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Early learning and schools

Turn parent searches into tours,
and tours into enrolments.

 

We help childcare centres, early learning services and schools across WA reach local families, close gaps room by room and plan for each intake.

 

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Childcare & Education Marketing

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A smiling toddler in a grey jumper in front of pink lockers

How parents choose a centre, and a school

Childcare marketing starts long before a parent fills in a form. They ask in local Facebook groups, quiz friends at the school gate and read your Google reviews. Many also compare National Quality Standard ratings on the government’s Starting Blocks website. By the time they reach your site, they’ve usually built a shortlist.

From there your website has one job: get them through the door for a tour. That means showing what a day looks like, making fees and hours easy to find, and putting the booking form on every page.

Education marketing for schools follows a similar path over a longer timeline. Open days and enrolment deadlines do the work that tours do for a centre. In both cases, marketing that ignores occupancy by room or year level wastes money.

Childcare and school marketing, room by room

Every service below is planned around one question: which rooms or year levels need families, and when?

Tour bookings straight from Google (local SEO)

For a single-site centre, the Google Business Profile does more work than the website. It’s where parents see your photos, hours, reviews and the drive from their street. We set it up properly, add tour booking links and help you build a habit of asking happy families for reviews.

If you run one centre, start here before you pay for any advertising. Parents searching ‘childcare’ plus their suburb are close to booking, and the map results are free to compete in. Our local SEO work then builds suburb pages around them.

Ads for the rooms with vacancies (Google Ads and Meta)

Running brand ads while your toddler room has a waitlist and your kindy room has six spots is money wasted. We can split Google Ads and Facebook campaigns by room or program, so the budget follows your vacancies. When a room fills, we’d pause its ads and move the spend to the rooms that still have gaps.

If you’re full in the baby room and short in the three-to-five room, advertise the kindy program by name. Give it its own landing page and photos. We’d rather spend less to reach the right families than chase volume you can’t place.

A website that shows parents a day at your centre

Our website design work starts with what parents want to see: where their child will spend the day and who’ll care for them. Sites are led by real photography of your rooms, educators and learning program. Fees, hours and the tour form are never more than a tap away.

Photos of children need written consent from their families, and some families will say no. We brief one of our Perth partner photographers around that. They use hands, activities and wide shots of rooms so the site still feels full of life.

A brand that reads as serious and fun at once (branding)

Parents want two things that pull in opposite directions: a centre that takes learning seriously, and one where their child will laugh every day. Your brand identity has to hold both.

When we branded Climb Early Learning Centre, that meant an elephant stamp logo and sketched icons. The copy puts ‘philosophy’ and ‘curriculum’ alongside ‘creepy crawlies’ and ‘fairy tales’. If you’re a single centre up against large operators, a distinct brand is one of the few advantages they can’t copy quickly.

Educator recruitment so rooms can open (recruitment marketing)

You can’t open a room without qualified educators, so staffing is as much a marketing problem as an HR one. We build careers pages that show your culture, run social media advertising to local educators and help you show candidates what a shift looks like.

If occupancy is held back by staff rather than demand, shift budget from parent ads to recruitment until you’re staffed. Growing a waitlist you can’t serve only frustrates families.

Open days and enrolment seasons (school marketing)

School marketing runs on a calendar. Most of the year is steady, then much of the deciding happens around open days, tours and enrolment deadlines. We plan content, email and paid campaigns backwards from those dates, so the work lands while families are comparing schools.

For existing families, email marketing about siblings, transitions and key dates often does more than new ads. If you’re a school with sibling priority, start your enrolment campaign with current parents.

Course, program and resource hubs (education websites)

Education providers outside the classroom, like accreditation programs and training hubs, need a different kind of site. Theirs carry learning modules, PDFs, course listings and events that change every term. We build them on WordPress so staff can add a course or swap a resource without a developer.

We build the site around its modules, resources and downloads, so learners and partners find every course, internship and job in one place.

How we helped Climb Early Learning Centre balance prestige and play.

  • Climb is a quality day care centre for children under the age of 5, guided by qualified educators.
  • The brief was to close the gap between who Climb are and how they were portrayed: prestigious, and playful too.
  • Our brand team created the elephant stamp logo and a blue and purple colour palette.
  • Sketched teddy bears, bicycles and shining suns carry the brand across the website without feeling too child-like.
  • The site is now a useful information source for parents looking to enrol.

Read full case study

A hand placing a wooden piece on a wooden toy

How we helped Generation SunSmart support schools and early childhood services.

  • Generation SunSmart is the face of the WA SunSmart Schools and Services program, managed by Cancer Council WA.
  • It supports schools, early childhood education and care staff, students and communities to put sun protection policies in place.
  • The old website made it hard to present its learning modules and resources well.
  • We rebuilt the site around its online learning modules, resources and downloadable PDFs.

