6 Top Tips for Setting Up Your Own Kids’ Soft Play

Soft play remains one of the most enjoyed pastimes of childhood. Many millennials have core memories of childhood parties spent bouncing around in soft play areas, usually with a side order of broken bones, friction burns and bruises.

If you’re filled with nostalgia for the simple magic of soft play areas, here are our six top tips for setting up your own.

1. Decide on a Theme

Soft play themes are what create the magic for kids, so deciding on a theme is incredibly important.

Whether you opt for a magical underground theme, sea creatures, animals or jungle, using vibrant colours, unusual shapes and creative ways to play with engage every child’s imagination and make your soft play a truly remarkable experience.

You could also use wall art, murals and colourful lights to make your soft play a sensory and engaging place for every child. Wall panels with materials or different textures can also bring life to your soft play experience.

2. Ensure High Cleanliness

The Covid pandemic shone a light on soft play areas and how easily they can be sanitised. It can be difficult to keep soft play areas clean, especially in smaller hard to reach areas, so laying out your soft play area with cleanliness in mind can make cleaning each area easier to do.

All surfaces in your soft play should be wipeable and waterproof, and it’s a good idea to make each area vacuumable without nooks and crannies where crumbs and dust can gather.

Alternatively, you can use no wipe sprays like Dettol’s All in One Disinfectant. Simply spray on fabrics and hard surfaces to instantly disinfect, with no need to wipe away the residue.

3. Set Up Your SEO

A good soft play should be easy to find on Google for your customers, and a high quality SEO agency like Maratopia will help you create an SEO strategy that will seek to increase your footfall both online and offline.

Your website should be up to date, easy to navigate, and search engine friendly. SEO agencies can also ensure that your website content will rank in search engines by using keyword research to make sure that your content contains keywords that your target audience are searching for.

4. Be Inclusive

More than ever, it’s important to address inclusivity issues in the children’s entertainment industry, and creating set times for quieter play can help to attract customers who have children with more complex needs, or sensory needs.

By creating a soft play area that caters to everyone’s needs, you will also create a safe space for communities.

5. Ramp Up Your Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing will help you to extend your customer base by creating brand awareness.

In order to reach as many people as possible, you might want to hold a giveaway competition to encourage people to share, like and comment on your page.

You can also gain followers organically by making engaging posts with high quality pictures, catchy captions, and by using hashtags appropriately.

Encouraging your followers to post reviews on your pages will also help you get noticed in search engines. Google will prioritise showing customers well-reviewed businesses, so prioritising getting those positive reviews will likely do you a favour.

6. Organise Birthday Parties

Every excellent soft play has the ability to organise children’s birthday parties. Parties are a great way to make a lot of money in one go, and can be a great way to publicise your services to lots of parents at a time.

To create a great birthday party, you’ll need a tasty buffet of food for little mouths, lots of squash and water readily available, and a fun and engaging party host. You may be able to offer a cake as part of the package, but many parents also like to supply their own.

If you need a large supply of birthday cake or party decorations, wholesalers like Costco can help. With bulk stock handily available, you can find what you need and keep your costs as low as possible for the most successful party set ups!

Most parents want a hassle free and straightforward party arrangement, so supplying party bags may also be a great idea so that parents can pay an all inclusive price for their child’s whole party, and have everything included.