Why 2020 is the year you need to create a Voice strategy

Welcome to the year of Voice — I for one am really excited! All you have to do is look at all of the devices that came out at CES and you’ll see what I mean. From washing machines to cars, most of the new products that were showcased have some level of Voice interactivity. The hardware is here and consumers are adopting smart speakers at a record pace. Businesses, not so much… yet.

What is Voice?

Voice is an umbrella term that we used to describe any interaction we simply talk to a computer device. Examples of voice interactions are a TV remote that allows you to change the channel with your voice, Siri or Google assistant on your smartphone or a new class of devices called smart speakers like Amazon Alexa or Google home.

I first heard about voice in the fall of 2017 from Gary Vaynerchuk’s podcast and YouTube videos. After doing some initial research, I saw the exact same pattern we saw with mobile less than a decade before. We all know what happened with mobile.

Since the introduction of Siri in October 2011 and Amazon Alexa in 2014, Voice-based devices have really become part of the mainstream. Smart speakers in particular have seen explosive growth, the likes of which have never been seen. 

Depending on the day of the week, and the source of the information, there are anywhere between 80 - 130 Million U.S. homes with at least one smart speaker. It is predicted that by the end of this year at least 50% of U.S. homes will have at least one device. Microsoft suggests that that number could be as high as 75%.

Voice assistants aren’t limited to smart speakers

One thing to note is Voice assistants aren’t limited to smart speakers. Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, Samsung’s Bixby and even Amazon’s Alea are available on smart phones. There is even a movement to add Voice interaction to existing mobile apps and even websites. The goal? To make it faster for people to find what they’re looking for or to complete their task.

Your audience is already using Voice search

One area where we see an immediate impact of voice is search. Regardless if you're searching on a smart speaker or smartphone people use longer phrases and more complete questions than when they're typing into a search engine. 

Pro Tip: If you’re not optimizing for a long tail search and working for position 0 or the knowledge graph, you and your content will not exist in this new world. When searching with voice assistants, it's one answer for one question. the user no longer gets a page of Blue Links to choose from.  

Right now, a good amount of the search engine results for Voice search actually comes from Wikipedia. This is largely due to the fact that wikipedia outranks most brand websites and there’s a lack optimized audio content at the moment.

Watch this video and you'll see what I mean:

Voice commerce is picking up steam

It also estimated that by 2023 voice Commerce or v-com is estimated to be a 80 billion dollar proposition. If you're involved with retail this is something that you can't ignore.

Based on behavior we’ve seen on Smart speakers we’re already seeing the beginnings of a robust path to purchase. Consumers have gone beyond simply playing music and setting kitchen timers and have started to ask these devices for product information, price comparison, and even competitive product info. We're even seeing purchase and reorder happening as well.

With consumer adoption as high as it is, now is the perfect time to take these platforms seriously and add them to your omni-channel marketing approach before your competition does. 

You want to create your own Voice Strategy, Now what

Not to worry, we have you covered. Susan and I go into all of this and much more in our brand new book called Voice Strategy Creating Useful & Usable Voice Experiences. We wrote the book to help marketers, strategists, and user experience professionals discover the opportunity that Voice represents. We also share our approach and strategic frameworks to help you create your own voice strategies. To learn more, visit www.VoiceStrategyBook.com or find the book on Amazon. 

We recently announced the creation of Voice Masters in collaboration with our friends from Vixen Labs. Voice Masters is a 6-week instructor led online course that teaches you how to create a Voice Strategy for your brand or for your client. The course is led by experts from the U.S. and England to give you an international perspective. To discover how you can be part of the first cohort, check out www.VoiceMasters.ai.