The demand for voice assistants has been on a steady rise since Apple pioneered Siri in April 2011. From Google’s assistant to Amazon’s Alexa, the concept has really taken off, and now you seldom see new companies without their own versions. But what implications does this have for a business like yours? Well…
Smart Speakers are Taking Over
While initially,iPhone holders had to use their phones to activate Siri, they know are able to use her from multiple devices.
Whether that’s for planning exercise sessions, calling up friends, or even listening to Pink Floyd.
And it seems like Amazon were the first to act on Apple’s initial success, evident when they launched their first such device in 2014 dubbing it the Amazon echo – a hallmark of it’s own.
Yet, as new and more advanced forms of smart speakers have been created and released from the likes of Apple and Amazon, so has the demand for such products.
10% of UK households already own a smart speaker, with OC&C Strategy Consultants projecting the growth to hit 50% of UK households by 2022. These are big numbers.
Now while this might not be that important for your business, what does matter is voice purchases are set to spike from £0.2 billion to £5 billion in the next four years – the kind of fluctuations that could be hazardous for your own company, and others in the same field.
Voice Search Optimisation
Such a rise in demand will also potentially see new ways of optimising for search emerge.
The tricky thing for companies will be trying to rank in voice search, especially since there are no page ones with 10 organic results.
There is only pole position and in a ‘winner-takes-all’ market, that’ll make it all the more difficult to rank.
The road to success could, therefore, be found through satisfying user queries. All the ‘I-want-to-know’, ‘I-want-to-go’ and ‘I-want-to-do’ moments will be key, and you’re going to want to optimise results for those common terms first.
Preparation for this will involve you already having answers to such questions on your site, including any naturally-occurring questions customers may ask.
Further down the line, brands will need to develop a “skills” strategy, alongside their other strategies.
If you want to be ahead of the game, knowing that smart speakers will be tailored to requests around turning lights, changing thermostat temperatures and ordering or looking things up will also be key.
Headache just thinking about it? Have a relaxing cocktail! Not sure what to go for? Don’t worry – you can consult Siri. It’s a long island iced tea you want? You can buy all the ingredients from your local store, only a seven-minute walk, already tracked out by Siri. Feeling adventurous?