What is best way of advertising ?

[AndyBlue]

I am after some anecdotal stories on what sort of advertising has worked for you. I have two businesses at the moment one a Barbers one a hairdressers, and you may think they are similar which they are different approaches need to be taken for each. For some reason since Christmas we have done quite well in Hairdressers and so I am going to plough some of the extra takings into a marketing campaign to try and boost the rest of the year. What I would like to know is what do people tend to find is most cost effective i.e. best results per £ spent. I don't mind paying a few extra pounds if it will deliver more results. I am trialling a facebook ad campaign with a special offer price on a particular treatment, but do people find %'s off work better, or a discount across the board ? We hsitorically have found clear price points on ine item work best for us but woudl like other views and ideas please, also what do you find works best leaflets, newspaper, local free ad mags, webpages such bestof etc. I am happy to try a number of things and would like to tap into your experiences so don't waste money on none starters.

Many thanks

 

[TreatGarden]

From a customer's point of view, the most effective for me is a large (at least A1) poster in the window of the shop saying (for example) "cut and colour for £x" - only for March or whatever. I then go ahead and book asap. We've got a couple of hairdressers in our village and whenever one of them has one of these promotions on, I book in asap, even if I'm not quite due for a cut and colour then!
I don't pay attention to newspapers etc generally, but a coupon for a great deal might be worth me tearing it out and using it. But then it gets lost at home and I forget about it. A poster in the window, however, reminds me every time I go past.
Twitter and facebook are quite good as well - tweet about a particular offer several times so that it sinks in. I would pay attention to that too.
If you want to capture people who might not walk past your shop, handing out leaflets with a special offer on is the most effective I think. Fliers aren't as easy to lose as newspaper clippings/coupons and more likely to be put in your bag where you keep coming across them (and so reinforcing the message!) until you remember to clear your bag out.
Just make sure that your poster and leaflets are well designed and reflect the quality of your brand.

 

[TreatGarden]

p.s. I agree with clear price points rather than % off. Just works better and not everyone is good enough at maths to work % out or be comfortable with it.

 

[AndyBlue]

Thanks for that, we do the poster in the window and it does work, but you are right about it only attracting people that walk past the shop and we only use A3 size and are at one end of a village. One thing we are going to trial is a pensioners day offer to fill up Tuesdays and Wednesdays and off what you have said I am going to get a bigger poster made so it is more obvious.

 

[Black Country Delivery]

I have a couple of hairdressers who use my company on average about 3 to 4 times a year to do leaflet drops for them. They normally include a special offer voucher valid for 3 months or so. They tend to concentrate on areas approx. 1 to 5 miles from their salons, to try and get to people who may not see the posters in the window. I'm guessing they must get a reasonable response as they keep coming back.

 

[mrturtle123456]

Make sure you gather all customer email details and once a month email them. If you can get their mobiles too and text them.

Cheap and very very effective advertising.

MM

 

[Websitehandyman]

I agree foot-fall impact advertising would bring the best results. Problem with that is you don't make enough money so it should be part of a bigger plan and used as a lead in.

So you need many things, here's an expample;

You have a big sign something like "We will cut the next ten customers hair for £1" on the board you have a chalk board area to use as an countdown from ten. One key point here is you go into the window to change the number and anybody in a shop window automatically attracts attention so almost everyone in eye time times will know about the offer.

That get ten people in but now you need them to come back so you have to give them a reason. So you need to research and change your campaign for each;

How often do you have your hair cut sir ?

Don't know - give them another cut same price in a month

Every few months - give them a lesser discount for the next time

Every month - give them a free product voucher for their next cut

Also if possible cross sell, someone has a cut offer the partner a cut at the other shop.

Those ideas any good to ya ? suppose you could combine it with online to.

 

[AndyBlue]

Websitehandyman I like your logic but.......the risk we face is the next 10 customers could already be our customers and so doing them at £1 would probably cost us minimum £100 in revenue, so would need to recoup that before we started. We do a deal through a media agency where we give a free cut to people to try us out but invariably these people are just after a cheap deal and don't come back.

 

[Websitehandyman]

Websitehandyman I like your logic but.......the risk we face is the next 10 customers could already be our customers and so doing them at £1 would probably cost us minimum £100 in revenue, so would need to recoup that before we started. We do a deal through a media agency where we give a free cut to people to try us out but invariably these people are just after a cheap deal and don't come back.

I don't know anything about your margins chap, I was just suggesting a framework you could work to.

