“How should I adapt my inbound marketing strategy for voice search?”. Now that’s a funny thing to ask Siri.
The nowadays emerging technology has obvious contributions to the evolution and growing importance of marketing. Among the latest technological trends, impacting the world of marketing, we have the worldwide embracing of voice assistants.
The adoption and growing popularity of voice search result in the disruption of traditional marketing and, implicitly, in more challenges to be faced by marketers.
What is Voice Search?
You’ve probably heard about standalone voice assistants like Amazon Alexa Echo, Microsoft Cortana or the ones found on smartphones such as Bixby from Samsung and Apple’s Siri.
With the help of machine learning algorithms and speech technology recognition, these assistants allow users to search for various things by simply pronouncing search commands, instead of typing them.
Why Do We Use Voice Assistants?
According to voice search statistics, on a worldwide scale, the most often mentioned reasons, to use voice assistants, are the following:
- Speaking is more efficient than writing: people can say 150 words per minute versus writing 40 words per minute;
- Precise answers: 28% of people think voice search is a more accurate way to find an answer;
- Faster results: 43% of people say that using voice search is faster than using a site or an app;
- Safe while driving: 42% say that using a voice assistant comes in handy and is safer while driving;
- Declared fans of voice search: 21% of search engine users just do not like to write on their mobile phone and for this reason they use voice search.
How Does Voice Search Impact Marketing?
Since it provides a pleasant user experience, the voice search technology is a great opportunity to change the way we communicate and process information. The continuous development of voice assistants will change the way search queries are done, triggering, among marketers, an outside of the box type of thinking.
However, besides the efforts required to adapt to these new voice search trends, the voice assistants will offer more insights to better understand the consumers’ behaviour. Here are 5 major ways in which voice assistants are impacting the world of marketing.
- Voice assistants and the SEO-related headache.
The utmost importance of traditional SEO strategies is threatened when it comes to optimizing content for voice assistance.
The launching and growing popularity of voice assistance force marketers into rethinking the SEO strategies to meet the need for long tail keywords to the detriment of text search queries which are shorter.
When dealing with content for voice search optimization, the focus falls on reproducing a natural vocabulary, adapted to the conversational tone of the user. For example, most of the questions asked by voice search users begin with the common “what”, “which”, “where”, “when”, unlike text searches in which questions are rarely met.
The use of voice search will become even more popular in the future years, the proof consisting in the incorporation of voice assistants in a wide range of devices. An obvious example is the Google Assistant which is now available on more than 400 million devices, even on TVs, smartwatches and headphones.
2.Bringing forward featured snippets.
The voice assistants will clearly impact the featured snippets. One evidence to support this fact is represented by Google’s featured snippets republished guide, providing useful insights upon how these interact with voice research implemented from different types of devices.
Since, by 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches, the marketers shall consider optimizing the content in various ways, integrating the featured snippets into their strategy.
3.Forcing marketers to tell better stories.
The rise of voice assistants pushes brands into thinking deeper about how are the services or products interacting with AI technology.
The text search involves some sort of a computer language with static queries, such as “Barcelona cheap hotels” or “Fashion discounts jeans”, while the voice search involves a natural tone prone to storytelling – “When I can book the cheapest hotels with the most amazing view in Barcelona”.
Therefore, unlike text search, the long tail phrases provide a better opportunity for brands to create stories, improving the interaction between consumers and their content. The marketers shall adapt or start scratching a new content marketing proposal focused on long search queries.
4.Clearly contouring the consumer’s intent.
Unlike the text search, in which the length of the used words is shorter, within the longer queries, the choice of words used provides insights upon the intent of the consumer. All these contour a clear image of whether one has made its buying decision or he is in the research phase.
If used accordingly, these outcomes can be a first brick in shaping efficient techniques to improve your sales.
5.Offering additional insights regarding the profile of consumers.
Since voice assistants are now able to differentiate between voices, they offer a more personalized experience. The voice recognition technology may provide instant access to one’s own account, own features and preferences on any type of device.
Besides the personalized user experience, the voice recognition gives additional insights on data like the number of living persons in a household, the purchase habits or preferences of each member and so on. Therefore, the voice assistants will give marketers additional tips to fill in that customer persona template.
6.Voice research remains an alternative.
Despite the rising trends, some marketing specialists believe that the voice assistants will not replace text searches as voice research is more of an alternative for certain situations.
For example, while driving or while looking for a contact in your agenda, you are tempted to use voice search since it comes in handy and offers a greater comfort in comparison with typing.
Final Thoughts
As the predictions reveal, the popularity of voice assistants will gradually grow in the future. This growth will trigger diversity in the marketing industry. The marketers are forced to adapt their content strategy to fit a broader range of channels in comparison to what they were used in the past.
The traditional website content strategy, involving the right SEO keywords and high ranking on SERPs is useless when it comes to voice search. A more natural language, longer phrases, along with a conversational tone, shall do the trick.
About the author:
Dave Schneider is the founder of LessChurn, churn reduction app. In 2012 he quit his job to travel the world, and has visited over 65 countries. In his spare time, he writes about SaaS and business at DaveSchneider.me.
