Voice Assistants in Marketing Communication

By Published On: June 12th, 2019Categories: conversational ai in marketing, voice & assistants

The distribution of voice assistants is increasing at a rapid pace. Juniper Research estimates that eight billion voice assistants will be in use by 2023. The generated revenue is also increasing rapidly. In 2023, around 80 billion dollars are expected to be generated with the help of voice assistants.

Thus, voice assistant users are a target group with purchasing power that is constantly gaining in importance for companies and should not be neglected in marketing communication.

This article shows you three important changes that you need to keep in mind in order to be prepared for using voice assistants in marketing communication.

 

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Are voice assistants the right tool for your company?

You should clarify in advance whether this communication tool is important for you. Although the market for voice assistants is constantly growing, voice assistants are not suitable for every use case.

You need to ask yourself which marketing functions you can improve with the help of voice assistants. Your evaluation should focus on customer benefits. For example, a voice assistant is an excellent way to inform users about a specific topic, to position yourself as an expert in your industry, or to help with customer service requests.

Make a list of possible use cases as a first step. If you decide that voice assistants are not the best option for any of the use cases, focus on other communication channels.

If you conclude that this communication channel is right for you, you should be prepared for the following changes:

 

Relevance of organic search results

Ranking on the first places on Google search results has been a popular method for marketing managers to direct organic traffic to their own website. Not so long ago, Google has started to display Featured Snippets. These are displayed in a box before the actual search results and represent a short answer to the search query. This content is also used for voice search results.

When you’re doing a voice search, it’s not enough to be on the first page of the search results. Only the top search result is read aloud to the user. Thus, all further rankings become worthless. Marketing managers must be aware of this change and produce targeted content that ranks as Featured Snippets via voice search.

 

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Rethinking the content production process

The search behavior of users when using a voice assistant differs from search behavior via a browser. For example, users’ inquiries tend to be longer with voice search. It is more likely that they will use a complete question instead of just a few keywords.

This needs to be taken into consideration for content production. Companies need to think more carefully about what problems and questions a user can have when turning to a voice assistant and in what situations these questions can occur.

One example is the Alexa Skill of the dog food manufacturer Purina. Dog owners and everyone who wants to become one can use this skill to ask Alexa questions about dog keeping tips or the selection of a suitable dog breed. The questions go far beyond dog food and are designed to serve dog lovers as a comprehensive source of information.

 

Personalized communication

The use of voice assistants makes it possible to obtain detailed information about the context of a search query. For example, you can see whether a user is asking a question at home, in the car, or on a walk and adapt the answers to the situation.

Voice assistants can also distinguish between different users based on their voice. This allows previous searches and preferences to be considered. In marketing communication, this can be used to provide users with targeted information and offers that correspond to their previous behavior.

In addition, using voice assistants in marketing communication enables a natural course of conversation. As with talking to an actual human, the user can ask his inquiries as complete questions and receives an answer. This feels much more natural and improves the overall user experience.

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