Rather then a sign in the window why not put one up on a traffic island. You can correct me but I know I wouldn't travel more then a few miles to try a new place so you limit yourself if local adverts are not what you want.

 

[AndyBlue]

Wasn't knocking you handyman just explaining wouldn't really work for us. The traffic island thing have seriously thought about but worried about jumped up Council officials removing it as soon as they see it.

 

[Websitehandyman]

Wasn't knocking you handyman just explaining wouldn't really work for us. The traffic island thing have seriously thought about but worried about jumped up Council officials removing it as soon as they see it.

I know someone who got himself a trailer and pitched a sort of tent shaped advertising board on it. He then went and parked it on the bridge over motorway worked wondered for his directory web site. Perhaps you could put the sign in the back window of the car and drive around the island a few time every day

 

[Black Country Delivery]

I don't know anything about your margins chap, I was just suggesting a framework you could work to.

Rather then a sign in the window why not put one up on a traffic island. You can correct me but I know I wouldn't travel more then a few miles to try a new place so you limit yourself if local adverts are not what you want.

I don't know about the rest of the country, but Wolverhampton council are red hot when it comes to prosecuting folk who plonk signs on traffic islands. The same goes for signs attached to street furniture (lamp posts, bollards, road signs etc.).

 

[Websitehandyman]

I don't know about the rest of the country, but Wolverhampton council are red hot when it comes to prosecuting folk who plonk signs on traffic islands. The same goes for signs attached to street furniture (lamp posts, bollards, road signs etc.).

No one said anything about plonking signs, you can buy these things but easy enough, find a building close to a popular area and buy a sign in the window there. The are plenty of pubs who will place a sign in a window for £50 a week, nice 2x2 or even 3x3 does the job.

 

[Black Country Delivery]

Apologies if I misinterpreted your post Websitehandyman, no offence intended :redface:

 

[UKSBD]

Have you a membership program?

Everytime you get a new client get them to join the membership program (which has a few sweeteners for joining)

Gain their email address and contact details when joining, offer a discount if they sign up to regular cuts every 6 weeks (or whatever it is between cuts), email them reminders every 6 weeks and offer discounts on referrals
i.e if they refer a new customer who joins the progam they get 10% of next cut.

With more in the program (and you having all their emails and contact details) you can provide sweeteners and upsell other products/services throughout the year.

 

[david.duncan]

A professionally designed, graphic intense mail shot would be a nice touch.

 

[Stuart Bailey]

A lot of my friends are beginning to go bald and only want a grade 1 all over hair cut. A lot of barbers in my town charge their standard fee of £9-£10 for this.

However there is a barber who charges £5 for a simple of grade 1 or 2 all over hair cut and he is really busy.

Perhaps that is something which you could market.

 

[AndyBlue]

A lot of my friends are beginning to go bald and only want a grade 1 all over hair cut. A lot of barbers in my town charge their standard fee of £9-£10 for this.

However there is a barber who charges £5 for a simple of grade 1 or 2 all over hair cut and he is really busy.

Perhaps that is something which you could market.

Thanks Thomas already do that, not at £5 but £6.50 instead of £11 for the gents cut

 

[90DC]

A lot of my friends are beginning to go bald and only want a grade 1 all over hair cut. A lot of barbers in my town charge their standard fee of £9-£10 for this.

However there is a barber who charges £5 for a simple of grade 1 or 2 all over hair cut and he is really busy.

Perhaps that is something which you could market.

A note on this point. I bought myself a set of clippers from the half price sale at my local supermarket. Paid £11. I give myself a grade 1 every three weeks to keep on top of it and do my two boys hair with it as well. Based on the lower price of £5 for a grade 1 and £5 for each child's haircut (Which I do every six weeks), I will save myself around £170 this year. The upsides to doing it myself, apart from the money saving are that I don't have to wait in a queue, I don't have to make a special trip, no booking appointments, I don't even have to leave the house.

A 'one all over' is so easy to do, the kids '3 on top, 1 back and sides is also easy once you get the knack.

What I am trying to say is you have to consider the changing attitudes. Sales of male grooming products are increasing each year, which does not necessarily mean that men are taking more care of themselves, but can mean that they are cutting their own hair.

I understand the reasons for a barber to charge what they do and fully appreciate your dilemma. What I would suggest is that you offer Caffé Nero style stamp incentives on cuts, or free childs cut with a mens cut or something. I'm not suggesting that you work at a loss, just think out of the box and consider the public to be the tightfisted people they are and try to get them back through the door.

 

[PublicanSam]

Word of mouth, without a doubt - for pubs anyway