8 Ways Voice Technology is Impacting Content Marketing
The digital assistant is now a growing trend in many advanced countries. More millennials are beginning to move away from traditional online search methods. They are no longer typing long or short tail keywords into search engines. Rather, they are using voice-enabled apps and technology to search for information online.
According to CamScore and other research reports on voice technology, voice-search will gain more popularity by 2020 with almost half of all searches being conducted by voice.The implication of this trend is that many business owners would have to re-adjust their marketing content to suit their target audience who are also likely to be in on the trend. The reason for this is because search engine optimization (SEO) rules would also upgrade to be highly inclusive of the needs of voice technology users. SEO determines the kind of content brands are expected to create and how they create this content if they want their business to remain relevant.
Brands now need to become aware of why their target audience is using this voice technology and how they use it. If you own an online brand and would like to create marketing content that is more suited to voice technology, it would be wise to involve an SEO marketing agency. They will guide you through the necessary changes and create voice technology-oriented marketing content for your brand. What are the ways this voice technology would impact content marketing for brands? Take a look at the following 8 ways.
1. More focus on creating conversational content
Voice searches are very conversational compared to the traditional search methods, that’s why a lot of voice search queries entered use the “5Ws and H” (who, what, where, when, why, how). Brands would have to create conversational contents around the possible questions that millennials might have about their products or services if they want to increase sales. What are the questions that your target audience frequently asks you? This is a good place to start weaving content around questions that will educate the brand’s target audience and spur them to make a decision to buy.
2. Quicker adaption to SEO and search engine algorithms
Changes in marketing content led by voice technology must be ‘voice-search optimized’. Content pushed out must use long tail keywords with very detailed information that is error free. Content should be well-framed in a conversational tone similar to normal human interaction. Content should be well localized as most voice search queries are aimed at getting answers near their location. Then other basic SEO principles apply such as being mobile friendly, accuracy of content, speed and so on.
3. More focus on creating explanatory marketing content
In addition to creating conversational content, brands will also explore various content formats that will help them create more explanatory content. With visual content gaining popularity nowadays, businesses will have to create more self-explanatory visual content. Asides visual content, brands would have to ensure the content pushed out is either providing local-based information or providing general information with regards to their products or services. This is very important as a larger percentage of voice searches are aimed at getting specific responses.
4. Use of accurate data to improve user experience
Gone are the days where brands determine how people would use their products or services. Every piece of content pushed out must be focused on creating a great user experience for the target audience. When aiming for record-breaking sales, more effort has to be put into getting accurate data about the target audience in order to create a better user experience. This is very important if any brand wants to explore mobile marketing trends related to voice technology.
5. Use of schema for more precise content
Imagine having someone who speaks the language of search engines in your domain? That is what schema data does. It helps brands with websites improve on how their content is categorized by search engines so that it can readily pull out relevant content when it is needed. This is incredibly important for brands that want to rank high in voice search results.
6. Use of other tech platforms
Voice technology is not limited to Google’s in-built voice search tool available on most devices. Bigger brands like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and many others have also gone ahead to integrate voice technology into improving the user experience of their target audience by creating Virtual Personal Assistants. With these devices, these tech giants can also pull data from the world wide web and refer their target audience to relevant content that matches their voice search. Therefore, content pushed out by brands should not be all about ranking high on Google or other search engines but also on other tech platforms integrating voice technology. Brands with products can push for securing an online outlet on Amazon where they can display their products as take advantage of the opportunities that Amazon’s voice technology can offer them.
7. Use of multiple platforms for digital marketing
The digital marketing space simply cannot be exempt from the impact of voice technology. Brands now have multiple platforms from which to market their content – without solely relying on Google and giant social media platforms (like Facebook, Instagram & Twitter). The aim now is to target people using voice search on all these other platforms like Amazon, Apple and co, marketing content for these various platforms have to be specifically written for the tone of that platform. Just like marketing on Instagram and marketing on Twitter is different, in terms of content, tone, and approach; the same thing would apply to marketing on such voice search enabled platforms
8. More focus on building a recognized brand persona
With voice search gradually making its way to the spotlight, brands will have to look beyond their logos and other contents that make them recognizable to creating a captivating brand persona for the voice-based community.