What is voice marketing all about?

Unsplash photo by cristian-cristian



We live in era where voice related assistants are all the rage. This hasn’t escaped the notice of savvy marketers who are now leveraging the power of voice enabled devices augmented by AI assistants like Apple Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. There are a number of components in voice marketing including podcasts, flash briefing and voice search optimization (VSO). It also includes sonic branding, that is nothing but the sound that your brand is known and identified by.

SEO has evolved to include devising VSO strategies that involve optimizing content to fare well in spoken searches.  Voice marketing is very important in today’s times because consumers prefer to search via voice rather than through the use of text. All the trends point to voice searching rather than conventional text based searches. The reason for this according to John Teoh is-


Customers Prefer a Smooth Interaction

 

The thing about speaking is that it is ingrained into our DNA. Not only is it easier than writing it can be accessed by all regardless of one’s age or education level.  Does it surprise anyone that voice searches are leaving traditional online searches way behind.


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Voice Is Going to Be the Numero Uno Interface With Regard to Content, Searching and Shopping



The beauty about voice searches is the fact that these can occur via any kind of voice enabled device.  Even as far back as January 2018,39 million Americans, amounting to 16% of the population had a smart speaker in their homes.[1]  By 2022 the number is expected to hit 50 million[2] and is expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future.  

It is not surprising, therefore, that 32% marketing organizations are using smart speakers like Siri and Alexa. Some 31% smartphone users worldwide use voice search at least once a week. Further, it is estimated that voice search for shopping will have become a $40 billion industry by the year 2022. According to Google, their voice search technology boasts a 95% efficiency level.

The rise of voice as the preferred method of online search is an outcome of the efficiency of the format as well as the sheer convenience it offers. As always, marketers have been quick to understand which way the wind is blowing and are invariably including voice marketing in their online outreach plans. Voice search usage is surging across age groups with both millennials and baby boomers taking to it. Understandably, the numbers of younger people using it is considerably larger than the older section of population, but the adoption level of voice search technology is quite impressive.

Voice Search is Increasingly Local

 

In John Teoh’s estimation voice search is increasingly being used to carry out local searches.  The major reason for this is that most of the searches being carried out are via mobile devices, rather than desktops. Quite naturally this has sparked immense interest in voice searches amongst local businesses.

Unsplash Photo by Rahul Chakraborty

 

How Does One Optimize for Voice Search

According to John Teoh optimization for voice search is something that marketers have to get a handle on sooner, rather than later. Here are a few tips about, how one might do it.

1 1. One should use natural sounding language as far as possible in response to customer queries.

2. 2. With regard to local businesses, it is important that they keep their Google My Business listings, as well as their ecommerce store in good order.

3.3. Things like schema mark-up as well as rich snippets can provide context to the questions as well as answers interpreted by the search engines.

4.4. The content itself should be optimized by making it contemporary, as well as by eliminating any content duplication.


Conclusion

 

According to John Teoh, the adoption of voice marketing is a major shift in the way that online outreach happens and the sooner that marketers study the phenomenon and tweak their marketing outreach strategy the better it will be for them. Voice marketing possesses the ability to reach out to one’s local market in a very organically efficient manner and thereby help raise a business’s bottomline quite substantially. With internet penetration growing by the year accompanied with a rise in greater use of smartphones and smart speakers the use of voice marketing will soon be ubiquitous.

 


[1] https://banfield.agency/our_blog/voice-marketing-strategy/

[2] https://review42.com/resources/voice-search-stats/

                                                  

                                                                                       





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