Voice is the New Extension
If you are old enough, you may remember your first experience using the mouse for your computer. With the mouse in your hand, you no longer need to keep pressing the “enter/return” button over and over again.
And although the first mouse felt like you were holding a brick in your hand, it eventually became an extension of your arm. Today you are probably one of those brands that use tools like HotJar or Mouseflow to monitor how consumers move with mice on their websites and where they click.
This is a great way to optimize the user experience and help your Muslim consumers with their customer journeys.
That’s how we need to think about voice search and voice-controlled devices today. Voice is going to be the main controlling function of our interaction with computers and other devices in the near future.
…voice will soon be a primary way consumers connect with the digital world, and a primary way that digital marketers will connect with consumers…
Source: Jon Stine, Executive Director, Open Voice Network
Voice for Muslim Consumers
Today, and right now is the time we need to be thinking about how we can strategize for voice to give Muslim consumers a better customer experience.
Voice is already playing a major role in many of our lives. Think about it!
You can sit on your couch and turn on the television, turn the volume up and down and adjust the thermostat among other things.
Here are some amazing statistics about voice search from Findstack you will find interesting:
- About 33% of Americans use voice search features.
- 71% of consumers choose to conduct voice queries over typing.
- 75% of US households will own at least one smart speaker this year (2022).
- More than 50% of smart speaker owners use their devices daily.
If you are thinking that voice is probably more popular among younger consumers you might want to rethink.
According to the Voice Consumer Index Report, 2021 voice assistant usage is consistent across all age groups. The opportunity to leverage voice is not just for brands with younger audiences.
Using Voice for Brand Continuity
Now is the time to start thinking about the continuity and the sounds of your brand. You need to start strategizing for this new dimension of voice and start creating a solid “sonic identity” of your brand for Muslim customers.
By continuity, we mean using voice to get your customers through your front door and how you use voice to engage them once they are there. As a brand, you need to think of whether or not your Muslim customer is having an optimal experience in their buyer journey.
From podcasts and audio ads to the voice on the other side of the phone line, ask yourself: “Are they getting that consistency in sound?”
Maintaining brand continuity across channels not only visually but audibly is key to successful brand strategy.
Source: Sean King, SVP, Commercial Services, Veritone
Voice Consumer Journey and Business Opportunities
The voice consumer journey is similar to a regular inbound consumer journey with awareness, consideration, validation, and decision stages.
Consumers start by asking search engines very general questions through phones and other smart devices. A good example is someone driving down the highway and asking a smart device connected to his car where the nearest gas station, restaurant, or parking garage is.
This particular scenario would be an opportunity for brick and mortar businesses to optimize their business profiles on Google Maps and Google My Business. Looking at the larger picture though, you might be asking yourself what role do you play as a brand in all this.
The good news is that apart from these very generic queries that consumers make with voice search they actually look for products and services and even add items into shopping carts using voice.
Over 70% of voice users today are already searching for information about products and services. They are searching for local information… they are actually going on and finding out information about specific brands. That’s where the idea of these custom voices and sonic experiences begin to merge with this overwhelming trend that we are seeing in the world of voice search.
Source: James Poulter, Founder & CEO of Vixen Labs
Reach More Muslim Customers with Voice Search Optimization
Let’s now look at two of the most effective tactics to optimize your content to reach Muslim consumers who use voice search.
Optimize for Rich Answers
The following rich answer formats may require you to get some help from a technical SEO expert (for example to implement Schema markup on your site) but they are worth the hassle. These types of search engine result page answers get picked up by voice search very frequently:
Knowledge Graph – Indexes and presents facts about people, places, and things. See how to appear on the knowledge graph.
Knowledge Panel – Appears on the right side of the search results whenever we search for a business on Google. This information is derived from the knowledge graph.
Knowledge Box – Factual information coming from the knowledge graph but appearing just like a regular search result.
Featured Snippet – Appears on top of organic results above the ads with attribution to the original source; it provides users with quick and concise answers. Here’s all you need to know about featured/rich snippets.
Create Conversational Content
Voice search is a lot more conversational than traditional search. This means that you must start thinking carefully about restructuring your content in a layout that is more conversational.
A good example of conversational content is Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Including this format of content on your product pages and blogs is impactful because FAQs include question keywords.
Answers to FAQs are also relatively short. Both question keywords and short answers are prerequisites for voice search ranking. Also, the FAQ-style format is easy for Google to pull content from your website and display it as a rich snippet.
Another voice search best practice that you can try is using pointers to break your content into small fragments.
Creating conversational content is a pillar of voice search and you need to understand:
- The type of question keywords your Muslim audience is using.
- Your Muslim audience’s conversational style.
- The type of questions that they ask the most.
- The type of answers that best match their queries
Conclusion
More and more consumers are using voice to not only make life’s day-to-day chores easier but also to look for products and services you may be offering. It would be a mistake to think that this does not include Muslim consumers.
Don’t get left behind. Get the best out of your brand and product content by optimizing it for voice search. Most importantly, stay tuned to ground-breaking articles that will give you the edge over your competition. Sign up for the weekly Muslim Ad Network newsletter.
