For barbershops ยท Marketing planning
A marketing plan for your barbershop.
Barbershop marketing tends to be reactive: post when it is slow, stop when it is busy. A plan decides in advance which chairs need filling, and on which days.
Or text (508) 546-9942
Slide it
You vs. Joe Blow's Barbershop.
Left is your website today. Right is the one Joe Blow's Barbershop has. Drag the line, then hit the button.
Crickets on the left. That is the problem.
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Illustration. Joe is made up. Your competitor is not.
The barbershop version
Why it matters.
Saturday mornings are slammed and Tuesday afternoons are dead. That pattern shows up in shop after shop, and marketing that ignores it wastes effort. Promoting the shop in general piles more people into Saturday, where they wait too long and leave. A plan asks how to move the flexible customers, like retirees, shift workers and people who work from home, into the quiet hours, and what offer makes that worth their while.
It also settles the questions that cause friction inside the shop. Walk-ins or appointments, and when. Whether a membership makes sense for regulars who come in like clockwork. What the shop pays for versus what each chair renter handles. Written down on one page, those answers stop the same argument from happening every month.
What I would build
For a barbershop.
Classic cuts and hot towel shaves, modern fades and designs, or a family shop with a kids' chair: I write down what you sell, to whom, and why someone drives past a closer shop to get to yours.
A defined, priced offer aimed at the slow days, like a weekday senior rate or a midweek cut and beard package, so the busy days stop carrying the entire week.
Which channels get effort and which get ignored. Usually the Google profile and Instagram, with texts for regulars. Not a thin presence on every platform, maintained badly.
A weekly rhythm somebody can keep, what gets tracked, such as chair fill by day, and the point at which the plan changes. Then a review date on the calendar that actually happens.
The mistake I see
Running the shop on word of mouth alone
Word of mouth built plenty of good barbershops, and it still matters. The problem is assuming it is enough. Newer residents, people who just moved to the area, and customers whose barber retired all search first and ask later. A shop that depends only on referrals can be excellent and invisible to everyone outside its current circle.
What you get
Marketing planning.
Before anybody designs anything, I figure out what you are selling, to whom, and what has to happen every week.
- A written position: what you sell, to whom, and why you over the alternative
- The offer, defined tightly enough to put a price on
- Which channels get effort and which get ignored
- A weekly rhythm somebody can actually keep
- What gets measured, and the threshold that triggers a decision
How it goes
For a barbershop, step by step.
→ Keep scrolling. It moves sideways.
One long conversation
Your numbers, your best customers, the jobs you wish you had more of.
Narrow it
Most plans fail from doing six things badly. I pick two.
Write it down
One page. If it needs ten, it will not survive a busy month.
Set the review
A date to look at it honestly and change it.
Step five is you.
The free Receipt shows what your barbershop should fix first. About half a minute, no card.
Print my Receipt →
Questions
What barbershops ask.
Does a membership or monthly cut plan make sense for a barbershop?
For a shop with a big base of regulars on a steady rhythm, it can. It smooths income and locks in loyalty. It works badly if your chairs are already full, because members expect to get in. A plan looks at your book first and decides whether membership fixes a problem you actually have.
Should we raise prices?
If your barbers are booked out and turning people away, probably. If chairs sit empty midweek, the answer is filling those hours first. I look at where demand actually sits, by day and by barber, before recommending anything, because a price increase on an empty Tuesday does not help anyone.
How do we market a shop where every barber rents their chair?
Split the jobs. The shop markets the location: the Google profile, signage, the reviews and the shared booking page. Each renter markets themselves, with the shop providing templates and a consistent look. A plan written with the renters' input avoids the resentment of one person paying for everyone else's customers.
Everything else
Other services for barbershops.
Same service
Marketing planning for other businesses.
Where I work
Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Start here
See what your customers see.
The Receipt looks your barbershop up the way a customer would and itemizes what is costing you calls. It is free. Or skip it and book fifteen minutes with me.
Or text (508) 546-9942