According to new data from Edison Research more than 53 million Americans currently own smart speaker (Amazon Echo, Google Home, etc.). That’s a year-over-year increase of 14 million people (36%), making smart speakers and voice assistants some of the fastest adopted consumer technologies in history.
( Watch as Edison unveils their new research on smart audio )
More than 53 million Americans now own a smart speaker Click Go To Tweet
As for the frame of reference, approximately 31 million Americans currently read a newspaper every day of the week. And while the newspaper’s readership had been declining for quite some time, even at its absolute peak 1973, 63 Millions of Americans read a newspaper every day .
So today, right now, the number of people who regularly use a smart speaker in the United States is far behind the number of people who consume a daily newspaper in this country…. however.
There’s been a lot of talk about the rise of voice search and voice-enabled content, but if there’s still something to say, given the size of the audience and current/future capabilities of these technologies.
Table of Contents
Can you hear me right now?
That’s why I’m so excited to announce it Persuasion & Conversion now disabled social agent partner of Voiceify The world’s first voice experience platform.
Voiceify enables our strategy team to brainstorm and create winning voice-activated content for Amazon and Google devices with minimal cost and complexity. We’ve built a lot of proof-of-concept for our clients and will feature more case studies and examples of voice assets here at the Convince & Convert site.
Why voice?
Here are some more stats to explain why we’re hard at work developing voice content for Our customer:
50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020
50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020. Click to Tweet
72% of smart speaker owners say it’s part of their daily routine
72% of smart speaker owners say the device is part of their daily routine Click to Tweet
Over the past year, smart speaker users who own two or more devices have gone from 38% to 52%
Within the past year, smart speaker users who own two or more devices have gone from 38% to 52% Click to Tweet
In addition to the freestanding smart speaker, Amazon and Google are working on embedding voice content technology in a range of other devices, including vehicles, Bose speakers, Sonos speakers, watch radios, Chrome browsers. , and many other devices , much more . We will be surrounded by voice interfaces and SOON.
Business executives are cherishing the voice
A recent survey of business decision makers by Adobe found that 91% are preparing to make a significant investment in voice and 44% plan to release a voice app in 2019.
Adobe suggests that much of voice application development will be commercial. No wonder they have a huge foothold in e-commerce and related fields. And today, their research shows that most voice programming is being sponsored by mobile apps or the Internet of Things department at major brands.
But at Convince & Convert, we believe voice can easily become a staple of another corner of the business: content marketing.
There are two factors that every brand and business must compete on in terms of content and voice convergence.
1. Why Voice Needs to Be Part of Your Content Marketing Program: Engage with Consumers
The first is the opportunity to increase customer engagement using voice-activated content. The reality is that consumers are using websites less overall and are more dependent on social networks, user-generated content, and third-party information aggregators.
Presenting engaging and Youtility-oriented voice-activated content to consumers opens up a whole new avenue for engagement. It’s an opportunity to move away from the expensive and often cumbersome website, as well as the social media playgrounds that increasingly require advertising budgets to reach customers.
Done right, voice-activated content is the most accessible to consumers. Easier than a mobile app (seeing to know, hands free!). Easier than a mobile site. Easier than email. Easier than video. Today, in the early stages of voice strategy and development, most of what’s in the Alexa Skills and Google Actions folders is fine; the same way the first websites (some of which I built) were fine, and the same way the first mobile apps were fine.
In conjunction with Voicify, we aim to help our customers create really useful, useful, interesting content on these platforms. And as technology (and the Skill/Action discovery process) improves, I believe that voice-activated content strategy and corresponding programming will become optional for B2C and B2C brands. B2B.
2. Why voice needs to be part of your content marketing program: Voice search and the land craze
The second reason voice is an important part of what we are working towards and the growing importance of voice control search engine optimization . With half of all searches being voice searches next year, what Google/Alexa/Siri/Cortana presents to searchers will be a huge business driver.
