Benefits of Voice Technology and Smart Speaker Marketing

Do you remember when businesses operated with multi-line phone consoles and fax machines, and assistants took messages on pink note pads? Although there were resources back in the day, the internet transformed the way we did business and continues to do so today. From smartphones with processors more powerful than those onboard NASA’s Apollo 11 to machine learning, technology has revolutionized how information is found, accessed, and communicated. One of the most talked-about innovations right now is voice technology and its impact on smart speaker marketing.

 

The Voice Technology Journey

In 2008, a year after the iPhone launched, Google created the Voice Search app specifically for the Apple phone making it the first instance of “voice search.”  In 2011, Apple took voice search into their own hands and introduced Siri on all new iPhones.  Thought to be more of a novelty, improvements to the technology continued to be made thus changing the landscape of how consumer’s accessed information through voice search.  Because of the demand for voice search, a media analytics firm, Comscore, predicts that half of all online searches will be voice-based by 2020.  This will dramatically change the way consumers engage with businesses and how brands interact with them.

 

Smart Speakers Taking Command(s)

The rise of voice search is having a considerable impact on the smart speaker device market. Equipped with artificially intelligent virtual assistants, these hands-free devices promise to make life easier.  Research released earlier this year by Voicebot.ai found that ownership of smart speakers in the U.S. rose 40% in 2018, driven by an increase in smart home commands, requests for directions and traffic updates, and shopping. As voice technology adoption becomes more ubiquitous, it puts pressure on brands to dig into voice technology to gain clarity on how it can be used to enhance their marketing strategies.

 

Transitioning from Seen to Heard

To give us insight into the innovations in voice technology and smart speaker marketing, we reached out to Paul Hickey, CEO of Data Driven.Design and creator of Nashville’s first Voice Conference. He shares, “It’s all about meeting customers where they are.  The data shows that more and more people are getting their information from Alexa-enabled devices and Google Assistant. Businesses will be found and/or validated based on their presence on these devices over the next 24-36 months, the same way that they have been evaluated by their web presence and SEO over the last 10-15 years.”

There are several ways businesses can implement voice technology into a marketing strategy. It’s not as hard as you might think. Here are a few tips on how to utilize this emerging technology:

Enhance Customer Experience – executing a voice strategy in this phase of marketing can give adopters a competitive edge when it comes to customer experience. An Adobe survey stated that 71% decision-makers said that they strongly agree that voice will improve user experience, increase consumer engagement and customer loyalty. Since Alexa and Google Assistant can both discern different voices, they can provide businesses with valuable metrics to help create custom messaging and content giving customers a consistent and personal experience and strengthening brand loyalty.

Podcast – you don’t have to be a big brand name to have a podcast. It’s an equal opportunity channel. More small businesses are turning to podcasts to build better relationships with their audiences and deliver great content, like business tips and thought leadership. Podcasts are also a great way to inspire your current listeners to recommend your podcast to others which could increase your website traffic and help build your brand.  

Flash Briefing – flash briefings are quick overviews of news or other original content that can reach customers daily or weekly.  Simply stated by Hickey, “a flash briefing is simply a podcast on top of Alexa.”  They can also be created for Google Assistant or other smart devices.

Websites – while you may already have a website for users to read your content, introducing voice technology can provide them with a richer experience. Perhaps they can listen to content from your website through their phone or smart speaker. As mentioned earlier, the ways consumers access information continues to evolve so businesses must change the way they optimize their website to keep up. Convince and Convert’s Jay Baer shares these 4 quick tips on how to start optimizing your content for voice search:

• Focus on Phrases and Longtail Keywords – voice searches are made with natural language or regular spoken language. This means that users speak to virtual assistants in a more conversational way than what they type into a web search.  Therefore, website content must be optimized for voice SEO to reflect the phrases and keywords used for voice search.

• Anticipate Specific Questions Asked in a Conversational Manner – when optimizing web content for voice SEO, businesses must have a solid understanding of the types of questions your target audience would be asking in a voice search and produce content around those questions.  As long as content answers customer queries in the most accurate and useful content, your website will rank accordingly.

• Optimize Your Website for Local SEO – it has been found that voice searches are 3x more likely tied to local searches meaning businesses must be diligent about keeping contact information and profiles updated consistently.  That profile information is what Google uses to answer specific questions about your business.

• Make Sure Your Website is Ready for Voice Search – the internet and out smartphones allows users to have access to information at their fingertips meaning businesses must ensure that their websites are optimized for mobile, local SEO, and voice search.

 

Take Action

The nature of voice search and implementing it into your marketing strategy may seem complex. But, with its current adoption and growth rate, undoubtedly, makes a strong case for stepping out and giving your business a competitive edge. More than likely, your competitors aren’t doing it, so you could be the first to bring that added value to your audience.

If you are thinking about adding voice technology to your marketing strategy or have used smart speakers to market to your audience, we’d love to hear from you. So, reach out!