The Relevance of Content in a Voice-Driven World

Ok Google, is my brand ready to be discovered?

If you’ve ruled out voice search optimization as a fad, your brand might be in trouble.

In 2016, Google CEO Sundar Pichai dropped a huge marketing bomb on the crowd of the Google I/O Keynote. According to Pichai, one fifth of the search queries collected from its mobile app and devices running Android were initiated using voice controls. And even scarier is the fact that by 2020, over half of all search engine inquiries will be initiated using Alexa, Siri, and Google. This means that a new landscape has opened surrounding content marketing for voice. But is your brand ready for the change?

Stay on Top

If there’s anything we know about the marketing world, it’s that we love being on top of a trend. In 2017, Alameda Internet Marketing surveyed 39 SEO experts about their top three trends in the industry. Do you want to guess what happened? Voice search optimization came up repeatedly. And that was in 2016!

Just think about how many grandpas have started yelling at Siri when she doesn’t find what they are looking for! But the real kicker is that voice search is getting so good that Grandpa is yelling less and less. Google claims that since 2013, the accuracy of voice assistants has risen by 95%. It’s only a matter of time until your Apple Home Pod starts growing legs and takes on the resemblance of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or, Tom Hardy. Yes, please. 

But that’s not the only thing you have to worry about. In 2017, it was predicted by Voice Labs that 33 million “voice-first” devices would be in circulation. These devices are the ones that sit on your counter-top and react to you asking questions (think Amazon Echo Shows, Apple Home Pods, and Google Homes). This means that the market is booming compared to the delayed launch that the industry suffered. And people love using voice search so much, that they are even buying devices that are dedicated to it.

Alexa, Stick Around

Using Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Siri is going to stick. And why shouldn’t it? Who doesn’t love going hands-free? It allows you to do multiple things at once, get answers quicker, and manages their daily routine for them. In fact, people want more out of this feature.

A recent survey from Google found that many customers would love to use voice search to find info about promotions, tips, and information about upcoming events. Here’s the thing though. Voice searches often yield few results.

Instead of combing through hundreds of pages on Google’s native website, voice assistants are going to often yield three results. But often Alexa and her rivals will only yield one result, and it’s the one closest to the truth. Being at the top and maximizing our content marketing for that one single, mountaintop ranking is a huge undertaking. 

And we're here for it. Are you?