Digital Main Street Helps AAHC Barbershop & Salon with a Digital Revamp
Barber James Edwards opened up his barbershop, AAHC Barbershop & Salon, in London, Ontario, around twenty years ago. Through years of providing clean cuts and excellent service, James mainly relied on returning customers and word of mouth for his business to thrive. Given the pandemic world and considering that the beauty industry has been one of the industries hit the hardest – James knew he had to leverage his online presence. James outlined his website and social media pain points and collaborated with Digital Main Street’s Transformation Team to execute a plan to remedy them.
The first part of the plan was to merge his three businesses into one website. James not only runs a barbershop and salon but a hair academy and a clothing and printing company, as well. The team decided in order to improve the user experience and overall website accessibility, it would be advantageous to have all three businesses’ information in one spot. This process included updating the copy so that it complemented the visual appeal of the new website. James found the newly merged website to be more organized and manageable for him to navigate and run on the backend.
The second part of the plan was to provide a social media strategy for James to utilize in the future. The team worked alongside James to establish a social media strategy and created a Canva account with multiple mock-up posts that he could use across his various social media platforms. In our meetings, James used the time to ask questions about social media best practices and various social media avenues he could go down to attract more clients in the future.
To ensure James’ continued success long after his time in the Future Proof Program, the team supplied him with many guides and resources to utilize moving forward. Some of these included guides for Facebook, Instagram, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEO best practices, and resources for managing the backend of his Shopify website. With these tools, James will be able to continue the work required to bring in future clients.
Our Digital Main Street innovation partner in this region is TechAlliance. See how they can help.
Written by Keaton Katic
Digital Main Street was created by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) with direct support from the City of Toronto. DMS is also supported by a group of strategic business partners, including Google, Mastercard, Shopify, Meta, Intuit QuickBooks, Square, Lightspeed, Ebay and Canada Post.
A $42.5-million investment from FedDev Ontario brought together the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, Communitech, Invest Ottawa and the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association to expand the Digital Main Street Platform in order to support more businesses going digital as a response to the impacts of COVID-19 in Southern Ontario.
