Voice Search: Four Things Brands Should Know

People can speak four times faster than they can type. Voice search meets the human need to act quickly and easily. Smartphones still account for the majority of voice-based search queries. Digital assistants such as Alexa and Google Home as well as voice-controlled household appliances such as refrigerators (IOT) will continue to drive the intensity of use of voice search. For brands, these intelligent services and voice search in general represent a challenge that they should address early on.1. the one best answerVoice search radically changes the way in which results are made available to the consumer. They only receive one answer or result to a question. In contrast to conventional web-based searches, where many results are displayed as a list, voice search is about the a best Answer. Brands need to understand their customers' customer journey precisely in order to survive in a competitive environment. The aim is to position themselves along the individual contact points and offer the consumer useful information, products or services that match the context of the search query.2. digital knowledge management is a prerequisiteIntelligent voice search systems can only learn to understand the facts about a company if the brand masters its own information. The foundation of any voice search strategy is the organization and centralization of all public facts about a company's products, locations and employees. It is important to have a central "source of truth" so that updates can be made easily and information remains consistent across all platforms at all times. A new job profile is emerging to manage the entire process - that of the digital knowledge manager.3. data structuring as a core taskA brand's website and its digital information must be prepared using Schema.org markup so that intelligent systems can read the content and classify it as a relevant answer to a search query. When companies implement structured data, it leads to better answers to search queries. Those who position themselves well in voice search will gain the trust of consumers.4. trends in voice search: visual search, AR & VRBrands should keep an eye on new technologies and devices coming onto the market. Amazon, for example, is already positioning itself in the field of visual search with its Echo Look, Spot and Show products. These voice assistants have a camera or a display and thus become shopping advisors. Augmented and virtual reality will also soon be linked to voice search. This will make data from brand companies available for a completely new ecosystem of solutions, for example for glasses or flexible displays on clothing.