You can be the most celebrated nail artist or men’s hairdresser in your immediate vicinity and you can also be a barber or men’s hairdresser. But, when you want to turn your skill into a profession, you must promote your business to acquire new clients. Today, we are in the digital world and there are several ways to promote businesses locally or globally. In the past, professional marketers would drill a hole through your wallet before you can see the results trickling in and at times, your marketing costs were significantly higher than what you got from the exercise. All that is now passé with the digital world and all that you need is some quality time and a short learning curve to understand how things work in the digital world. You can convert your mobile phone into a giant marketing department and potentially results will start flowing in sooner than you would expect.
When you think of marketing, your first thoughts may gravitate towards social media to promote your services as barber or men’s hairdresser. But, you should know that using social media correctly is essential to get the juice out of it. It takes a short learning curve to comprehend what works best for you. The focus should be on avoiding the beaten track and discover strategies that can set your service apart from the crowd. Following are some helpful tips to guide you along the way.
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Participate in hair and beauty shows
As a professional men’s hairdresser, you have seen, or at least heard, if not attended some of these events. At the least, you must have seen videos or pictures of such events. Find one or more such upcoming events in your locality and exhibit your skills to enhance the awareness of your service and get your identity across to new clients. A major advantage with this approach is that everyone attending such events, or at least a majority of them are interested in your profession and therefore presents a good complement of potential clients. Remember to get plenty of videos and pictures from the event and upload them to your website/youtube to further promote your service.
Create a YouTube channel
YouTube channel is reckoned as a gold mine for promoting businesses. It may be challenging and time-consuming initially to get your YouTube channel up and running. Ideally, you must invest in some professional services who can get everything right at the first instance. This works much better than trying to wade through all the technicalities associated with setting up your YouTube channel. Remember that YouTube attracts about 2 billion visitors every single day. Even when someone is helping you with the YouTube video, it is a good idea to make it look more like an amateurish work than focusing on technicalities. This way, your effort will get more authenticity and effectiveness.
Once you are successful with your first YouTube video, follow it up with a tutorial on different hairstyles, interesting anecdotes, musings etc. The idea is to keep your youtube channel populated at intervals.
Posters/buntings in popular places
Posters and buntings are not new to you and you have seen these around storefronts, malls, events, and convention centres etc. Do understand that the print media is still effective though it has been invaded in part by the electronic media. However, the small trick is to place your ads in places where they are most likely to be looked at instead of being ignored. Think of businesses like gymnasiums, dance academies, fitness centres who clientele are likely to be your target customers. Try if you can strike a deal with these businesses to promote your business and you promote their business in turn.
Another simple method is to use the old world ‘word of mouth’ advertisement. Take an evening walk around your own community and spread the word about your services. Many small businesses in your community would be happy to exhibit your poster. But, you should take care to make the posters look professional and attractive.
Keep your Google business listing updated
Focused searches like ‘Men’s hairdresser’ near me or ‘barber’ near me are ever on the rise. By ensuring that your business shows up at the top of these searches, you are attracting more customers to your salon. People check for finding your address, fix an appointment, look for reviews, check for opening hours etc through local searches. By making sure that you have incorporated the correct contact information and location, you are further helping potential customers. Always ask your loyal and happy customers to add a helpful review on your website
Devise a special package for lunch hour customers
Most clients are busy and every minute is precious. The lunch hour gives this busy crowd a breather. An express service during these hours can be attractive for some customers and if you also add a small discount or another form of incentive that will work well to bolster your bottom line. Distribute flyers announcing this service through other businesses like supermarkets and malls in your region to spread the word around. Keep the validity of your special package for a limited period so that you can gauge how customers respond to your offer.
Create a budget
Most of what has been discussed so far can be achieved with little or no financial burden on you. Once your business stabilizes, create a budget for further promotion of your business by investing in some of the other methods like paid advertising through Google etc. But, that can wait till you are geared to cater to more customers and added more seats to ensure minimal waiting time for customers.
Conclusion
The digital world offers many ways to promote small, medium and large business. The business owner should choose the right tool at the right cost to take his/her business forward.