How to Increase Childcare Enrolments: 12 Practical Steps for Australian Centre Owners
Empty places cost you money every week they sit unfilled. Most centre owners respond the same way: spend more on ads. Sometimes that's the right move. More often, though, the families are already out there. They just can't find you, they don't hear back fast enough, or the tour doesn't give them the confidence to say yes.
This guide breaks enrolments into three stages you can actually manage: getting found, turning enquiries into tours, and turning tours into enrolled families. Fix the weakest stage first, and every dollar you spend on childcare marketing goes further.
First, work out where families are dropping off
Before changing anything, track four numbers for the last 60-90 days:
Enquiries (calls, web forms, emails, walk-ins, Facebook messages)
Tours booked
Tours attended
Enrolments
A simple spreadsheet is enough. The gap between any two numbers tells you where to focus. Lots of enquiries but few tours points to a follow-up problem. Lots of tours but few enrolments points to the tour or the offer. Very few enquiries means it's a visibility problem, and that's where marketing comes in.
Stage 1: Get found by local parents
1. Treat your Google Business Profile as your second website
When parents search "childcare near me" or "daycare [suburb]", the map results usually appear before any website. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that complete, accurate business information and reviews help (Google Business Profile Help).
Practical checklist:
Verify the profile and choose the most accurate primary category.
Keep hours, phone and website current, including public holiday closures.
Upload real photos of each room, the outdoor area, the kitchen and your team, and refresh them every season.
Post updates when places open up in a particular room.
2. Make your website answer the questions parents actually ask
Parents compare centres side by side. The Australian Government's Starting Blocks tool lets families search for services near them and compare quality ratings, fees and service information. Your website should make that comparison easy:
Age groups and rooms, and current availability by room and day
How fees work, and that families may be eligible for the Child Care Subsidy
Your quality rating, philosophy and a typical day
A tour booking button on every page, especially on mobile
3. Build a page for each suburb you genuinely serve
If families come from three or four surrounding suburbs, a page or section that speaks to each one (local landmarks, school pathways, travel times) helps you show up for those searches. Keep each page genuinely useful. Near-identical pages with the suburb name swapped rarely perform.
4. Use paid ads to fill specific gaps quickly
Google Ads reach parents who are already searching. Facebook and Instagram ads reach local parents before they start searching, which suits new centres, new rooms or quieter areas. The key is targeting: advertise the room and the days you actually need to fill, to families within a realistic travel distance, and send them to a landing page with a tour booking form, not your homepage.
Stage 2: Turn enquiries into booked tours
5. Respond the same day, every time
A family that enquires on Tuesday night has probably enquired at two or three other centres too. Set a clear standard (for example, every enquiry acknowledged within business hours the same day) and make one person responsible for it. Automated email or SMS acknowledgements buy you time, but follow them with a personal call.
6. Offer specific tour times
"Give us a call to arrange a tour" creates work for a busy parent. "We have tours on Thursday at 10am or Saturday at 9:30am. Which suits you?" gets a yes. Online tour booking linked to your calendar is even better.
7. Answer the real question first
Most enquiries come down to one thing: Do you have a place for my child, on these days, from this date? Answer that directly. If you don't have the exact days, offer alternatives or a waitlist with an honest timeframe.
8. Use a virtual tour to get hesitant families through the door
Some parents won't book a visit until they've seen the space. A 360° virtual tour or a short video walk-through on your website and Google Business Profile lets them look around at 10pm on their phone. It doesn't replace an in-person visit. It gives families enough confidence to book one.
Stage 3: Turn tours into enrolments
9. Personalise every tour
Ask about the child before you start: age, routines, allergies, what worries the parent most. Then show the room they'd be in and introduce the educators they'd meet. A tour built around one family's worries is far more persuasive than a standard script.
10. Follow up within 24-48 hours
Send a short, personal message after the tour: thank them, answer anything left open, and give a clear next step (enrolment link, deposit, start date). If you don't hear back, one more friendly check-in a week later is reasonable.
11. Make enrolment easy on a phone
Paper forms and long PDFs lose families at the last step. A mobile-friendly digital form that can be saved and finished later, with a reminder if it's left incomplete, removes that friction.
12. Turn happy families into your best marketing
Word of mouth and reviews still carry huge weight with parents. Ask families for a Google review at natural high points, such as after their first month or a great end-of-term event, and reply to every review, positive or negative. Google notes that responding to reviews shows you value feedback and that more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking (Google Business Profile Help).
Keep the families you've already won
Every family that leaves early creates another vacancy to fill. Regular communication, transition support between rooms, and acting quickly on feedback all help keep occupancy stable, so your marketing builds on a solid base instead of just replacing churn.
Quick checklist: increasing childcare enrolments
Track enquiries → tours booked → tours attended → enrolments monthly
Google Business Profile complete, verified and updated with real photos
Website shows availability, fee information, quality rating and a tour button
Ads target the rooms and days you need to fill
Every enquiry answered the same day with specific tour times
Virtual tour on your website and Google profile
Personalised tours with follow-up within 48 hours
Mobile-friendly digital enrolment
A simple review request process
Related guide: Childcare Marketing Strategies That Fill Places: A Practical Guide for Australian Centre Owners
Want help filling your places?
Maximize Marketing works with childcare centres across Australia on the full enrolment journey: local SEO and Google Business Profile, Google and Meta ads, childcare websites, and 360° virtual tours. If you'd like a second set of eyes on where your centre is losing families, book a free strategy session or see how our childcare marketing services work.
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