A hairdresser or barber often relies on a dossier of recurring clients, but people move or move on, so even an established business can benefit from regular marketing.
Sometimes, you choose to specialise on a certain type of service, and that can limit your ability to take walk ins, so your marketing can allow you to reach out to people and draw them in.
Your services are so photographable, so with a little cooperation from clients, or by working with people on the condition they act as a model, you can curate a portfolio that is so easily shared online.
It’s not necessarily compulsory for a hairdresser or barber to have a website for their services. However, it does help to have a go to place to send people to. This means that if Instagram goes down, or someone needs to find your phone number, they have a reliable place to visit.
You may like to consider:
The age and demographics of your current and potential clients might dictate which platforms you choose to share content on. You might also choose to consider how location dependent their algorithms are in general. It’s also important to consider how much of a visual format your services should be displayed in.
Most likely, you’ll be drawn to Instagram and TikTok. While other platforms can be considered, it’s important to start smaller and expand once you have some success, or can hire someone to do the heavy lifting for you.
In general, it is important to:
You may like to create a space in your salon or barber shop where people feel called to take a selfie, either with a creative background or flattering lighting. This will increase the likelihood of your clients doing this on their own, and gives you a space to take photos too.
This will be a place to run awareness ads to let people know about your location and services, and traffic ads if you take bookings online. Conversions could be harder to track since people can book in multiple ways, so that may not be a place to invest, especially at first.
You can show up in front of people in your area, who are the right age for your style, then retarget those who liked or engaged with a piece of content that builds on their familiarity with you.
You may choose to run ads for search listings for your general area, if you don’t already rank highly organically. You may also like to run ads to a wider area if you specialise in a niche service not commonly offered in your region, like a transformation. Have hair, will travel!
If you have chosen to create YouTube videos, you may choose to run highly targeted ads of those videos to show on other related content, or by creating new video ads for YouTube ads.
While it may not be worth the time investment of running your own community, you might choose to network in online and offline networks, so you can gain new clients and referrals by showing up and being yourself.
You might choose spaces that are based around your hobbies, business ownership, parenting, or a special interest.
You may also find value in joining nationwide or international groups for all people in your field, to share and learn about new techniques or products. This can also serve as a way to communicate with other stylists who have a client moving to your area and vice versa.
You may like to get together with other business owners in your local area to create photoshoots, or packaged offers. In some instances, there may be local artist or events who need a sponsor, by way of donating your time.
Potential collaborators may include:
You might like to host events for your clients, in a bring a friend capacity. This can allow you to grow your own connections further, while forging a deeper connection to your business through those extra interactions with clients. It’s completely up to you whether those events have a specific agenda, or are limited to a sub-group of your clients.
You might choose to run events around:
These events can also serve as a way to introduce clients to each other in a warm and inviting space.
If you’re new to marketing your salon or barber shop, it may help to start with one platform and grow from there. You’ll be able to tell what comes most naturally to you and what your current and potential clients gravitate towards. This will give you some insights on what might be best to share, and on what platforms. However, it can help to try new things and create in a way that feels easier for you.
Disclaimer: This blog post is a small guide to some platforms this business type could use to expand their marketing. It is not a marketing plan or marketing strategy and is not tailored completely for your business. If you are looking for a marketing strategy, let’s chat.
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