Use a voice experience (Alexa Skill) as your hands-free homepage. It’s a differentiator. It’s accessible. It’s fast. Here’s what you need to know about voice marketing today and tomorrow:
Marketing Trends Follow Technology:
How Brands and Companies Have Marketed Themselves the Past 40 Years
โ๏ธ 1980s-90s: “Call now, operators are standing by! 1-800-xxx-xxxx.” –> Phone
๐ฌ 2003: “Visit us on the Web at www.[brand].com.” –> Website (desktop)
๐ป 2013: “Like us on Facebook!” –> Early social media
๐ฑ 2017: “Download our app: [QR code]. Follow us on social media @[brand].” –> Web 2 / branded apps and mature social media
๐ฃ 2020s: “Alexa, open [brand].” / “Ask Siri about [brand].” –> Voice-first
Next gen marketing:
Instead of only giving people your dot com or URL like everyone else, give them your invocation phrase which opens your “voice website” or custom Alexa Skill. Or provide your regular dot com URL and your invocation.
That way you’re giving people options, like Peter Lazaroff says. Because everyone consumes information differently, whether by reading, watching, listening, or a combination.
Stats about how fast we speak, type, and listen (words per minute):
The average person:
- Speaks 110-130 words per minute
- Types 38-40 words per minute
- Has the mental capacity to understand speech at 400 words per minute
The reality is that technology has shortened our attention spans. Speed and convenience are key to getting your message heard. Podcasts and mini-podcasts, voice apps like Alexa Skills, and audiograms are excellent additions to your marketing mix.
Why is voice an important option to give your audience?
- Voice is human, intimate, and natural. From a marketing perspective, consider that:
- Brand affinity is built in the subconscious.
- We process sound 10x faster than visuals.
- Music, sound, and memory live in the same part of the brain.
- Voice is the ultimate convenience and accessibility across age groups
- Voice is the operating system of the fastest adopted consumer device of all time (the smart speaker)
What is an invocation (phrase to open Alexa Skills)?
An invocation is the phrase that launches and enables your Alexa Skill, which is a custom app controlled by voice. Alexa Skills are available on smartphones in the Amazon shopping app or Alexa app, and on Amazon Echo speakers, Fire TV, Kindle Fire, Alexa in the car, and more.
WealthVoice is a CMS (content management system) for Alexa Skills, like Wix or Squarespace are a CMS for websites. You can claim your brand’s invocation and control the voice content on your hands-free homepage by creating a WealthVoice skill.
Example invocation phrases (open a hands-free homepage / Alexa Skill):
- “Alexa, open Plancorp Perspective.” –> Plancorp Alexa Quick Link
- “Alexa, enable Future Proof.” –> Future Proof Festival Alexa Quick Link
- “Alexa, open Snappy Kraken.” –> Snappy Kraken Alexa Quick Link
- “Alexa, enable Framework Podcast.” –> Carson Coaching – Framework Podcast Alexa Quick Link
- “Alexa, launch WealthVoice.” –> WealthVoice Alexa Quick Link
Summary:
When marketing your business or brand, your website is still table stakes but a hands-free homepage is what’s next.
If you look at the patterns of the past forty years from phone to web to mobile to social and now voice, it’s clear that new technology replaces or appends the old when it comes to the most effective marketing and advertising platforms. It’s just a matter of how long you wait to get there.
