So after speaking with 100s of different barbershop and hair salon owners, one thing I found in common with the most successful ones, was that they weren’t focusing all of their time on social media, running ad campaigns and sending emails. Yes, those are powerful ways to bring in new customers and grow your audience, but they were doing something more.
They were investing their time back into their local communities. This is a great resource for not only building a clientele base, but also for creating a loyal one. So in this article, I’ll go over several strategies you can use for your marketing strategy that explains how you can get more involved in your community and really set yourself apart from your competition.
Partner with a Local non-profit and Collect Donations at your Barbershop on their Behalf
Let’s say for example it’s a food pantry. What you do, is tell your customers that your collecting canned foods on the non-profit’s behalf for a donation. This is always great to do around holiday season as more people feel inclined to help out during that time.
So this works on a few different levels. For starters, it shows the public that you’re invested into the community, and it also shows people that you care. This also gets people to talk about your business in a higher light. And we all know how powerful word-of-mouth is!
Host a video Game Tournament at your Barbershop
This is a great way to attract the younger customer base, while at the same time showing them that your up to date with current trends. This might be a bit tricky, as you need to have a gaming system, a tv for them to play on as well as a few controllers. An alternative is hosting gaming tournaments online, or sponsoring a local gaming event.
Sponsor Local kids’ Sports Teams
Now when I say sponsor, I don’t mean to reach out to the coach and see if they can put your logo on the back of one of their jerseys (which is not a bad idea either). What I suggest you do, is to be the one who brings all the kids sports drinks for their games.
Introduce yourself to their parents and find out if any of the kids have food allergies, so you can be the one who brings in snacks for half time. By doing this, their parents might feel obligated to check out your barbershop or hair salon. You can take a step further and hand the kids bottled water with branded with your logo.
Promotions Celebrating High School Sports Teams
Here’s an example. The sports high school teams wins Friday night. To celebrate their victory offer the high school a discounted service! If you’re from New England, this might sound familiar. Whenever the New England Patriots won a football game, DD Perks received a discounted or free coffee.
This is a way to build deeper relationships with the younger audience as well as show the high school teams in your city that you’re rooting for them.
These offline strategies should help with not only bringing in new clientele, but also help increase retention rates as well as brand loyalty. Because by staying involved in the community, it doesn’t just show people that you have a general interest in them, but it also shows that you’re business is here to stay.
