The Voice Search Resolution was presented at the 2019 Rocks Digital Marketing Conference by Abhi Vyan. Here are the takeaways from his session.
You used to open your phone, open an app, add things to your cart, and complete the purchase. Now you just say “Siri, purchase paper towels,” and you’ve eliminated a number of steps in the purchasing process.
Amazon is the marketing leader in smart speaker market share – 68% of the market. But Google is catching up. And Amazon is up-leveling their voice assistants to help retain their place. One example is Echo Look, which helps you with fashion dilemmas.
We should assume that Alexa is listening to all conversation in the house, but not reacting. You need to address Alexa (“Hey Alexa”) to get it to react.
Many people have at least one Alexa (or similar device) in their home. There are 50 million Americans using voice devices monthly. Annual growth is about 129%.
Google is lining up an army of assistant-enabled products. Your digital assistant on your phone can book travel for you, it can make restaurant reservations – and Google is forging relationships with retailers like Walmart and Home Depot to do voice ordering.
Apple is coming out with the HomePod. At this time, though, it has a lot of limitations. For instance, it can only stream music from Apple Music, and not from other services such as Spotify.
There are no current monetizations of voice search – but it’s probably coming. As prices of voice-assisted commerce devices come down, it will certainly become more accessible.
Voice is another touchpoint of the customer journey, and by 2020, 50% of searches will be voice search.
Here’s a checklist for optimizing your brand for voice search:
- Create content in a conversational manner
- Implement structured data
- Be mobile friendly
- Be secure
- Build with page speed in mind
- Manage reviews and ratings proactively
- Manage your overall data footprint
- Build a unique persona
Things to consider before investing in voice:
- Can your product/service be adapted for an audio platform?
- Will potential customers be able to grasp what they are buying without pictures/visual cues?
- Is your product an essential item that is regularly ordered?
- Is your target audience likely to be an early adopter of voice-enabled devices?
- Can your brand generate quality voice content regularly?
The voice search revolution is coming. Are you and your brand prepared?
