Marketing strategies exist nearly everywhere you look, and expanding sources of technology are certainly no exception. With the growing popularity of voice assistants in a variety of technological contexts, adapting marketing practices for their formats is a smart move for any brand.
What are voice assistants?
If you’re reading this, there’s a pretty good chance you already know that a voice assistant is a user interface that allows hands-free operation of a device. With this technology, the communication path only goes one way–from the person speaking to the devices–in order to search for information, complete certain tasks, and so on. As some of the most recognizable assistants on the market, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Windows Cortana have nuanced differences while all serving the same purposes.
How do consumers use voice assistants?
Beyond the simple actions of setting reminders, playing music, or just generally navigating applications, voice assistants play significant roles when it comes to online consumerism. In fact, 50% of consumers have made a purchase using voice assistance, and 25% of them would consider doing so in the future. However, the majority of these purchases are usually rather small and quick, needing little to no research or consideration before confirming.
This is not to say that voice assistants like our beloved Alexa, Google, and Siri have not been instrumental in the marketing of larger ticket items. By employing voice assistants as marketing tools, brands can use this widespread technology to establish trust with consumers and gain greater exposure.
THE TIPS
Know your audience
We all know how frustrating it is when we’re bombarded with ads that don’t appeal to us. This dislike can be so strong that, as consumers, 57% say they would rather watch an ad in the middle of a TV show than listen to an ad spoken by their voice assistant. In order to ensure that marketing dollars are well-spent, explore your company’s options in ad personalization–whether embedding them into the assistant’s answers, playing them for users based on their previous voice assistant usage, or even making ads interactive. These practices will be sure to boost engagement, and subsequently, drive sales.
Want to know how much effort to invest in your brand’s virtual assistant marketing? Gauge your audience’s usage! Understand that while 18-24-year-old consumers may drive adoption of the technology, those aged 25-49 appear to be using them most often.
Know the devices they use
With the rate at which technology is progressing, it’s no surprise that voice assistance exists on many different kinds of devices. And just as it is vital for marketers to know their audience(s) down to the little details, it’s equally important for preferred device type to be included in that knowledge. By knowing which devices consumers use to communicate with your business, you’ll have a much better idea as to where you can streamline your marketing efforts. An incredible 82.1% of voice assistant users rely on their smartphones, with 32.8% of the 400 respondents also using Amazon’s Alexa.
So, what does all of this data mean? Simply put, these specific areas of voice assistance should provide a seamless and engaging audio experience for your audience.
Adapt to the format
Explore the realm of existing virtual assistance by developing a branded “Skill” for Amazon Alexa. These customizable features are real goldmines for marketers and consumers alike, as they can grant users greater flexibility over how they interact with your brand. Better yet, your marketing campaigns have the opportunity to work outside of the monotony of traditional advertising structures by providing users with valuable information without overt self-promotion.
Make information accessible
Marketing for your brand doesn’t necessarily have to mean overt ads. Instead, a voice assistant could communicate information about your service or product when answering a user’s question, pulling from a FAQ page on your website, or embedding it in a voice application that the user engages with. No matter the source, this information should be consistent with your brand voice and just as compelling as an explicit advertisement.
Consider all the ways to use your brand’s voice
Take a moment to consider how much easier it would be to win consumers’ trust while having a full-fledged conversation with them. These kinds of conversational interfaces have yet to be fully developed, but brands should always be striving to emulate such an experience in their voice marketing strategies. Using natural language processing (NLP) innovations, voice assistants are increasingly able to interpret the intent of a search query beyond the basic inclusion of keywords and phrases. The potential impact? Personalized user experiences and greater connections with the brands they support.
How True Reply Can Help You Leverage Voice Assistants
True Reply provides a no-code platform designed for agencies and teams to launch and manage their voice applications with zero engineering. Because the platform handles so much of what an engineering team would normally have to build, when something unique is required, True Reply can help you leverage to achieve your vision quickly and cost-effectively. Get Started now or Schedule A Demo to discuss how you can achieve your ideal vision.