Alexa, What is the Future of Marketing?
Smart Speakers, Let’s Talk Volume
Voice-powered smart speakers like Google Home or Amazon’s Echo will be installed in more than 55% of American households by 2022. This industry, which earned an estimated $1.4 billion in 2016, is expected to reach more than $5.5 billion by 2020.
More than 20 million units were sold last year signifying that smart speakers have the potential to become more than your target audience’s personal DJ, smart home control, or weather reporter, they may be the key to unlocking the ultimate personalized marketing experience.
comScore forecasts that over half of all search will be via voice by 2020 and experts predict that this may be the greatest opportunity for marketing, as ad spending in this sector is expected to reach $19 billion globally by 2022. So what is the way to have your brand’s voice heard by Google or Amazon, the two companies that make up more than 94% of the market?
The answer may be optimizing your brand for organic search followed by aggressive ad auction bidding. Companies that are satisfied with ranking somewhere on the first page of visual search engine results will now have to truly compete for that number one spot. Smart speaker users are not going to wait to listen to a series of advertisements when the device is designed to generate answers in a timely manner.