How to Market a Kids Enrichment Program Locally (Ep. 13)

Episode 13 · May 18, 2026 · Solo episode

Market a kids enrichment program where local parents already look: family magazines and their camp guides, your school and parks partners' newsletters, and your Google Business Profile. Book seasonal features months ahead, put your email on every page, and make it easy for partners and happy parents to pass your name along. Most of it is free. All of it takes planning time.

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When I ask operators what's hardest right now, marketing comes up first, unprompted. So I gave it a full solo episode of The Youth Enrichment Leader: "Kids Enrichment Marketing: Why No One Can Find You." These are my notes.

Why can't new families find my kids program?

Because the hours marketing needs are going to admin. You run programs parents love. Your renewals tell you that. New families still can't find you, because your marketing time goes to manual scheduling, chasing invoices and clicking between platforms.

I call it the visibility paradox. The operators who look great at marketing usually have operations tight enough to leave time over. In this business there's always something. A coach is sick. It's a snow day. Marketing that works gets planned months out, in a calm hour. It doesn't get done at 9pm after the day did whatever it wanted with you.

When I surveyed operators, many described the same dream tool: one place for communication, billing, payments and scheduling. Every minute spent switching between applications is a minute you aren't having coffee with a program coordinator. That's why we built enrops: registration, payments, rosters and waivers in one login. See how it works.

Should I hire a marketing agency for my kids program?

Start with what's free and with what has already worked for you. I learned that the expensive way. I followed general business advice to set aside a fixed share of projected revenue for marketing. I hired a firm. We tried search ads, paid social, news media, even a radio sponsorship. One paid piece came back with typos. Yikes.

What worked was the thing we were already doing: promoted features in local family and kids magazines. I'd lost sight of something. I am the customer. I buy kids activities for my own children, and I know where I look. Parents go to local family and parenting sites. When they're new in town, they pick up the free print copy. A consultant I trust said it plainly: local is best.

When should I book summer camp advertising?

In January, for a camp guide that comes out in March. The most popular family publication in your area likely runs one big summer camp issue, and popular outlets can be booked three to six months out. Count backward from the first day of camp:

1. June: camp starts.
2. March: most families start making summer plans, and the camp issue comes out. That's three months before day one.
3. January: the best placements in that issue get sold. That's two more months back.
4. Your move: 3 + 2 = 5 months before camp starts. Put a reminder on your calendar for the first week of January.

One year I reached out in March and thought, look at me, ahead of the game. The rep had one spot left, in a last-minute-availability roundup going out in June or July. I took it. It reached a family or two whose plans had changed. Everyone else had booked summer months earlier. If you run camps, see enrops for camps.

What marketing actually works for an enrichment program?

Three things: make it easy for families to find you, easy for schools and partners to advocate for you, and easy for happy parents to tell other parents. In our industry the simplest thing is usually the thing that works.

1. Set up your Google Business Profile and keep the contact details current.
2. Pick one clear email address. Put it on your home page and on every other page, where it's easy to read.
3. Put that email in your social bios too. Some parents would rather email than send a DM.
4. Check that inbox. Every day.
5. Add one sentence to your site: "Want this program at your school? Email us here."

That one sentence lets the people who love you do the work. I once offered families a free term for referrals. It moved nobody. The parents who loved us made the introduction anyway, and what decided it was whether their school already had an active enrichment culture. More in how to get school referrals.

How do I get schools and partners to promote my program?

Be the partner who makes their job easier, then ask to be included in the communication they already send. Schools, PTOs, parks and recreation departments and churches already reach families through newsletters, flyers and emails. Learn each partner's cadence and get your program into it.

What makes a partner advocate for you: you show up on time, your instructors are reliable, you communicate clearly. What makes them go quiet: last-minute changes (cancellations count), and parents coming to them because they don't know where pickup is, how to pay, or who to ask for help. Your job is to make them look good.

Small things count. We once updated a school's billing contact in one spreadsheet and missed our invoicing tool. Invoices went to the wrong person, and the new lead was frustrated. We caught it because we check in during the term. Do the mid-term check-in. Do the end-of-session debrief. Settle renewal early, so you never hear "we already have another provider for next term." My end-of-term checklist covers the rest.

What does a cancelled program do to my marketing?

It costs you that site's families for longer than you'd guess. One operator told me the same class, same day, same instructor, same price can sit at zero one term and fill the next. Most of us wait until a week or two out, then cancel. I looked at our own cancelled programs. Nearly every family we refunded never bought from us again. Think about what that parent concludes: nobody else wanted it, so maybe I missed something. Here's when to cancel a class for low enrollment, with the math.

Listen if you do your own marketing, run summer camps, or run programs inside schools and parks.

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Frequently asked questions

Do I need a social media strategy to fill my programs?

For most of us, marketing is done in-house by the owner, and it doesn't look like a polished social plan. Put your email in the bio, then spend your best hours on local publications and partners.

Do parent referral incentives work?

They didn't for me. Offering a free term changed nothing. Parents who love your program will introduce you without a reward, so make the introduction easy.

Is March too late to advertise a summer camp?

In my market, yes for the best placements. You may still get a last-minute listing in an early summer issue. Set a January reminder for next year.

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Arielle Hammond, Ed.D. is the founder of enrops and host of The Youth Enrichment Leader, presented by enrops.