Today’s dads aren’t like the dads of generations past. Instead, they’re excited about their role as dads and are much more likely to be involved in child care and family purchasing decisions. Modern dads spend almost three times the amount of time caring for their kids as fathers in 1965 and 69% of dads believe that each generation of dads is more involved than the last.
Dads are spending more time with their kids and the majority (72% of homes) also have a hand in purchasing decisions. This means your child care marketing efforts should be designed with a target audience of both moms and dads in mind.
Unfortunately, 74% of millennial dads think today’s efforts to market to dads are out of touch with the realities of a modern family. This gives businesses, including child care centers, willing to create advertising that speaks to real dads a big advantage. Already, companies are taking note and seeing results from ads that appeal to fathers.
Just like moms, dads aren’t a stereotype, so they shouldn’t be marketed to that way. Ads that feature real dads with real emotions that reflect your target audience’s age, parenting styles and work situation drive enrollments. More than half of dads help with school projects and activities, and they often wish they could better balance kids and work. These insights may help you develop unique child care programs that help dads be better parents – and help your center stand out from competitors.
Marketing to Millennial Dads
Many of today’s dads are millennials, which means they depend on technology to be better parents. Eighty percent of dads use YouTube to research parenting topics. This is an excellent opportunity to develop dad-centric content marketing or YouTube ads and reach fathers when they’re in “dad mode.”
More than half of millennial dads search for parenting information on websites, social media, apps and blogs. A lot of these searches take place on mobile devices because they’re multitasking, asking the internet what to do about a restless baby or sick toddler. Employ mobile marketing techniques to target dads curious about how to care for their little ones with messages about how experienced and knowledgeable your staff is.
