How I'd grow Klipped

Klipped is a mobile app that lets users book appointments with barbers, lets barbers manage their bookings, and it also handles payments.

They are actually 2 different apps: Klipped Client and Klipped Business, one for customers and one for barbers.

A random visitor wouldn’t easily guess what Klipped is. There’s no copy above the fold on the site - just a background video with 2 CTAs.

The video doesn’t work on mobile, so the homepage is almost completely blank. It should be fixed ASAP since the product is a mobile app.

I’d remove the current homepage, and use their internal lander for the Klipped Business app instead.

In fact, I wouldn’t initially position Klipped as an app for consumers to find barbers, but exclusively as an app for barbers to manage bookings, reminders and payments.

This way, they can push global downloads for barbers from day one: they’d get the full value instantly.

Otherwise, they’d have to start geographically limited - if customers download the app and don’t see a wide barber selection in their area, they’ll delete it.

If a lot of barbers start using the Business app, then they’ll ask their regulars to install the app and book appointments through it.

Only when there are enough barbers on the app globally would I start thinking about promoting the Client app for barber discovery.

Another reason to focus on the Business app: the Client app is free. Klipped makes money from the Business, freemium, app.

For a barber, $20/mo is ridiculous compared to the features Klipped offers. I’d instantly bump the price to $25/mo. It means +25% in annual revenue.

A couple of considerations:

- The real competitor is inaction and relying on bookings through phone calls and messages. I’d focus my marketing angle on that pain point.
- I’d expect LTV to be high. Once a barber’s customers install the app, they’ll be too invested to switch.

Klipped has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Barbers are reopening after the pandemic, but often, they can’t take walk-ins anymore. They have to schedule appointments.

It’s marketing time: barbers are getting overwhelmed by the phone call booking system right now.

I’d split the marketing strategy into 2 parts:

- Short term: leverage the situation to onboard as many barbers as possible through outreach and influencers
- Long term: set the foundations of a presence on social and search to slowly but constantly bring in new leads

First step: email outreach. Given the circumstances, offering a solution to an immediate pain point could work well.

The goal of the email would be to schedule a demo. I’d then leverage urgency, creating a promotion with a time-based offer to close the deal.

Pro tip: when writing cold emails, there’s 1 fundamental rule - make it all about the recipient.

What’s the benefit? Why should they care? What’s in it for them?

Your goal isn’t to close the sale right away, but to make them interested enough to get an opening to talk more.

Then, form as many partnerships as possible with micro influencers (barbers with a small and engaged following) or bigger ones.

It could be a paid collaboration or they could offer their app for free in exchange for blogging or posting on social about their experience.

Instagram is probably the right social, but what kind of content would engage barbers?

Probably something more advanced than the typical haircut and beard photos you can see on accounts dedicated to consumers. I’d do short video tips from pros for pros.

SEO: take the time to perform keyword research and find out what barbers are searching for online.

Look for places where barbers hang out online, see what they’re talking about, and then validate these ideas with a KW research tool to see if there’s high search volume.

They need links to rank. Reach out to barbers after they start using the app, and send them an infographic that explains how customers can use the app.

Then, barbers can share those instructions with their clients, and add a link to the app store and the Klipped website.

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