Voice search is growing at a rapid pace and it’s changing the way people search for and interact with brands, SEO strategies and the overall customer experience. There are already over 45 million voice-assisted devices being used in the United States, like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. This growth in popularity means one thing for businesses – jump on the voice strategy train or fall behind your competitors.
Just like smartphones in the hand of every person you pass on the sidewalk, voice technology isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, it is only going to improve year after year.
Adopting a voice strategy isn’t just a marketing tactic to adopt in order stay on trend but rather it is an opportunity to create a unique, personal and memorable customer experience with your brand. For example, when done appropriately, a voice strategy advertisement comes off as much more natural and seamless than that of a television or social media ad. It also lends way to create a more user-friendly customer experience because voice search interactions provide instant results.
Another reason it is important to incorporate voice search strategies into your digital marketing plan is because it drives changes in SEO best practices. Consumers interact differently with vocal search queries versus text-based ones. Why is this so? For one, voice queries tend to be a little longer which allows your brand to incorporate more keyword phrases into the messaging. Once again, voice searches provide instant gratification. Instead of having to search through an entire search engine result page, consumers are provided with one, clearly stated answer. This opens a whole new door of competition as businesses fight to be the top result.
Though the evidence to support this is not conclusive, one thing that seems clear is that businesses that utilize voice strategy will be found easier by customers. If you haven’t adopted a voice strategy yet, do not fear! Because the whole idea is fairly new, there are still opportunities to get a head start against your competition. On the other hand, if your competitors are already implementing a voice strategy into their marketing tactics and you aren’t, chances are those voice assistants are sending your prospects directly to your competition. Even more reason to look into adopting a voice search strategy!
One of the first things your business can do to get started is create Google actions or Alexa skills. There are currently over 2,000 actions for Google Assistant and 30,000 skills for Alexa that allow voice assistants to react to user commands and queries. Use the opportunity to really get creative with these, like Tide or Domino’s Pizza. With a simple question to a device, customers can receive advice on removing stains from Tide or order pizza from Domino’s without ever picking up the phone.
As it continues to grow, voice technology will become increasingly important for businesses and their digital marketing plans. Interested in getting started? Vista 14 can help you with all your digital marketing needs, including voice search strategy!
Simon. (2019, November 15). Why your Brand Should Have a Voice Search Strategy. Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-us/blog/voice-search-why-your-brand-needs-a-voice-strategy