Overcome The Problem Of Voice Discovery – Strategies For A Voice-First Future

We are on the brink of entering a new technological era. A time where we will move beyond the need to use text interfaces to communicate with computers and instead, we will be talking to the devices themselves. With voice apps and voice assistants, devices will be able to understand and interact with us through voice technology.

That’s why voice discovery is going to challenge the established way of using smartphones to do most things online. In the future, most search queries will be done through voice commands, because using your voice to interact with a computer is simply the fastest way to get things done. As humans care most about convenience and saving time, having the option to use their voice to order any item over the internet enables a lot faster interactions than having to pick up the phone, type in the search phrase, and choose the right option amongst a given selection.

Technological innovation is always bringing up new challenges. Let us introduce you to the next big paradigm shift in user interfaces and which role voice discovery might play for your business in the future.

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Face the new technological reality!

While voice searches will pick up momentum, it will become increasingly important to build strong branding for businesses. Because only the brands that are strongly recognizable will be specifically chosen in a voice command. Having a strongly recognizable brand will be the difference in-between consumers ordering a six-pack of “beer” or a six-pack of “Budweiser” or favorite brand to be delivered to their doorstep.

As new media expert Gary Vaynerchuck puts it: “Voice AI is going to be one of the core pillars of our interaction. In a decade voice AI-enabled devices and infrastructures are going to become as crucial as the cell phone in the way we interact with technology.”

He puts further emphasis on the importance of making sure that your business and services will still be found in a voice-powered future. Meaning that it won’t be enough to simply have a great app or Alexa skill. Your business needs to be found in the new arising online space. For this, thought leadership, a strong focus on branding and a deep understanding of the newly arising customer interactions are going to be the central puzzle pieces for future success in online business.

Think of this emerging space as some kind of new Internet, where established Apps like Instagram or Spotify will need to find their new versions that are mainly focused on voice interactions and discoverability.

For businesses to have a shot at creating these new rockstar apps or voice services, they will need to work in close cooperation with the platforms they will be made available through. Understanding how Google, Apple, and Amazon will market these new voice services will help businesses tremendously to plan their voice-powered future.

 

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What are the core challenges of current voice discovery?

With over 100.000 Alexa skills available it is becoming more and more important to find ways to be discovered. Having created a great voice service and not being found is one of the biggest hurdles towards discoverability and customer retention that businesses are facing.

It is not only about your voice services to be found, but also about your brand, in general, that needs to be discoverable through voice searches. To engage with consumers, brands need to win “position zero” in search listings. With voice searches, you are either the top result or you don’t exist, because there are no lists showing multiple options like on Google’s text-based search engine results.

To win this all-or-nothing game, you need to become aware of the hundreds of thousands of possible questions, keywords, and queries consumers will ask that are connected to your market and brand. Knowing which keywords and content to build out and finding the right structure will become crucial to excelling in the upcoming online marketing challenge of voice search discovery.

Another challenge lies in the fact that voice control is great at specific requests with a specific answer but less advanced at more open-ended conversations. For this, layers of descriptive tags must be added to any content that needs to be found without a visual interface.

 

How can you make the most of the new voice discovery paradigm?

The rapid growth in usage of both personal assistants and voice search means that it’s more important than ever to understand how search engines provide predictive answers to our questions.

To make the most of voice’s navigational potential a “voice-first” approach has to be taken into account. Establishing new platforms that make content broadly discoverable through voice will be a core aspect in helping voice discovery to mature.

While brands might be trading some control over their services when cooperating with the new gatekeepers like Amazon, Google or Apple it might be the only way into the living rooms of their consumers. That’s something some brands might be wary off, but if executed correctly, it could make for a very strong market positioning right from the start of this new voice era.

To make this transition as smooth as possible for your business, we at Onlim are offering unique solutions around voice and AI. Click here to find out more and let us know if you have any questions – we’d love to help.