Comscore estimates that by 2020, 50% of every search is going to be performed by voice. But nearly 70% of U.S. shoppers haven’t yet worked with a voice assistant to find or get product details according to a survey recently done by personalization provider RichRelevance.
If you own a business owner, you are most likely going to experience one of two responses to this information, either you’re thinking:
1.”It is too early to put any significant amounts into a marketing budget on voice,” or,
2. “It’s time to double-down on my voice marketing and come out ahead in the race for positioning.”
Do not be afraid, however, there are definite actions businesspeople can take immediately to get ahead in terms of optimizing for voice search. This is where you’ll want to begin.
Consider sonic branding
Sonic branding isn’t something new. Look back at the early times where radio and television were first blowing up and you’ll see instances of this from the NBC chimes, Twentieth Century Fox (the tune that announced each new film from the studio) and the rumble of the Metro Goldwyn Mayer lion.
What you’ll find about each of them is they are not songs and they are not ditties with catchy verses. They are tones and sounds that are distinctly and almost entirely seen as a brand. The idea is that if you’re trying to make yourself recognizable audibly, you should not focus on taglines, words or even about musical structure.
Rather, use a simple yet unique sound that can join with every audio that you intend on including into your advertisements. With platforms such as Pandora, Spotify or any podcasts your company sees as an excellent fit for influencing your audience.
The key is to be consistent
These days, just 16% of Americans have a smart speaker — around 39 million individuals. However, that rate is 128% more than it measured in January of 2017.
Voice is encapsulating greater amounts of the search market by the day. So, the moment to optimize your approach to leverage it is not going to get better as time goes on like when it hits 50% in 2020. The best time is right now.
This is not just a search engine for consumers we’re talking about. It is not a place where users can see different streams to get information regarding your company. It is the means by which an in-home assistant can present a result people will listen to which is why the assistant’s AI has to recognize that the data it offers is 100% reliable.
If any conflicting content is out there concerning your address, hours, email, phone number or point of contact across various platforms, you are going to get placed low on the search results and your company will be almost entirely snubbed from voice-searches.
You should be completely consistent and thorough over every social platform, all review-based sites and any kind of online record. Additionally, you have to be constantly updating the data. Each time you alter anything within the terms of your company’s listing, each one of those websites and channels you appear on has to be changed and updated immediately to make sure anyone can reach you the way you intended.
