OK you might be like myself, born in the 20th century and still prefers a paper map to navigate through the city, but you might be like head punk Alan who not only long forgot about paper maps, he uses every button on the latest gadget to navigate even if it means getting lost most of the time. 🙂
But the point is, the world has changed, and so have the future trends and how your customers will soon be searching for your salons will put things upside down forever.
Google has recently introduced its voice search “OK Google” capabilities… and what it essentially means, if Alan ever decides to visit the barber in the city, he will ask his latest i-everything “OK Google tell me where’s the coolest gentlemen’s shop in Manchester” 🙂
This is not even a joke, a recent study by Google, has revealed that 55% of teens used voice search daily, and 56% of adults said using voice search tools made them feel quite techno savvy.
What does this mean to your salon then and do you really need to be prepared for that?
Well, of course salons are not the only thing your market is looking for, in fact studies also found that 61% saw an increase in voice search terms like “when”, “where”, “how”, “who”. What does it mean to you, you may ask…
Here’s what it means… meet Lily, Alan’s daughter, she is 16 and although she is not yet into visiting hair salons, she uses YouTube religiously to search for “how to dye hair orange”, and “best hair products to remove orange hair dye”.
Your marketplace is like Lily, they constantly search for hair and beauty stuff online, while been on the train, on the bus, in the boring classroom, in between lunch breaks and so on. And even if your primary target market is not young, the fact is, with or without voice search the world is totally digitally
connected and salons that are prepared well ahead will get well ahead financially.
Yet, surprising number of salons still have not got their head around of using mobile and tablet friendly websites, many think YouTube is for something else and that their customers will always remain loyal.
But I am hoping if you’ve read that far, you are certainly interested in more new salon clients and are open to change 😉
Back to your salon, and now that you know future trends and what search terms your customers are using to find your salon and hair products, ask yourself those quick 3 questions to help you plan ahead:
The Ultimate Salon Marketing School from Salon Punk
1. Is your salon brand ready to meet future demand? Are you digitally savvy and ready to handle new consumer behavior? Does your salon website need upgrading? Do you have a strategy to advertise online or do you remain loyal to the “hope and pray” marketing?
2. Think of your salon customer. If your client seeks a location of your salon in the search engines, through social media or via emails, can they find your salon, and when they do, will they be satisfied with the experience?
3. Whatever way your customers are finding your brand, they are looking for one thing, value, and the quality hair experience. Sometimes providing this value generates instant sales, and other times it does not, but better you are prepared towards driving this value to your customers better off your salon brand will be.
Happy voice searching
Tamara Machavariani