5 tips to promote your barber shop on a budget
Last Updated 7 months ago:
Marketing is a necessary part of running a business, and it doesn’t always come cheap. Making sure people know about your barber shop without breaking your budget can be difficult, but there are several ways to get your business on the map without spending a lot of money. Here are five cost-effective marketing strategies to promote your barber shop on a budget.
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Hang posters around town
Digital marketing is great for reaching a lot of people, but what good does a worldwide audience do for your barber shop? Will people really travel from other cities, states, or countries for a haircut? Likely not. But you can easily target a highly localized audience with some well-placed posters.
Posters might be old-school, but they’re still effective. Everyone needs to get a haircut eventually. And if they notice your posters while they’re running errands around town, they might realize how long their hair really is and run to your shop for a haircut.
Of course, you’re busy cutting and styling hair. You don’t have time to design advertising flyers from scratch. Luckily, there are hundreds of barber poster templates available online from sites like PosterMyWall.
Simply choose the template that best fits your barber shop, customize the information to perfection using the drag-and-drop editor, and you’re ready to print.
Best of all, these barber poster templates are completely free. How’s that for staying on a budget!?
Start a Google My Business page
Around half of all consumers head to Google when looking for a product or service, including when they need a haircut! Make sure your barber shop shows up at the top of the search results with a Google My Business profile.
Your Google My Business profile is a little blurb at the top of related results pages (like “Barber shop near me”) with all the essential information about your business, including your business name, phone number, address, and website. It’s an easy way for new customers to find and contact your shop for an appointment.
Creating a Google My Business account is completely free. It just takes a few minutes to fill out the information, and your shop will be listed right at the top of the search results. It’s a great way to boost your online visibility without spending a dime.
Take online appointments
The easier something is, the more likely people will be to take action. That includes making appointments at your barber shop!
It’s the 21st Century, and almost everything is done online these days. Setting up online appointment bookings is one way you can make it easier to schedule a haircut at your barber shop and encourage more people to come in.
The best way to take online appointments is to add a booking form on your website. That way, customers can simply visit your website on their computer or even their phone, click a few buttons, and schedule their haircut.
Depending on the website host or builder you use (or even if you have a website), it may cost some money to add such a plugin. But if you want to save even more money, you can easily set up your business’s Facebook profile to accept appointments — which is free!
Just make sure that when you set up your online appointments, you’re prepared to honor them. You’ll need to check your appointments frequently or link your online calendar to your appointment-taking program to make sure you don’t miss anyone. Double booking yourself won’t do much to help grow your barber shop…
Offer a loyalty program
Haircuts aren’t a one-time purchase. In a few weeks or months, your customers’ hair will grow again and they’ll need another cut. Make sure they come back to you with a loyalty program.
Loyalty programs are a powerful cost-effective marketing strategy for any barber shop. By offering a slight discount for repeat customers, you can ensure people keep coming back to you for all their styling needs.
You can create any sort of loyalty program that works for your business. For example, you could create a program where customers can get every fifth haircut for free. That’ll ensure they come back at least five times if they want to get the deal — and nobody can resist a good deal!
Yes, you’ll technically have to pay for the free haircut, which counts as a cost. But you won’t have to pay money out of pocket, helping you keep your marketing budget intact. It also turns one sale into five, making more money in the long run.
Social media is another great free marketing resource for your barber shop. It doesn’t cost anything to create a page and start posting promotional content. And even better, there are over 300 million active social media users in the U.S. alone. That’s 90% of the population!
However, there is a downside to having that many active users. Yes, you can reach nearly everyone in your area with promotional content, but you also have to compete with millions of other posts for attention. That means your content has to be top-notch if you want to stand out.
If you’re not confident in your graphic design skills — or don’t have the time — there are thousands of free social media designs available online, like Instagram post templates. It’s easy to pick a template that fits your latest barber shop promotion, customize the information, and download the finished file for upload to your various social media platforms.
You can enjoy professional-level social media posts to catch the eye of anyone who scrolls by without needing professional-level design skills — or a professional-level budget!
Grow your barber shop on a budget
Ready to promote your barber shop without breaking your budget? Design amazing posters to hang around town, claim your Google My Business profile, set up online appointments, offer a loyalty program, and harness the power of social media. All these marketing efforts are cost-effective, many free, and can quickly help you grow your barber shop at very little or no cost to you!
