Geoff Wolf, EVP Client Strategy
Oh my. I just read an article about the future of search marketing called “What Amazon Echo and Google Home mean for online retailers.”
The next thing I see is a UPS package on my doorstep with “voice shopping with Alexa and Echo” printed right above “Prime” on the packing tape that seals the box.
All of this makes me feel like I am drowning in new things to add to my marketing to-do list.
The hours of my day are already full with a lot of marketing opportunity. In addition, my tasks include endless day-to-day strategic and tactical efforts just to keep sales growing. I suspect the same is true for all of us in marketing. How in the world will we make time to prepare for voice enabled search and beat our competition to this attractive and demanding opportunity?
The article states that the “implications for retailers and e-commerce, at least in the near term, are still unclear…” I beg to differ! This may turn out to be as big a shift in consumer behavior as mobile marketing was a decade ago. Human behavior clearly reveals that if there is an easier way to do something, the masses will adapt very quickly to the new path. A less flattering way to look at it is that people are basically just lazy! Once we can simply “speak” into any device that can accurately execute a search for us, life on the digital planet will change dramatically. Sure, we are not there yet. However, it will happen before we can update our to-do lists fast enough to get ready for it.
We all must find a way—and find it now—to work smarter as we prepare for the future. As the article points out, voice search will demand new “structured” data practices as well as “conversational” key word strategies to rise to the top of the search results. Beyond the obvious new search practices to plan for, this change in search behavior will impact email and catalog planning as well.
Speech-to-text apps are becoming increasingly accurate, depending on the platform. I already respond to emails on my iPhone by speaking into voice recognition software. My computer can already read my email aloud to me at the click of a mouse. We need to be ready to deliver more marketing content via voice messaging.
Catalog marketing will also have to adjust, which applies to both page design and mailing strategies. The design of a catalog page can already drive different behavior depending on what our objectives are. We can deliver brand awareness, drive web and retail store traffic, and push sales of a product category or specific merchandise. We can do all of this with the stroke of an art director’s pen or a copywriter’s words. Soon, we will be driving voice search on our catalog pages. A back cover headline will ask you to “Treat Mom to a special treat! Just ask Alexa to have it delivered to her door!”
Web browsing data will soon inform us which buyer records are using voice recognition and which ones are not. This distinction will allow new segmentation of the mailing records by response rates and average order value.
This is extremely exciting stuff to ponder. It also presents a daunting challenge to figure out how we can be first in our competitive space to take full advantage of the new opportunity.
Learning how to work smarter does take a little time to figure out. As the work piles up, the first impulse is to work harder and longer or look for a fancy new app. At the end of the day, the good news is that we still have the best computers around—our brains. So, let’s get smarter in our approach. Let’s look at a couple of initial steps in this direction:
- Setting boundaries. Set a boundary that stops you from trying to do everything yourself and consider asking for help.
- Leveraging the talents of others. Some people are just more efficient, knowledgeable or practiced at certain tasks than we are ourselves. Consider reorganizing your available resources to utilize each team member’s particular strengths while you direct the work from a “general contractor” level.
- Practicing self-discipline. Force yourself to step away from the vortex of day-to-day deadlines and carve out time to think first, then act.
In the end, there’s still that thing that limits us. Namely, our own doubts that we can be smarter and find solutions. When all the cards are down, there is nothing left but ourselves. The good news is that we can trust our intuition and experience to create success as the pace of marketing accelerates into the future.
Bonus trivia question: In the previous paragraph, the words in italics are from a song. What song is it and who sings it? Here is a hint: “When you hear that song,” email me geoffw@jschmid.com the answer and the first two correct ones will receive a $25 gift card.
Want to make sure you are working smarter, not harder and staying competitive? Contact Geoff to chat about new marketing opportunities at geoffw@jschmid.com
Tags: catalog industry, catalog marketing, Customer Behavior, digital marketing, Geoff Wolf, human behavior, voice enabled search, voice shopping