How to fill a new childcare centre before it opens: a pre-opening marketing plan for Australia

Opening a new long day care centre is expensive, and every empty room on opening day costs you money. The centres that open strong almost always have one thing in common: they started marketing months before the doors opened, and they had a waitlist of local families ready to enrol.

This guide is the plan we follow when we market a centre before it opens. It's written for Australian operators, whether you run one centre or a small group.

Why pre-opening marketing matters

Parents don't choose childcare on a whim. They usually start looking months before they need care, often while still on parental leave, and many put their name down at more than one centre.

That means if a family finds you for the first time the week you open, there's a good chance they've already committed somewhere else. The window to win them is earlier.

It also helps that a new centre has a real story to tell. "Brand new rooms, a fresh team and a few early-bird places" is genuinely interesting to local parents, in a way an established centre's posts often aren't.

When should a new childcare centre start marketing?

Start three to six months before opening. Here's a simple way to split that time:

Timing	What to focus on
6 to 4 months out	Set up your Facebook and Instagram pages, Google Business Profile and a simple website page with a waitlist form. Start posting so the pages don't look empty.
4 to 2 months out	Run local Meta ads to grow the waitlist. Share renders, your philosophy and answers to common questions.
2 months to opening	Open bookings for tours or an open day. Introduce your centre director and educators. Confirm fees and start enrolment conversations.
Opening and after	Welcome posts, real photos of the rooms, and targeted ads for any age groups or days that still have vacancies.

If you're already closer to opening than this, don't worry. Compress the plan and lean harder on local ads.

Step 1: Get the basics in place

Before you spend a dollar on ads, make sure a parent who finds you can quickly answer "is this place real, and how do I get on the list?"

• Facebook and Instagram pages with your logo, address, opening date and a few posts already up.
• A Google Business Profile so you show up when parents search "childcare near me" in your suburb. List the opening date in the description.
• A website page with a short waitlist form: parent name, phone, email, child's age, days needed and preferred start date. Keep it short. Every extra field loses people.
• Your listing on Starting Blocks, the government site where many families compare services, once your approval is through.

Step 2: Answer what parents actually ask

Most childcare marketing says the same things: "nurturing", "play-based", "home away from home". Parents scroll past it.

What they really want to know is practical. Research by the NSW Productivity and Equality Commission found that uncertainty about out-of-pocket costs, and difficulty finding accurate information, can be as big a barrier for families as the cost itself.

So build your content around the questions you'll hear on every tour:

• What will it actually cost us after the Child Care Subsidy?
• What are your hours, and are there flexible options?
• What food do you provide, and how do you handle allergies?
• Who are the educators, and what are the ratios in each room?
• How does settling in work for a nervous child?
• When can we start, and what do we need to do now?

A single clear post that walks through a sample daily fee and the estimated gap after the subsidy will often do more than a month of pretty photos. Just be careful to show it as an example and point families to the government's estimator for their own numbers.

Step 3: Use local Meta ads to build the waitlist

For most new centres, Facebook and Instagram ads are the fastest way to reach local parents. A few things make the difference:

• Keep the area tight. Most families choose care close to home or on the way to work. Target the suburbs around your centre and the main commuter routes, not the whole city.
• Make the waitlist the goal. Run lead ads or send people to your waitlist page. Likes and followers are nice, but a name and a phone number is what fills rooms.
• Test a few messages. Try one ad about your early-bird offer, one about your rooms and outdoor space, and one that answers the fees question. Move the budget to whichever brings in the most waitlist sign-ups.
• Use what you have. Before opening you won't have real photos. Architectural renders, your branding, the street the centre is on and short videos from the director all work well.

Make sure your ads stay honest. Don't promise places, start dates or fees you haven't confirmed, and never talk down other centres.

Step 4: Keep waitlist families warm

A waitlist is only valuable if those families still want a place when you open. Plan a simple rhythm of contact:

1. A thank-you message straight away, with what happens next.
2. An update every few weeks: a construction milestone, your new director, a look at the menu.
3. An early invitation to a tour or open day, before it's advertised publicly.
4. A clear enrolment date and a personal call from the centre.

You can also retarget everyone who joined the waitlist or watched your videos with ads for the open day. These are your warmest families, and the cost of reaching them is low.

Step 5: After opening, fill the gaps

Most new centres fill some rooms faster than others. Babies and toddlers might be full while the kindergarten room has space, or Mondays and Fridays lag behind mid-week days.

Once you're open, switch from general awareness to filling specific vacancies. Run ads that speak directly to parents of the age group with spare places, and swap renders for real photos of the room as soon as you can.

Mistakes to avoid

• Starting a few weeks before opening. By then many local families have already committed elsewhere.
• Chasing followers instead of enquiries. A big page with no waitlist doesn't pay the rent.
• Hiding the fees. If parents can't work out what they'll pay, many simply move on.
• Letting enquiries go cold. Call or message new waitlist families within a day.
• Overpromising. Construction delays happen. Be honest about dates and keep families updated.

How we approach it

This is the same kind of plan we use when we market a new centre: useful content built around what local parents ask, a regular look at what nearby centres are doing, and a local Meta waitlist campaign. Every post and result sits on the owner's own client page, so they can see what's happening any time.

If you're opening a centre and want help building your waitlist, tell us about your project.