FATHER’S DAY IS AROUND THE CORNER. ARE YOU READY?
Father’s Day is an excellent opportunity for barbers to grow a community of loyal customers, upsell products and capture new customers. Devising a successful strategy is an important part of having a successful Father’s Day sales period. In this article, we have developed a guide on how to promote Father’s Day in your barber shop to give you ideas on how to capitalise on this event.
WHY SHOULD YOU PROMOTE YOUR BARBER SHOP FOR FATHER’S DAY?
Alongside Mother’s Day, Christmas and Easter, Father’s Day is one of the key annual gifting dates that small businesses such as barbers should take advantage of.
In 2021, Australians were estimated to spend $800 million on Father’s Day gifts, with gift-givers spending an average of $93 each. The good news for barbers? This number is likely to increase in 2022!
Aside from tapping into a piece of that growing $800 million pie, there are many additional reasons barbers should develop promotions for Father’s Day:
- New customer acquisition: Promoting your barber shop during this period is a great way to bring in new customers through your existing customer base. For example, a current customer may buy a gift card from your barber shop give to their dad for Father’s Day. As a result, they will use the gift card for services at your business giving you the opportunity to convert them into a regular customer.
- Keep your business top-of-mind: A side benefit is keeping your business in the minds of your current customers, which in turn increases customer loyalty.
- Promote services and products: The key reason behind Father’s Day promotions is to drive sales of services and take-home products. These promotions are the perfect opportunity to bring awareness to products that your regular customers might not have used before and to introduce potential clients to your products which may draw them in for future sales.
WHAT TO UPSELL FOR FATHER’S DAY?
When it comes to generating revenue for your barber shop off the back of Father’s Day, there are two main methods. The first being upselling products and services as gifts, and the second being converting people who use the gifts into long-term customers.
Upselling products for Father’s Day should follow a similar strategy to what you would do for any other gifting period such as Christmas. Ensuring the gifting suggestion is relevant and timely will help increase sales.
1. GIFT CARDS AND VOUCHERS
Likely the easiest option to promote for Father’s Day, gift cards and vouchers are great for gift-givers who aren’t sure exactly what their dad wants - which is often a hurdle to overcome on Father’s Day!
Creating specialised gift cards for Father’s Day is ideal, however, having a voucher system where the gift-giver chooses the amount or service they are pre-paying for makes the transaction easy. Having these situated near the point of sale (POS) accompanied by social media posts and in-store signage will help ensure they get maximum exposure.
2. GIFTING PRODUCTS
Similar to gift cards, barber hair products that customers can use as gifts are another simple option. Beard care, shaving products and men’s styling products like wax, clay and pastes are easy sales, especially if you use those products on your clients already as they would then know the quality of the product.
Gift packs, either pre-made like our Father’s Day Gift Packs, or ones you put together yourself are another great option to increase the average sale price while still offering great value. Having these near POS, as well as being merchandised in front of the customer while they are in the chair will help keep this gift idea top of mind.
3. CLIENT SERVICES
Offering services is another option which allows your customers to book and pay on another person’s behalf. For example, a son may prefer to book his dad a surprise haircut and shaving appointment for a more personalised gift.
HOW TO PROMOTE FATHER’S DAY?
Now you have ideas on what to promote for Father’s Day, whether it’s take-home products, gift vouchers or services, choosing how to market these ideas is the next step. Here are four of the most common and easy ways to spread the word around Father’s Day at your barber shop.
1. SHOP SIGNAGE AND PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
Physical signage such as window banners, POS stands, stickers and decorations will help bring your Father’s Day promotions to life. Window banners are perfect for promoting to the local community, while POS decorations will help get the sale over the line in shop. At a minimum, we’d recommend having information around your front counter on gift ideas to help highlight your offers.
If you are looking for an eco-friendly paperless option, digital advertising is a great alternative.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA
Utilising social media to communicate directly to your customers is likely the easiest form of Father’s Day promotion you can do. Depending on your customer base, Facebook and Instagram are usually the two best platforms to advertise your barber shop’s Father’s Day promotion. If you have a strong following on other platforms such as TikTok or Twitter don’t hesitate to utilise these channels too!
Posting on your feed in the lead-up to Father’s Day is key, ideally starting your campaign at least two or three weeks before the day itself. The recommended posting frequency is once or twice a week to remind customers of your promotion - be careful not to overdo it as repetitive posting can lead to unfollows.
For an additional push, you can invest in boosting a few promotional posts to increase reach and target new customers. If you are using targeted advertising, the key is to ensure that the demographic you’re targeting isn’t too broad (e.g. all men in X state) or too specific. Targeting your local area will likely drive the strongest return.
3. STAFF UPSELLING
Utilising your team to suggest gift ideas during your client’s appointment is an easy way to showcase what you’re offering. Implementing an incentive for your team can also drive additional sales, for example receiving a bonus if reaching a certain number of gifts sold or internal competition.
There will be two key opportunities for your staff to upsell during a client’s appointment:
- While clients are in the chair.
- When clients come to pay at POS.
Have your team lay the groundwork during the appointment, talking around:
- What the client is doing for Father’s Day?
- Have they got a gift yet?
- Do they need help choosing an idea?
The POS operator can then help seal the deal and reinforce the Father’s Day offers, helping increase the chance a sale lands.
Image credit: @straightlineshairbarber
4. UTILISING YOUR CUSTOMER DATABASE
If you’ve been able to build a strong customer database, either through email, SMS or a combination of both, using this to talk to your loyal customers will help drive awareness and sales. The occasional email in the lead-up to Father’s Day will help promote the offer, while sending one or two SMS’ to your database can also bring additional acknowledgement of your promotion.
However, like posting on social media, be sure not to send customers too many emails and SMS’, as this will increase the likelihood of them unsubscribing. Aim for one email per week in the lead-up to Father’s Day, and a maximum of two (ideally just one) SMS before the event.
Ready to start your Father’s Day promotion? Shop our full range of Father’s Day Special Offers to help make your promotion a huge success.
