Definition: What is Voice Marketing?
Voice Marketing is the strategies and tactics used to reach your target audience through audio content and/or voice-enabled devices powered by AI voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri. Podcasts, Flash Briefing, and all branded audio including sonic logos, audio marks, and IVR phone systems are also considered voice marketing.
Voice Marketing definition:
Voice Marketing is the strategies and tactics used to reach your target audience through audio content and/or voice-enabled devices powered by AI voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri.
It includes recorded audio content such as podcasts, Flash Briefing, and all branded audio including sonic logos, audio marks, and IVR phone systems. An evolution of search engine optimization (SEO), voice search optimization (VSO) is an important aspect of Voice Marketing wherein brands, products, and services optimize content to be found through spoken searches.
Why does voice matter for marketing?
We are leaving the Tap, Type, and Swipe era and entering the VoiceFirst era, where computing shifts from physical interactions on handheld devices and keyboards to natural speech.
Stats about Voice Search and Mobile:
Currently, 41% of adults use voice search at least once per day.
30% of searches will be screenless by 2020 (Gartner). Thanks to the growing popularity of hearables and voice devices like Apple AirPods, Echo Buds, Google Home, and Amazon Echo, voice-first interactions will become ubiquitous. (Listen to our podcast with hearables expert Dave Kemp.)
Half of smartphone users engage with voice technology on their device (comScore).
The total voice searching user base among U.S. adults is 42.7% (Voicebot, 2019).
Voice marketing is the strategies and tactics marketers use to reach their audience through AI voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, often on smart speakers like the Amazon Echo.
Improvements in speech recognition technology have thrust voice search to the forefront of search marketing.
With speech recognition by AI voice assistants at 95%, on par with human speech recognition, NLP (Natural Language Processing) has advanced to the point where people are getting more tasks done through voice. This will only become more common because humans avoid friction in all tasks. Voice is the ultimate convenient mode of interaction, and it can be accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.
Alexa Flash Briefing:
Watch Emily’s video about Alexa Flash Briefing - a great way to get started with voice marketing with a mini podcast (a briefcast) on smart speakers:
Voice Technology Becomes Mainstream:
Voice controlled technology has officially moved out of the early-adopter phase and into the mainstream. Apple's Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant have become household names in a few short years, with Amazon Echo as the first mass market smart speaker that went on sale in 2014 with the first generation Echo.
As voice assistants continue to gain traction on smartphones and smart speakers, users will interact through voice more and more, with attention shifting to this medium. Voice will become the new battleground for user attention and it will be a top place to get information, place orders and shop, and consume content.
Marketing Implications - From Screens to Voice:
Attention is moving off screens and to voice. Much like we moved from desktop to smartphones and had to update our strategies and websites to be mobile, we need to think about voice the same way. But for the first time ever, we will not be computing in computerese (typing, text, and the language and interface of the machines). Voice is a unique departure and a true paradigm shift unlike anything before.
You are probably wondering what the return will be on tactics involving voice marketing. These tactics might include building a custom Alexa skill or a Google Action, launching a podcast or Flash Briefing, or investing in sonic branding. Read more here: What is the ROI of Voice Marketing?
Ask an expert.
30 or 50 minutes with Emily Binder.
Alexa Conference 2019: Live Stream, Takeaways, and Most Requested Chart about Smart Speakers
The Alexa Conference just wrapped. Get top takeaways, Emily’s short livestream interview with VoiceFirst.FM, and the most popular chart of the conference.
Smart Speaker Penetration - Most Powerful Chart
Several people have asked me for this chart from my presentation, How to Crawl into Your Customer’s Ear - The Alexa Conference 2019. Bret Kinsella’s opening keynote included it too, as did a few others. I did not create the chart but I’m sharing it from the publicly available Activate Tech and Media Outlook 2018 Slideshare. If you need to convince your boss that voice is a thing, send them this:
Smart speakers are the fastest growing consumer technology of all time, forecasted in 2018 to reach nearly 50% penetration in the U.S. in less than five years. This chart is tracking to be an accurate prediction. Chart courtesy of Activate, U.S. Census Bureau, World Bank.
Livestream - Emily Binder interview with Ian Utile for VoiceFirst.FM
Click to watch (01:39 minutes) or press play below:
Best takeaways from The Alexa Conference 2019:
#AlexaConf2019
Tweet from Brian Roemmele about my best voice marketing advice: you need a sonic brand ASAP.
Katie McMahon from SoundHound shared some great info about the power of Houndify and the connected car.
Our friends from Nebo Agency came up from Atlanta. Read Founder Brian Easter’s article: The Next Disruption: Voice Tech and the Buyer Journey
“When we have diverse tech teams, racial profiling and gender bias won’t even make it to production.” -Kesha Williams, Senior Software Manager, Chik-Fil-A (overall keynote speaker)
Brielle Nickoloff with Witlingo gets it: we have a pristine, quiet place with voice right now - so take advantage with marketing your brand early. It will get crowded like the bloody red sea that is the rest of the internet - fast. Brielle and I did a live audio Castlingo from the conference - enable the Emily Talks skill then say “Alexa, launch Emily Talks” to hear it.
Jen Lehner shared one of my favorite pieces of content via Brian Roemmele: David Bowie predicting the future in 1999. Powerful.
Notice that Alexa (Echo) isn’t the center of this photo. It’s in the upper corner. Peripheral. That’s where we’re headed: ubiquity of voice assistants. (My reflection on this slide from Paul Cutsinger of Amazon at The Alexa Conference 2019 - Chattanooga, TN).
#VoiceFirst Community and Thank You
It was great meeting so many of the smart, forward-thinking people who make up the #voicefirst community. It is one of the most exciting, supportive, diverse, and pro-women communities in tech. Thank you to Bradley Metrock, Peggy Kilburn, and the VoiceFirst.FM and Score Publishing teams for putting this event together. See you soon!
Keep Listening - Short Voice Marketing Shows to Enjoy:
Stay up to date on voice marketing on my weekly marketing podcast and daily <2 minute Flash Briefing.
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