How Modern Parents Choose Childcare in 2026

Families do not choose a child care center because of marketing alone. They choose the center they trust, and that trust is built long before enrollment, through reviews, recommendations, content and every interaction they have with you. In this session, Nick Williams, Founder of Childcare Business Growth (CBG), joined Navneet Rastogi, Founder and CEO of illumine, to share CBG's Trust Growth System: how to stand out from the competition, understand the numbers behind enrollment, and keep families long after they sign up. This is the written recap. The full recording is at the top of this page.

Key takeaways

Why trust matters more than ever

Nick has spent 19 years in child care, owning multiple centers before selling them in 2021 to focus on CBG, which supports family-owned and independent providers. He said competition is tougher than ever, with new centers opening every month, and that AI has made it harder for parents to tell what is real. Images, videos and even testimonials can be generated, so it is no longer enough to run ads that say "enroll now" or "book a tour." Centers need to build relationships. Navneet added that the more AI there is, the more people want to see things in person.

This is the most trust-based decision anyone's going to make besides getting married.

A poll asked attendees about their enrollment. Struggling to fill came out on top, followed by almost full, then full without a waitlist and full with a waitlist. Navneet said he had seen several posts in owner groups that week from centers struggling to stand out, with free public programs adding pressure.

Red ocean or blue ocean

Nick referred to the idea of red and blue oceans. In a red ocean, everyone offers the same thing and fights over the same families. In a blue ocean, a center is different enough that families seek it out and will pay a premium. He shared the example of a client in Davie, Florida, a town he described as having around 6,300 children under five and 60 commercial child care centers. Even if every child attended, that would average only about 106 children per center, so being one of many is not enough.

He pointed to schools that have grown by being deliberately polarizing, such as Alpha School, which pairs about two hours of personalized learning with a day of life-skills projects. The point was not that every center should copy it, but that clear, distinctive positioning attracts the families who want it, even in areas where owners assume it would never work.

False uniqueness and true uniqueness

Nick admitted he used to make the same aspirational claims at his own centers, and suggested checking your website for all three types. He added that it is not enough to be a Montessori or Reggio-inspired center anymore, because so many others are too. And whatever you claim, you have to live it: a center that calls itself play-based but relies on worksheets is not truly play-based, and parents notice.

Navneet asked for a real example. Nick described a client who had taken over a struggling location and was saying the same things as everyone else. After CBG observed her tour and gave feedback, she built her positioning around four unique elements, each with its own name, so her center is no longer compared to anyone else.

Five ways to market your center

Across all five, Nick's main message was to position yourself as the expert and stop hiding behind graphics and websites. His team does two Facebook Lives every day, and he shared that one client, after years of relying on ads, started making know-like-trust videos and doubled enrollment in 11 weeks while still running the same ads.

Asked by Navneet why generic marketing agencies often fall short, Nick explained that they tend to chase keywords and clickbait, producing leads that never turn into tours. Real expertise is different. Most parents know far less than you about topics like weaning or bedtime routines, so sharing that knowledge freely, without asking for anything in return, is what builds relationships. Some of his clients run regular webinars for parents to do exactly that.

Know your numbers

Nick walked attendees through two calculations most owners have never done.

When he asked what attendees would spend to win a family worth $45,000, answers ranged from $5,000 to unsure. That uncertainty, he said, is common. Many centers are not full because they are not unique enough, do not know what a family is worth, and do not know what they can afford to spend to win one. He noted that large chains know their acquisition cost by state and plan to be largely full before a new location even opens.

Cost per enrollment

Using those inputs, a monthly ad spend of $1,500 divided by about 7 enrollments works out to roughly $200 per enrollment. The same logic runs in reverse: Nick's example was that to enroll 10 families in two months, at 25% of leads touring and 50% of tours enrolling, a center needs 20 tours and 80 leads. Navneet suggested starting with conservative conversion rates and adjusting as real data comes in. Nick warned that an agency recommending a fixed $500 to $1,000 a month without knowing your cost per enrollment is a red flag.

His closing advice on follow-up was simple: at every touch point, go further. Send the email, but also call, text, send a video, or send a small gift.

The seven stages of the Trust Growth System

Nick shared a story from one of his own centers. A first-time parent lost trust immediately when her child was bitten by another child, something that can happen in a split second even with excellent care. The lesson was that their onboarding had not prepared parents for it, so they changed it. He also warned that a family who has not reached the belong stage may leave over something small, such as a lost favorite toy.

Navneet added that families who reach the sustain stage drive compounding growth, because their referrals arrive already trusting you.

How illumine supports the journey

Navneet described the risk of friction once interest arrives: sticky notes, spreadsheets, website forms nobody acknowledges, and no immediate thank-you. Speed to lead, he said, is now one of the most important metrics. He showed how illumine reduces that friction:

• Self-service tour booking. On one client's website, a parent picks a tour slot and immediately receives a calendar invite and a personalized thank-you email. See self-service tour scheduling.
• AI-built forms. Forms can be created from a photo, a PDF or a short prompt, styled to your brand, and shared as a link or a QR code at reception.
• State forms, preloaded. Licensing and compliance forms for each state are already in the system and mapped to the information you hold, so parents do not have to enter the same details twice.
• Pipeline, waitlists and newsletters. Inquiries move from interest to tour to enrollment, waitlists can be set by program, and newsletters can go to inquiries filtered by stage or source. See our guide to a childcare CRM.
• Inclusive communication. Announcements can be translated into any language, polished with AI, scheduled, and sent to authorized pickups by email and text, not only to parents with the app.
• AI daily reports. Teachers take photos through the day, and the AI identifies children, removes blurry or duplicate shots, groups photos by activity and drafts the update for the teacher to review. See AI daily reports.
• Leadership dashboards. Capacity and retention by center, the best inquiry sources, the number of days from inquiry to enrollment at each center, and tuition revenue month by month.

Navneet recalled a large preschool group whose leaders were still waiting on reports from two quarters earlier to see which centers converted best. By then, he said, the data is too old to act on. It needs to be available in minutes.

Questions from the session

Why write a book called Trust Built?

Nick said AI has made it hard to tell what is real, from images and videos to testimonials, and many businesses now hide behind it. In his view, being trustworthy and building real relationships is the true differentiator now.

How do I position myself as an expert when others know more than me?

Nick said there will always be people who know more and people who know less. Most parents will know far less than you about your area of expertise, so share what you know freely and consistently.

How should I set my marketing budget?

Work out your customer lifetime value and cost per enrollment, then reverse engineer the leads and tours you need for the enrollments you want. Navneet suggested starting with conservative conversion rates. Nick said a fixed monthly budget suggested without these numbers is a warning sign.

Will attendees get a link to the book?

Yes. Nick said his team would send it by email. The book is available only directly from CBG, not through online retailers.

Resources mentioned

• The Uniqueness Mark scorecard, shared with attendees.
• Trust Built, Nick's upcoming book on the Trust Growth System, available directly from CBG. His earlier books include 207 Ways to Market Your Business and Childcare Top Tips.

What to do next

For more on building trust through admissions, read the recap of How Nurseries Build Trust During Admissions. To see how illumine supports enrollment, explore admission management software or book a live demo.