How to implement a voice strategy for your business
Updated: Jan 13, 2023
It’s no surprise that voice matters. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or experienced CEO, engaging with customers or clients via voice strategies is becoming one of the most popular and effective ways to put your site on the map.
If you’ve been considering a voice strategy but aren’t sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place! Read on for more about how to implement a voice strategy, how it can benefit your business and insider tips on maintaining a high-quality process.
What Is a Voice Strategy?
Voice implementation derives from revolutionary techs like Alexa and Siri. It works by listening to a voice and translating it for troubleshooting, general search inquiries, or navigating a website—creating a hands-free experience for consumers.
While it may seem like an up-and-coming medium, voice-first technology continues to grow at an overwhelmingly fast rate, with up to 41% of adults utilizing voice-triggered devices daily.
If you’re having trouble visualizing what a voice digital voice assistant is, a few examples are:
Smart home technology
Security systems
Alexa devices
Google Nest
Siri
Simply put, consumers love voice-activated technology. Using it to your advantage is crucial for efficiency and streamlining operational processes.
How To Begin Implementing an Effective Voice Strategy
The hardest part of initiating a voice strategy is starting one. Below are the steps you should take for the best voice assistant technology possible.
1. Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is essential if you aim to use voice technology for marketing purposes. A voice strategy can help market your brand because of its non-invasive advertising method. People do not have to stop watching their favorite movie or clip to hear about your business.
Additionally, ensure your conversational AI methods cater to your audience appropriately and that your technology actually works. An easy way to do this is to use SEO for voice activation to give customers the expected results.
2. Make a Plan
Planning is everything when it comes to forecasting the needs of your audience, and that goes for voice strategies, too.
You must devise a strategic plan and timeline for implementing your voice strategy. A few things to consider are:
How will the voice strategy benefit your audience?
What goals do you have for your voice strategy?
Do you want to cater to a specific voice-activation device or be available across the board?
Laying out and visualizing the desired outcomes of your conversational AI helps you decide what you want out of the process and how it can assist your audience. It’s a mutually beneficial tool!
3. Find Collaborators
After you create your plan, you need to find developers to devise your project. Try to find a group that aligns with your brand and desired outcome. For example, if you’re a big-box retailer, you probably don’t want a small startup developing your strategy.
Also, research your competitors. Check out their strategies and development partners to see what you like (and what you don’t). Make a list of potential collaborators and see what suits your budget.
If this isn’t your first rodeo with voice-automated technology, you may want to try developing multimodal strategies. These include interactive gestures, images, and reactions in addition to voice.
4. Do a Test Run
Before you launch your conversational AI, perform a test to see how it works. Take note of what goes well, what people respond to the most, and what needs extra TLC.
You may need to perform several tests before your voice strategy is ready for the market, and that’s fine! It’s better to have a strong, functioning processor rather than running into hiccups upon release.
5. Optimization
After your voice strategy goes live, analyze consumer feedback, usage, and demographics.
For example, if your intended audience was millennials searching for local restaurants, but your demographics lean towards older generations, you can optimize your program further. You can also analyze customer feedback (via survey or poll) to improve your voice assistant.
The key to keeping your conversational AI up and running is flexibility. Work with your developers to create a versatile and genuinely helpful program - and don’t be afraid of change.
Benefits of a Voice Strategy
There are infinite perks to implementing a voice strategy, but below are some primary reasons businesses and services continue to jump on board.
Accessibility
If you own a website or business, you want as many visitors to your site as possible. Voice strategy technology can help your site become more accessible for all, including visually impaired individuals or people who may not have typing skills.
Voice assistants also make content simpler to manage by doing away with swiping, refreshing, and navigating tabs. Instead, people state what they need from the site, and the AI reads it back. Potential industries that can benefit from accessible voice assistants are education and employment.
Cost
While developing an entirely new program can get pricey, it’s not the only route for voice strategy marketing.
If you design your own voice strategy program, you can keep your AI voice for as long as you need. This eliminates the need to perform expensive updates (unless they’re necessary) and promotes brand recognition.
Puts Your Brand on the Map
Speaking of brand recognition—voice strategies are one of the most effective ways to get your brand on the radar.
Think about it; we all know what Siri and Alexa sound like, even if we don’t own the devices ourselves. Their inflections and tones are instantly recognizable, making it easy to identify what operating system you’re dealing with and its capabilities.
Establishing a unique, clear, and eloquent voice for your conversational AI makes a user-friendly experience and increases brand loyalty.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re looking to make your site accessible, create brand loyalty, or keep your business on the map, a voice strategy is a cost-effective and straightforward way to get there.
Digital voice assistant technology is the way of the future (and the present) and will only become more widespread. Creating an effective voice strategy will keep you ahead of the curve and give potential customers more ways to access your site.