Read full case study

Two students in school uniform putting on wide-brimmed hats in a school corridor

A single home for WA’s data science courses, internships and jobs.

  • The hub serves two groups at once: students looking for a course or internship, and people in industry looking to learn or hire.
  • We designed and developed a WordPress site with room for a lot of content: events, courses, internships, programs and available jobs.
  • The hub’s facilities and achievements sit alongside the listings, so visitors see what they’d be part of.
  • It was a repeat engagement: Curtin University had worked with us on earlier websites.

Read full case study

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Gaps in one room, a waitlist in another?

Send us your occupancy by room and your last three months of enquiries. We’ll show you where families are coming from and where the budget should go next.

Claim a Free Strategy Consultation

Common questions about childcare and education marketing

How do we get more parents booking tours?

Make the tour easier to book than to put off. Put a short booking form on every page and on your Google profile. Offer set times parents can pick, and send a confirmation with parking details. Then follow up within a day with a personal message from the centre director. A parent who toured and heard nothing for a week has often moved on to the next centre on their list.

Should we still advertise if we already have a waitlist?

Only for the rooms that aren’t full. A waitlist in the nursery says nothing about next year’s kindy group, and occupancy can drop quickly when a cohort moves on to school. We’d keep a small always-on budget for searches of your centre’s name and put the rest behind the rooms with vacancies. If every room is full and staffed, pause the ads and spend that time on reviews, referrals and recruitment.

Can we use photos of the children on our website and social media?

Yes, with written consent from each family, and only for the uses they’ve agreed to. Keep consent records current, because families change their minds and children move rooms. We plan shoots to your service’s photo policy, so children without consent stay out of frame. We also favour shots of hands, activities and spaces that don’t identify a child. Avoid stock photos of children where you can: parents notice, and it undercuts the trust you’re trying to build.

How do Facebook groups and word of mouth fit into our marketing?

They’re often where your reputation is decided, so plan for them. You can’t control local parent groups, but you can give families reasons to recommend you: a warm tour, prompt replies and moments worth sharing. Ask happy families for Google reviews at natural points, like the end of a settling-in period. Reply to every review calmly and personally. We can run organic social media for you, but the recommendation itself comes from how families are treated.

Do our NQS ratings matter for marketing?

Yes, because parents can see them. Families can look up and compare your National Quality Standard rating on Starting Blocks before they ever call. If your rating is strong, say so on your site and Google profile. If it’s below where you want it, explain what has changed since your assessment and show it. We won’t write claims about your rating that your service can’t back up, and we check any rating wording with you before it’s published.

We're a school. When should we start marketing for next year's intake?

Earlier than feels necessary, then build towards your open day. Families research schools well before they apply, so pages on your curriculum, fees, transport and pastoral care should be ready long before any campaign. Paid campaigns then run in the weeks before open days and enrolment deadlines. If you have sibling priority, email current families first. We’ll map it against your calendar so nothing launches the week after a deadline.

How much should a single childcare centre spend on marketing?

Less than you might expect, if your Google profile, reviews and website are in good shape. Spend should follow vacancies, so the right figure moves with your occupancy. A centre with two empty rooms needs more than one with a few kindy spots left. We’ll give you a range based on your rooms and suburb. We’ll also tell you when the answer is to spend nothing extra this quarter.

building your marketing strategy

How it feels to work with Distl

We work around drop-off and pick-up

Centre directors and principals don’t sit at a desk all day. We book calls outside drop-off and pick-up, keep approvals short enough to read between rooms, and send one clear email instead of five. When a photo shoot is needed, we schedule it around rest times, family consent and your ratios. In Perth, we come to you, so nobody has to leave the floor for a meeting across town. Regional services can start with a video call.

Planned around your intake year

Your year has peaks: the term before a new kindy group starts, the months before school open days, the weeks after a cohort moves on. We set those dates at the start and plan campaigns backwards from them. Between peaks, we work on the slower jobs, like reviews, website content and recruitment pages. That way you’re ready when families start looking again.

Your director gets the final say

Nothing goes live without sign-off from the person responsible for the service. That matters when copy touches your educational program, your quality rating or a child’s photo. No image of a child is used until you’ve confirmed the family’s consent. We also flag any line that could read as a promise about a child’s development. A senior person at Distl reviews it all before you do.

Reports in tours and enrolments

We report in the numbers owners already watch: tour bookings, enrolments and occupancy by room, plus enquiries by source. Clicks and impressions sit further down for anyone who wants them. Every quarter we sit down with you, in person if you’re in Perth, and decide which rooms need help next. If a channel stops bringing in enrolments, we’ll say so and move the money.

Fill the rooms that need families

Tell us which rooms have gaps and when your next intake starts. We’ll come back with a plan that fits your calendar and your budget.

Claim a Free Strategy Consultation

08 9381 4441

Get directions

3/73 Troy Terrace
Jolimont WA 6014