No Killer Nanobots, Yet: The Future of A.I. Marketing

The Outlook of Voice Search

Voice search is the wonderful result of voice recognition software, a branch of artificial intelligence (A.I.), that allows consumers to speak to their technology and have the technology listen, respond and act. Measurement company, comScore predicts 50% of all internet searches will be voice-based by 2020.

To some of us, home-based A.I. machines like Alexa and Cortana seem too foreign to ever adopt, but take a look at your iPhone or Android phone — systems like Siri have been helping us for almost a decade. Even now, 40% of adults use voice search once a day. And those early adopters of Alexa and Cortana are making way for majority cohorts, including yourself.

Voice Search for Business

Looking at it from a business perspective, investing in voice search optimization by curating your web copy can help you in those early adopter searches and place you ahead of the curve as voice search becomes more prevalent. Whether you’re a small business or a national/international company, voice search optimization can provide a unique opportunity to supplement your overall campaign strategy.

Benefits to the Consumer

Ease of use, especially on mobile devices
Quick and relevant answers
Audience accessibility

Benefits to Your Business

Push traffic to website for more information
Valuable in hyperlocal marketing/targeting
Drives highly qualified leads

The Origin of Voice Search

The idea behind voice recognition software has been around for decades. Research credits Bell Laboratories’ 1952 Audrey system as the world’s first form of voice recognition technology. And since then, researchers and inventors have been hard at work modifying and perfecting voice technology. In fact, 2017 marks the “year of voice search,” according to Forbes Magazine.

Because voice search requires people to speak into a device, the way in which spoken search queries are expressed differ from when they are typed on a keyboard. The difference lies in the tone and length. When speaking, people tend to use a conversational tone with longer sentences, whereas keyboard searches are shorter, often with incomplete phrases. Research shows that people speak 150 words per minute while they type only 40 words per minute.

An example of the search differences:

Voice search: “Where is there an Italian restaurant in Downtown Orlando?”
Typed search: “Italian food Orlando FL.”

This difference has strong implications for the way digital content should be written going forward. Namely, content needs to be written with the 5 Ws in mind (who, what, when, where and why). And it needs to be written in a way that answers those questions explicitly.

A seasoned digital marketer can determine what answers consumers are searching for so that, with the help of an SEO-focused copywriter, you can cater your website content to answer the right questions.

The widespread consumer adoption of voice search is approaching quickly. Don’t be left behind in the future of search. Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service advertising agency that specializes in Orlando web design services. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to deliver powerful, responsive websites that are specifically designed to be seen first in search engines. Reach your target customers in the right places and establish highly qualified leads with a dynamic and accessible website. Your web design and development goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com