Statista says there were 4.2 billion voice assistants in 2020. In contrast, it’s predicted that this number will cross the point of 8.4 billion in 2024. Why do people use them so much? Because it’s convenient.
With the help of a voice assistant, people can gain even more control over their electronic devices. They can read news, play music, and carry out plenty of other tasks in no time by using simple voice commands. And, of course, they can look for things on the web.
In a nutshell, voice search is a feature that enables users to use voice commands to find something on the Internet, website, or app. It works through the automatic speech recognition system (ASR) that understands speech commands and translates them into text.
This functionality has been gaining momentum recently. Although it was introduced back in 2011, this feature was initially experimental. Today, it’s growing quickly, with 20% of all mobile web sessions already starting with speech-based queries, according to Google’s experts.
This is something brands and marketers should really care about in 2023, as the number of such queries keeps growing, and it is about to revolutionize the way consumers discover products and services on the web. And this is especially true for B2B buyers. For these busy consumers, voice search is becoming an effortless way to access information quicker and more efficiently. So B2B marketers should start adapting to this change ASAP.
How Voice Search Affects B2B Marketing
Now that you know what it is and why it matters today, you must be wondering how this kind of search is changing marketing in the B2B sector. All in all, this functionality affects marketing in three core ways:
The Way People Look for Information
Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a significant role in B2B marketing. Companies use it to get in front of their potential buyers and attract a wealth of organic traffic, which takes up over half of the overall web traffic.
Voice search is revolutionizing the way users are looking for information. Respectively, it’s changing the way companies must do SEO.
When turning to virtual assistants, users leverage more natural language and longer phrases than when typing. That is, marketers must optimize their content to a more natural tone and queries, and when comparing SEO software options like Ahrefs vs Semrush, businesses can gain fresh insights into working queries. To do this, you can leverage advanced SEO software that will let you get fresh insights into working queries. Check out the Top 10 SEO software for this purpose. This website reviews the best tools in the market to help you find the best ones for your business.
The Type of Content That Works
Apart from using natural, conversational language, you must make a few other changes to your content to make it suitable for speech-based queries.
First of all, you must work on conciseness. Google prefers to provide quick and accurate results to speech-based queries. Thus, it’s important that your content features relevant questions and provides specific and very brief answers.
The structure also matters a lot. For engines to be able to retrieve specific, snap answers to users’ queries, your articles must be perfectly structured.
On top of that, the information in your articles must be clear, concise, and easy to understand. And you want to be in the top results in SERPs or get into Featured Snippets because Google typically responds to speech-based queries with only a couple of results, either from snippets or from the top of relevant SERPs.
Personalization of the B2B Marketing Experience
Lastly, it’s worth noting that this technology doesn’t only make consumers’ lives simpler but also hides a number of perks for businesses. It has the potential to become a powerful tool for personalizing B2B marketing experience and engaging with your prospects in more meaningful ways.
First of all, analyzing speech-based queries can help you gain a wealth of insights into your audience’s intents, interests, and pain points. Based on these insights, you can offer your prospects customized information, solutions, and recommendations that they will appreciate.
Moreover, by analyzing your audience’s queries, you can better understand how your prospects behave and communicate online. This can help you tailor your messaging and overall marketing campaigns to ensure that they resonate with your prospects better.
Also, it’s possible to integrate this technology into customer support to deliver more efficient and personalized assistance to every client. As a result, this can help you boost customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
Strategies for Voice Search Marketing
Optimize Your Website
To help your website rank high for speech-based queries, you must focus on mobile in the first place. Currently, the percentage of global mobile traffic is 58.33%. That is, over half of Internet users look for information from their mobile devices, and if your site isn’t optimized for these devices, you might be losing a huge share of potential buyers.
When it comes to voice search, mobile friendliness also matters a lot. The number of smartphone owners is growing rapidly. Besides, smart virtual assistants are now built into pretty much every smartphone. That’s why most people perform speech-based searches using their smartphones, and if you want to rank high for their queries, your site must be mobile-friendly.
Page speed is another ranking factor that you must keep in mind. According to the Core Web Vitals, a page must load in 2.5 seconds or less. If you optimize your website to load faster, it will help you deliver better customer experiences and also rank higher in SERPs.
Finally, if you want to get recommended in voice search, you must focus on local SEO. Simply put, this is the process of optimizing your business for local queries. Think of it this way – when your prospect is conducting a voice search on the go, it’s very likely that they are looking for products or services to buy nearby. If you optimize your site for local SEO, such users will be more likely to discover you and buy from your company.
Optimize Your Content
Content plays a pivotal role in B2B marketing. It drives traffic, engages audiences, and has the potential to convert regular visitors into buyers. And speaking about voice search, your content is one of the primary factors that search engines will consider when ranking your site. So it’s crucial that you optimize it wisely.
There are several core tips that you should use:
- Keep a conversational tone – As was mentioned earlier, speech-based queries are very natural and conversational. Thus, if you want to rank high for them, your content must be the same. Use conversational language and tones. Incorporate conversational words like “I,” “We,” “You,” and so on. Also, stay away from overly complicated language and jargon. Instead, try to be casual, and don’t hesitate to add some touches of humor to make your readers feel like they are actually having a conversation with you while reading your content.
- Optimize for questions – Speech-based queries often come in the form of questions. That’s why you must find question keywords that relate to your business and incorporate them into your content. Ideally, incorporate such keywords into H2 and answer them briefly to aim for Featured Snippets.
- Use long-tail keywords – Apart from questions; users often use long phrases when looking for information using their voice. These long phrases are long-tail keywords that are much more specific and have a stronger intent than short-tail ones. Incorporating them into your content can drive more targeted traffic and enhance your conversions.
Keep Track of Metrics and Measure the Results
After you optimize your website and content for speech-based queries, your work doesn’t stop there. Just like every other marketing strategy, this one requires ongoing monitoring and improvements to attain the best results.
First and foremost, you should keep an eye on your voice search ranking and visibility. Regularly check how your website performs for different related queries and look for areas for improvement.
Another metric to keep an eye on is conversions. Track how many people visit your site, call you, make a purchase, or otherwise interact with your brand after finding it through voice search. For both of these purposes, you can use Google Analytics or similar analytics tools. They will help you see how well your B2B marketing tactic works and gain valuable insights for improving it.
Lastly, leverage tools like Google Analytics, Google Trends, and similar to continuously collect insights into trending speech-based queries, impressions, and click-through rates. This will help you consistently hone your strategy for the best outcomes.
Conclusion
Voice search is a new big thing in B2B marketing. More and more consumers are now using it to access information on the web faster and easier. And businesses must adapt to this change to stay competitive.
As you already know, this trend affects B2B marketing in several ways by changing the way people look for information and the type of content that ranks and by offering new opportunities for personalized marketing experiences.
Use the knowledge and strategies from this guide to enter the new era of voice search and ensure stable business growth!
Resources for further reading:
- Altitude marketing
- Yourmarketingpeople
Guest Author – Diana Ford is a digital marketing specialist with 10+ years of experience. Diana loves blogging and shares her expertise regarding digital trends, marketing techniques, search optimization, and business strategies.
