As the owner of a multi-salon chain, you may have a hard time figuring out how to target prospective new clients to come into your many varying salon locations. Is it really viable for you to take out ads in local magazines or newspapers, or on the radio? Working on media plans and campaigns across multiple geographic locations is time-consuming and doesn’t take into account any economies of scale unless you are a truly national player.
You may also be wondering how to get involved in the ever-expanding digital media landscape. It’s easy to see your clients and your stylists using their smartphones all day in your salons, and you are probably already targeting reaching potential new clients through the use of your social media channels. Something you may want to consider that may no longer be out of reach for you is geo-targeted mobile advertising.
It’s a pretty simple concept, but with many options and permutations. Mobile advertising has been growing at a staggering rate the last few years (according to Business Insider, it will reach $42 billion by 2018), as ad-tech companies become more and more sophisticated with their capabilities.
Want to target women who live in specific zip codes? That’s easy. Want to target a woman who is within a few hundred feet of one of your salons? That’s yesterday’s technology. You can even target a woman who frequents the same gym every weekend, or who happens to drop off her kids at school every weekday, or takes a specific route past any of your salon locations.
How does this all work? Your smartphone has a location service built into it; anytime any of your apps (including your GPS, social media apps, etc) are running with location services turned on, you are being tracked and valuable information is being gathered about you.
A little “big brother”, absolutely; but it opens the door for a lot of marketing opportunities for you, a business owner – and targeting a consumer in the place she’s spending an inordinate amount of time; on her smartphone. Imagine being able to serve a woman an ad about your salon as she’s driving home from work past your salon on a Friday. Or you could even target her 4 weeks after the last time she visited one of your competitor’s salons – “Time for a cut and color, visit our website to book an appointment and here’s a map to our nearest location!” The possibilities of your messaging are truly limitless.
For more information about mobile advertising, feel free to visit the Mobile Marketing Association website http://www.mmaglobal.com/. Mobile advertising is a media channel that is growing faster than any other, and gives you a unique opportunity to reach a consumer when she’s out of her home and near one of your locations. Bring her in!
