one-page plan with your new gaps.

• Keep what worked and add one new activity.

Part 3: The weekly scorecard

Track these numbers every week, in a spreadsheet or on paper:

1. New enquiries, and where each came from (Google search, Google Maps, Facebook or Instagram, Starting Blocks, referral, walk-in)

2. Tours booked

3. Tours attended

4. Enrolments

5. Ad spend

6. Vacancies left by room and day

After a few weeks you'll see which channels bring families who enrol, and where families drop out. For more ways to lift the final number, read our guide on how to increase childcare enrolments.

The compliance check to run each month

Australian childcare marketing has rules that generic templates leave out. Put these on your calendar once a month:

• Inducements. The Department of Education bans offering cash, vouchers, gift cards, electronic devices or other gifts to encourage a family to enrol, and this can include offers to enrolled families that encourage another family to join. You can advertise discounted or free care (reported correctly if CCS is claimed), free site visits and trial periods, and give marketing merchandise worth up to $30 per complying written arrangement (Department of Education). Check your referral offers against this.

• Your NQS rating. ACECQA notes it's an offence under the National Regulations to give a false or misleading statement about your rating (regulation 72), so make sure every mention matches your current rating (ACECQA).

• Photos of children. ACECQA advises getting a parent's consent before a photo of their child is published. Treat ads and social posts the same way.

Frequently asked questions

What should a childcare marketing plan include?

At minimum: the places you need to fill (by room, day and date), the families you're targeting, why they'd choose you, measurable goals, a budget, who is responsible for each task, a calendar of activities and a way to track results.

How is a marketing plan different from a marketing strategy?

A strategy is the approach: which channels and messages suit your centre. A plan is the schedule that puts the strategy into action, with dates, owners, budgets and numbers to check. You need both, and this template covers the plan.

How much should a childcare centre spend on marketing?

There's no single right number. It depends on how many places you need to fill, how competitive your area is and how quickly you need results. Set a monthly budget you can sustain for the full 90 days, then judge it by cost per enrolment, not cost per click.

How often should I update my childcare marketing plan?

Review the scorecard weekly, run the compliance check monthly and rewrite the one-page plan every quarter, or sooner if your vacancies change a lot.

Want help building your plan?

If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your plan, or someone to run it for you, Maximize Marketing works with childcare centres across Australia on local SEO, Google and Meta ads, websites and virtual tours. Book a free chat with our team or see how our childcare marketing services work.