There are well over one billion devices featuring virtual/voice assistants. In the U.S. alone, 90.1 million adults utilize voice assistants monthly on their smartphones and 45.7 million on smart speakers, according to research from Voicebot.ai.
Consumers are already using voice assistants to conduct searches and pre-purchase research. And though many brands have started to optimize for voice search and virtual assistants, the landscape remains a bit foggier for small businesses (SMB). A recent study from Uberall takes a closer look at SMB attitudes toward “interactive voice marketing.”
The survey features 300 U.S. SMB marketers’ perceptions surrounding interactive voice technology. This includes attitudes toward Amazon’s Alexa, the Google Assistant, Siri and Cortana.
Almost half (48%) of respondents believe Alexa has the most marketing potential, followed by Google Assistant (29%). Siri was third with 17 percent. Alexa was the most downloaded app on Christmas day this year, following a record number of smart home devices sold throughout the holiday season.
The majority of SMB marketers (77%) believe that voice marketing is valuable for their organizations in some capacity, be it “very” (24%), “somewhat” (25%) or “slightly” (28%). Only 11% didn’t find voice marketing to be valuable at all.
Voice marketing is still a relatively new concept, leaving many SMB marketers wondering whether or not it’s actually worth the investment. In fact, 53% said better insight into campaign success and ROI would persuade their organizations to invest more in voice marketing.
Other wish-list items included more data for campaign targeting and personalization (47%), lower technology barriers to entry (33%), more alignment with my performance campaigns (32%) and deeper/wider integration into the over product ecosystem (28%).
Despite these barriers, some SMBs are allocating budgets to voice optimization, with 35% saying they will increase their investment in voice: 9% “significantly increasing” and 26% “slightly increasing.” However, nearly 40% of those surveyed are not doing anything with voice just yet.
At LSA19, Amazon Alexa Product Manager Vinod Sirimalle will how Alexa is being used in different contexts and the road ahead for virtual assistants.
