How to Use Parent Testimonials & Reviews to Promote Your Child Care Business

Whether we are making a small purchase decision or a big one, we can all admit to feeling more confident about the choice we’re considering after reading customer reviews. 

Customer reviews have the ability to influence consumer decisions, strengthen an organization’s credibility and build trust with consumers. In fact, local marketing experts BrightLocal report that, “73% of consumers trust a local business more after reading positive reviews.” 

As parents search online for local childcare centers, many will consult parent testimonials just as they would customer reviews, as a way of evaluating their childcare options and finding support for their decision. 

Benefits of Parent Testimonials

Testimonials are recommendations from satisfied customers affirming the performance, quality, or value of a product/service and are considered one of the most effective types of marketing tactics. In addition to strengthening your business’ credibility and trust, parent testimonials can also improve your marketing efforts by helping you:

Improve Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Regularly adding testimonials to your website means you are adding fresh content which drives traffic to your site and improves SEO, helping it rank higher on search engine results pages. 

Increase Sharability

Showcasing a parent testimonial on social media comes across less “sales-y” than a traditional marketing post and is more likely to be shared. Parents can also post their testimonials on their own social media pages, which increases authenticity.

Connect With Your Audience

Parents will express their feelings about your center using their own words, which can be very powerful and relatable to other parents.

Build Relationships and Loyalty With Parents

When you ask a happy parent to share a testimonial, it makes them feel appreciated by you and helps to create a stronger relationship.

Uncover Key Insights

As you collect testimonials you may discover something new about your center that parents appreciate or find unique that you can then promote as a value proposition in the future.

Types of Parent Testimonials

There are three main types of testimonials that you can use individually or in combination:

Quotes

Quotes are the most common type of testimonial. They feature a short excerpt of a parent testimonial, with the parent endorsing one specific detail of your center. The parent’s photo and first name is typically included beside the quote. You could also record the parent saying the quote to create a compelling audio version.

Long-Form

These types of testimonials are more than just a few sentences or paragraphs and allow the parent to share more details about their experience with your center. The ability to provide in-depth information in a long-form testimonial helps to bring the parent’s story to life and increases its authenticity to the reader. The parent’s photo and name should be included.

Video

Videos are highly engaging and continue to be one of the most popular ways to consume online content. Seeing and listening to a happy parent talking about your center can be very motivating and goes a long way to establish trust and credibility.

In addition to capturing your parent on video, you may also consider creating a motion graphics video using some of your quote testimonials and adding music. Motion graphics take static graphic design and animate it by giving it movement and dimension. There are several free, easy to use motion graphics tools available.

Where to Publish Parent Testimonials

Parent testimonials are very versatile and can be published on numerous platforms:

Website

• Use rotating quotes and/or audio quotes on your homepage, header, or right-hand side of your site 
• Create a parent testimonial page on your site for long-form versions
• Add a video testimonial to your homepage
• Include quote testimonials on landing pages where you are asking visitors to complete a form for more information about your center

Social Media

• Post a snippet of a video testimonial or a short motion graphics video 
• Share quote testimonials alongside engaging, relevant photos of your center
• Encourage parents in your center’s community to share and engage with the post (like, comment etc.)

Blog/Email Newsletter

• Highlight long-form testimonials in a blog post or email newsletter
• Add quote testimonials as a regular feature in your blog
• Include links to video or long-form testimonials that relate to that month’s specific blog topic or email newsletter topic

Case Study/Success Story

• Use a long-form testimonial to create a case study/success story for your:
  • Admissions package or admissions page of your website.
  • Press releases to celebrate some of your center’s milestones

Webinar/Podcast

• Include rotating quote testimonials at the beginning or end of your webinars/podcasts.
• Add a snippet of a video testimonial to your webinar during short breaks or as transition elements.

Open House/Events

• Run looped snippets of video testimonials on a monitor during your open house or enrollment events

How to Create High-Quality Parent Testimonials

A high-quality parent testimonial starts with finding parents who you feel will be excited and enthusiastic about sharing their experience. Who are your center’s biggest advocates? Let these parents know that you would love the opportunity to sit down with them to get their feedback, and possibility record it on video. 

Here are some tips to keep in mind during your conversation:

• Give the parent some general direction of what you want them to talk about but avoid giving them a script to read.
• Ask them to introduce themselves.
• Start by asking them what criteria/expectations they had when evaluating childcare centers or a particular challenge they faced.
• Ask them to provide details as to why they chose your center.
• Have them describe how you’ve helped them and detail what is it about your center that’s the best.

You can also gather some great quote testimonials from parents by asking them to share their experiences directly on your website by completing a simple form. 

Including parent testimonials as part of your marketing efforts will increase the engagement of your content and help drive your center’s credibility. Make collecting parent testimonials a continual part of your operating procedures to help keep your content updated and fresh.