It really frustrates me when I walk down the street containing a barbers shop in a certain little town in Devon. The interior has been beautifully done out by the owner but… there isn’t a high footfall in the little street where it’s located and most people walk by on the other side of the road. Every time I walk by I look across and see the door is shut and the lights so dim it’s hard to know whether it’s open or not. So I cross the road just to check and invariably see the owner sat in the corner seemingly engrossed in their smartphone. Brighter lights; a half open door, an A board outside would signal that they were open for business.
Advantage could have been taken of the Christmas season to have mulled wine and mince pies for visitors regardless of whether they had an appointment or were even going to be making one – it would have created a buzz, brought people in through the door and given the owner a chance to hand out a card offering 10% off the first appointment.
I know a few people who are clients – they tell me they’re always the only customer. There’s no loyalty scheme to encourage return visits and no referral system to encourage people to tell their friends.
The Facebook page has few Likes, no information about the owner, no posts, no incentives to Like the page. This could be worked on during quiet times. On Twitter they have just 38 Followers and have produced but a handful of tweets – none of them incentivising people to come in for a haircut.
Yes – it does cross my mind that this lovely salon is at high risk of becoming another statistic – yet another start-up that didn’t make it – but could have.
Here are some of the marketing ideas I would have suggested had my offer of free advice been accepted:
- brighter lights; a half open door, an A board outside to signal open for business
- an open day with mince pies and mulled wine to have an opportunity to hand out business cards with a special 10% off offer
- have flyers in local shops and hotels
- always remember what Maya Angelou said: “… people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – always make your clients feel special.
- as time goes on categorise your clients into regulars and occasional – reward the regulars and encourage the occasionals to come more often
- try SMS marketing – send regular customers an occasional text message – about a promotion, an event or just to remind them it’s time for a haircut !
- exploit WOM (Word Of Mouth) – give customers cards to hand out to their friends offering a reduction on their first booking but make sure the card has referred by… so that you know who your evangelists are (and don’t forget to reward them!)
- make sure local photographers, hotels and wedding venues know about you – invite key staff over for a wine and cheese event so that they can see the salon and meet you
- make active use of your Facebook Page – a cover picture, information about the salon, details of special offers, open days
- write engaging content for your Facebook page and post lots of photos and videos
- run contests on the Facebook Page to attract Likes and bring in customers – e.g. “Take your photo outside our salon and post on our Facebook page, get your Friends to Like it and the photo with the most Likes gets xxx”. This could be a free haircut or 10% off for the next year for example.
- offer exclusive deals to Facebook fans
- have a photo taken with your clients and with their consent put them on your Facebook page and if that person is on Facebook get them to share it with their peeps
- use Twitter if your target clients are using it, follow target clients or sources of clients and then tweet about things that will encourage them to visit, to book an appointment
- encourage retweets on Twitter – a simple Retweet from one of your Followers can generate referrals. Offer incentives for Retweets such as “The Hair Salon is the trendiest place in xyz – have $10 off your next appointment by retweeting this post”
- use hashtags on Twitter for the location of your salon
- offer group deals e.g. “Come in this Saturday with 2 or more friends and receive 10% off each just by showing this tweet!”
- consider using Instagram
- have a website – with an Offers page. Have calls to action to encourage prospective clients to choose your salon.
- start a blog with hair tips, trends and advice – even information about events in the town. It will eventually brings in visitors which helps with ranking on Google and gives an opportunity to get people to sign up for a newsletter
- promote blog posts on your Facebook page
- have a special deal on days that are often ‘slow’
- network at local networking events
- set marketing objectives
- have a marketing strategy and implement it – consistently
Need it be said that if YOU want marketing advice or help developing a marketing strategy for YOUR business I’d be only too happy to help.