Today, when you do a Google Search, you get about 10 options on the first page, plus some multimedia options and maybe some reviews. Of course, it’s best to be first on the search engine results page, but if you’re on page one somewhere you’re in pretty good shape. But with voice search, there is ONE and ONLY winner. Alexa won’t give you 10 options. You get one. In the world of voice search, you win or you are invisible.
How do you win? Voice-activated content on Amazon and Google devices is served using a “request phrase”. It works like this: “Alexa, give me some digital marketing tips.” Alexa’s first stop in assisting people is finding their own Alexa Skills Store (this is true for Google Assistant, Cortana, and will also be true for Samsung Bixby). When it finds a skill that can provide an answer, it recommends that skill to its user. “Jay, it looks like Convince & Convert can answer your question, do you want to activate this skill?”
Amazon allows multiple calling phrases. As a result, many brands may have “digital marketing tips”. If this is the case and no owner is specified in the query, Amazon will select the app based on a match in the “CanFulfillIntent” data stored in the app (metadata and not visible to users), consumer reviews, and usage. As a result, app quality has an important impact on visibility (like with most content and SEO).
Like typing an address in the URL bar for a website, there’s a direct call model as well. For example, if you say: “Alexa, ask Oracle for digital marketing tips” then the Oracle voice app will launch. This is an extremely important concept that brands must understand as they will be responsible for the perception in this channel and how they are “called” by what terms.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? But here’s the really important part: Google doesn’t allow multiple calling phrases. As a result, Google, the company that considers voice content and voice search so important that it almost exists for their future in the post “web” world, is creating a craze. gold on voice content. No different from domain squatting, there can only be one “digital marketing tip” on Google and the clock is ticking.
What type of content should you create for voice?
Just like early websites and early mobile apps, use cases for voice-activated content are constantly evolving and being discovered. But today, consumers mainly use smart speakers for questions and answers, music, weather, etc.
So for 2019, most of the voice-activated content we’ll be creating for customers will be rooted in information, usefulness, and Youtility. As consumers get more comfortable using smart speakers for more complex API-driven interactions, we’ll add layers of character and nuance to what we’re doing with trigger content. voice.
And while buying with voice is at the bottom of the list in terms of smart speaker functionality, research from Voicebot and Voiceify shows that 26% of smart speaker owners have made at least one purchase on these devices. . Using the Edison Research numbers of 53 million American owners, you get a group of almost 14 million Americans who bought something through a smart speaker. Not big, but certainly not small.
26% of smart speaker owners have made at least one purchase on these devices. Click to Tweet
Google’s own research shows that consumers are quite excited about receiving content from brands through these devices, especially when that content is seen as useful in one or more ways. They found that 52% of smart speaker owners wanted information about deals, sales and promotions. 48% want personalized information and tips. And 42% want information about upcoming events or activities.
52% of smart speaker owners want information about deals, discounts and promotions. Click to Tweet
One of the developments that will help dictate the use cases for voice-activated content is the growing popularity of displays on smart speaker devices. First and second generation devices are audio only. As a result, a large portion of smart speakers in today’s homes and offices lack an intuitive interface. However, the new one Google Home Hub and Amazon Echo Show 5 Full-featured, with a lovely video display, solid speakers, and touchscreen, for under $100.
As such, we expect the next wave of smart speakers purchased by consumers to be mostly multi-modal (audio + visual + video), opening up more opportunities for engaging content marketing and Interactive experience including commerce.
Voice selection
I have been involved in digital marketing since 1993. I have seen this movie before, when it was called “website”. When it’s called “email”. When it’s called “mobile app”. When it is called “SEO & SEM”. And when it’s called “social network”.
Next was the voice, and now it is. It won’t replace anything. I hate claims that X will “kill” Y. Because it never does. 31 million people – myself included – still read a newspaper every day. So voice won’t make your website unnecessary or put Facebook out of business.
But the numbers don’t lie. Voice is easy to use and effective. And B2B and B2C consumers LOVE it. The train is speeding up. It’s time to start. To be here to help if you want.
