The Untapped Enrollment Strategy Hiding in Your Community

How employer partnerships and community visibility work together to drive enrollment and amplify your ambassador network.

Every June, as school lets out and routines shift, child care enrollment naturally dips as some families pull their kids for the summer. But summer doesn't have to be a slow season. In fact, it can be one of your most strategic ones.

Working parents are figuring out summer care on the fly, and families are already starting to think about fall. That makes it one of the best times to get your center's name in front of the right people. Two of the most underutilized ways to do it: building employer partnerships in your area and showing up in your broader community.

As for the summer curriculum, keep it simple, but intentional. For your youngest children, it's largely business as usual since learning and play go hand in hand at that age. For kids who have completed kindergarten and up, this is a natural opportunity to shift toward a day camp model with more activities and outdoor time. That flexibility can itself become a selling point as you build new relationships. The goal through all of it is to keep as many children enrolled as possible, keep your staff working, and head into fall on solid footing.

Strategy #1: Partner With Local Employers

Most parents enroll their child in care close to where they live. That means the families you're looking for are already clustered in your community, and many of them work for the same employers.

Large employers, especially those with shift-based schedules or high concentrations of working parents, can be one of the most underleveraged enrollment channels in child care. Getting in front of an HR department at a large local company means getting in front of dozens of potential families at once.

Employer types worth targeting:

• Hospitals and healthcare systems

• Colleges and universities

• Manufacturing facilities

• First responders

• Government employers

• Large office campuses

• School districts and teachers

How to Get Started

While it's tempting to send an email and call it a day, employer partnerships are worth a little more investment. Pick up the phone, ask to connect with the HR department, and if you can, show up in person with brochures in hand. When you do connect, come with a clear value proposition. 

That value proposition becomes even more compelling when there is a meaningful incentive behind it. For example, any company that maintains a minimum of five children enrolled in your center unlocks two ongoing perks: a registration fee waiver and a 10% tuition discount. Those benefits stay only as long as that enrollment minimum of five children is consistently met, which naturally motivates employees to keep spreading the word. This gives HR something tangible to pass along to their team, and it gives employees an ongoing reason to champion your center among their colleagues. In a workplace, that kind of enthusiastic word-of-mouth travels fast.

Employer partnerships are much more fruitful when you have a system helping you stay organized and on top of every lead. Here are a few ways a CRM like IntelliKid Systems can make the whole process more manageable:

• Partner-specific web forms: Build a dedicated inquiry form for each employer partner, one that HR can share directly with employees. When leads come in through that form, they arrive pre-tagged to that specific partnership. 

• Custom data fields: Track which employer or community partner each family is affiliated with from the moment they inquire.

• Hot Button or custom status: Flag partner-referred families on the waitlist for priority placement — visible right from the classrooms tab.

• “How did you hear about us?”: Add a form question (or partner affiliation checkbox) so every lead is attributed from day one.

  
  

This way you'll always know exactly which partnerships are generating enrollments and which ones to double down on.

Strategy #2: Show Up in Your Community

Formal employer partnerships aren't the only way to build visibility. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is simply make your name so familiar that when parents talk about child care, yours is the first one that comes to mind.

That means getting out of the building!

Places to show up:

• Local festivals and farmers markets

• Back-to-school fairs

• Library events

• Chamber of Commerce meetings

Picture this: you sponsor a booth and host a hands-on activity at a local school's back-to-school event. The school's own after-school program is already full, and parents in attendance are actively looking for alternatives. By simply being there, your center becomes the obvious next call.

The lesson: you don't always need to create the audience. You just need to show up where the audience already is.

Here are a few ways IntelliKid Systems helps you make the most of every event you attend:

• Don't overlook the power of digital tools at these events! Through the use of QR codes, digital business card apps, or even wearable NFC-enabled wristbands, a parent can directly land on a custom web form, and automatically get tagged in IntelliKid Systems as coming from that event. It's a small thing that makes a big impression and ensures no lead slips through the cracks! 

• Create event-specific web forms with questions like "Which event did you attend?" and "How did you hear about us?" Link each form to its own landing page so leads are automatically tagged by source. Over time, track which events are actually converting to enrollments, then invest more in those and less in the ones that aren't producing.

The Power of Email Campaigns: Spreading the Word at Scale

Email campaigns are targeted mass emails sent to the right people at the right time, and they are one of the most effective tools for spreading the word and keeping leads warm long after an event ends.

Before each event: Send a campaign to your current families and ask them to forward it to anyone they know who might be looking for childcare. Your existing community is one of your best marketing assets.

After each event: A well-timed follow-up email can be the difference between a lead going cold and a family walking through your door. Use campaigns to send event recaps and open house announcements, share helpful resources like articles, tips, and activity ideas, and keep your broader community engaged with monthly newsletters covering new programs, milestones, and center news.

IntelliKid Systems campaign tools let you segment your audience so your outreach actually lands. Hosting an open house for your school-age program? Send only to families with school-age children. Want to share infant development tips with prospective leads from that farmers market last weekend? Target families with infants. 

If you're tracking relationships in the system, you can even personalize around special occasions, such as Father's Day, Mother's Day, or Grandparent's Day, making your communication feel thoughtful rather than generic.

The goal is simple: stay top of mind so that when a family is ready to make a decision, your center is the first one they think of.

Ready to Put This Into Practice?

Not yet using IntelliKid Systems? Schedule a demo and see how forms, custom data fields, and lead tracking come together in one platform built specifically for child care centers.

Already building community partnerships or showing up at local events? We'd love to hear about it. Reach out and share your story: lightbulb@intellikidsystems.com Your experience might be featured in a future post! 

Already an IntelliKid Systems user? Let's make sure you're getting the most out of the tools you already have. Connect with us: support@intellikidsystems.com 

IntelliKid Systems helps child care centers attract, track, and enroll more families from first inquiry to first day!