Disruption in business and marketing happens in tranches. In the 80’s all businesses had some sort of pc/software strategy; in the 90’s they had some sort of internet strategy; from 00-04 it was some sort of search strategy; from 04-12 it was all about some sort of social strategy and from 2012 to now, most businesses are thinking about a camera strategy (primarily video) coupled with AR/VR. What about a Voice strategy? Many businesses (for some odd reason) are dismissing the rise of voice; something I believe can have more of an immediate impact when trying to capture the attention of the consumer.
There’s no denying it. In 2018 and beyond, marketing platforms for businesses will continue to become more and more noisy as companies compete for attention. Content quality will increase and campaigns will become better and better. That’s why it is crucial to strategically understand where the attention is and what forward thinking platform can maximize your exposure to become more visible to potential customers. I may be shooting myself in the foot for sharing this, but I don’t care. I want to share it because I genuinely want my followers, friends and network to win – plus it’s a huge topic that has been on my mind for a while now. It’s been on my mind so much that I purchased Google Home (Voice: Google Assistant) and Amazon Echo 2nd Gen. (Voice: Alexa) to test which device was better. Well, Amazon won. Why? Let’s break it down:
COMMUNITY
As iTunes did for Apps, Amazon’s Alexa is doing for Skills. What am I talking about? Creating a dynamic community and ecosystem. Alexa currently has 25,000 skills compared to 2.2 million apps on the iTunes store – therefore, visibility is high. Also, there are 8.2 million people with Amazon Echo, an untapped niche for many businesses. The ability to have existing and/or future customers communicate with your ‘skill’ keeps you top of mind throughout their daily routine. This ability makes you part of their day in a very unique, convenient and genuine way and can truly change the world. Google released a statistic stating that one in five queries made by search are through voice – so people are already accustomed to doing this. If that isn’t an indicator for how critical a voice strategy can be, I don’t know what else is!
EXPOSURE
I think Alexa is an incredible opportunity to win. As mentioned above, the exposure is crazy and the visibility is very high. You’re competing with 25,000 skills vs 2.2 million apps. If you currently engage with podcasting as a go-to marketing strategy and a focal point for creativity, then Alexa skills are the private villas in Italy, yet to be discovered.
The ones who act early and provide real value are destined to succeed.
SPEED
As a device, Amazon Echo is primarily a consumption tool via Skills (as mentioned above, a “skill” is similar to an “app”), allowing your audience to conveniently consume your content within seconds, keeping you top of mind. As mentioned in my intro, with so much noise, you need to ensure you are adding value to your segments with unbelievable speed or you will be forgotten – it’s as simple as that! A voice strategy does this for you. Your customers have very quick access to your content, making it a regular part of their day. Imagine, every morning your customer wakes up, makes coffee and simply says: “Alexa, ask Today’s Parent (a skill which I enabled aka downloaded to my Amazon Echo) what the tip of the day is.” Boom. Today’s Parent just won my attention because they were available as a skill and I can consume them easily, daily while making breakfast for my kids.
SPEAKER
Let’s put business and marketing aside for one second and chat about MUSIC. My wife is a huge music fan and my son (and soon my baby daughter) loves to move his little butt to the Backstreet Boys (Hahaha! Just like Papa). Music plays a big role in my family. We have a ton of fun with it and dancing is something we do together. So the quality of the speaker is very important – we want things to sound great! With that said, hands down, Amazon Echo’s speakers blow Google Home out of the water – sorry Google! Plus, Amazon Music is also great, and in my opinion gives Spotify a run for its money.
Back to business and marketing. Voice is by far the most natural way for us to interact (duh?). We like to speak and listen. Therefore, I encourage you to develop a voice strategy (if it makes sense for your business) before your potential visibility/exposure drastically decreases as more and more businesses and marketers consider developing an Alexa Skill as an effective strategy. So jump on the wave! I believe it will be a major platform shift for consumer attention.
At BizON, we definitely have something up our sleeves! What are you going do? Share, Like and Comment!