Have you ever been sitting at home, chatting on the phone or watching TV and suddenly the voice of she who shall not be named cuts through with “I’m sorry, I don’t know the answer to that”, or words to that effect? It seems to happen quite a lot. But why?

To the more suspicious amongst us, this is simply more evidence that home assistants are always listening to what we say. Some people insist that once your device has heard you talk about something you then start getting related ads popping up on your Google or social media feeds. Others take this theory yet one step further by predicting that assistants will start to take control and do things without being asked. The malicious side of this was explored in the recent thriller The Assistant, by S.K.Tremayne: “She’s in your house. She controls your life. Now she’s going to destroy it.”

To keep things in perspective, in this article we will look briefly at:

• What people use home assistants for
• New developments in home assistants
• How to include home assistants in your digital marketing strategy

 

What do people use home assistants for?

According to recent research by Smart Home Week, 57% of homes in the UK now contain a smart device. But what are these devices and what are people doing with them?

The two most popular home assistant devices are Amazon Alexa and Google Home. There are some other smaller products around, including Apple’s HomePod. But Amazon and Google currently dominate the market.

Many people just use their home assistant as a smart speaker. Amazon Echo and Google Nest speakers enable you to play radio and music, set timers for activities and use voice search. 

But perhaps one could argue that you only have a truly smart home if you also connect your smart speaker to one or more other devices. Some examples of these include:

• Smart plugs: toggle power on and off remotely.
• Smart thermostat: control home heating via an app or using your voice.
• Smart light bulbs: control indoor or outdoor lighting through your voice assistant.
• Smart home security: a range of affordable home security cameras and other devices.
• Smart locks: use technology to enter and secure your home.
• Doorbells: a video doorbell enables you to see and communicate with someone at the door. 

New developments in home assistants

The home assistant market is rapidly evolving. Some recent developments, and new trends we can expect to see during 2021, include:

• Wake words

Your smart speaker is now less needy about wake words. For example it is now possible to continue a related conversation with your voice assistant without having to repeat the wake word (eg “Alexa”). Ongoing developments in natural language understanding are making it easier to interact with your assistant.

• Skill resumption

You are now able to return to a skill or task even after a long pause or having done something else in between. For example if you have booked a food delivery or taxi, this can continue in the background whilst you use your assistant for something else.

• Increasing compatibility with devices and apps

Voice assistants are able to connect to an increasing array of products and other apps. This gives manufacturers flexibility to create domestic products that can interact with your assistant. It also means that web and app developers can integrate and link more easily to your home assistant, and enable voice notifications to be broadcast via your home assistant.

• Voice recognition

Your assistant is increasingly able to recognise your specific voice from other voices. It is also better at handling contextual variations – for example background noise – to provide you with a more consistent experience.

• Integration of touch and voice

There is a trend to bring visual and voice capabilities closer together. This could result in a wider range of items being able to control your home assistant. For example Google’s Assistant Connect platform is enabling developers to use technology such as e-ink screens and smart buttons to link to its home assistant.

How to include home assistants in your digital marketing strategy

So what implications do the above trends have for your digital marketing strategy? Are there ways in which you can harness the growth and extending scope of home assistants to raise awareness of your brand, increase sales, or improve customer experience?

Let’s look at five possibilities:

• Voice search

A couple of years ago we ran an article called Is Voice Search the Future? In that article, we included a prediction from ComScore that by 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches, and this does now seem to be the case.

So if you are not already optimising for voice search then now really is the time to do that. In our earlier article we include tips on how to do this, for example:

• Using conversational and long-tail SEO keywords;
• Understanding speech patterns;
• Ensuring your content is optimised for mobile;
• Using schema mark-up.

• Answer the questions people are asking

Search behaviours are becoming more conversational in general, but particularly voice search behaviour. The practice of being able to ask your home assistant a question in everyday language is becoming the norm for search queries. So to make the most of this, make sure that your SEO includes key information in a question and answer style so that it can easily be picked up by search engines.

• Provide regular information for the home assistant platforms

Many users of home assistants rely on them for essential information to help them plan their day, for example weather and traffic updates. If you can create daily tips on popular topics, or regular podcasts relevant to current and potential customers, you may be able to increase your brand awareness and attract some new followers through the quality, relevance and format of your content.

• Integrate your site and app with home assistant platforms

One effective way to integrate with Amazon Alexa is to use Alexa Skills as a marketing tool. Amazon enables you to build an Alexa Skill for your brand. This could increase brand loyalty by enabling customers to interact with your products or services in a conversational way. It could drastically improve the user experience for your product or service, and could be another way of reaching your target audience.

• Emphasise privacy and security

Earlier in this article we referred to the fact that many people are suspicious about home assistants. In fact, according to research by Microsoft, 41% of voice assistant users are concerned about trust and privacy. This could be an inhibiting factor in users being willing to interact with your brand in more depth, in particular if it involves divulging personal plans, data or financial information.

Ongoing technological developments – such as the voice recognition we mentioned above – will increase the layers of security around the user. This should bring more confidence about transactions such as voice payments. However, anything that your brand can do to reassure users about the privacy and security of their information and data whilst interacting with you via voice assistants has got to be a big plus in your favour.

 

The ongoing growth of home assistants, and smarter homes, is unstoppable. Whilst we can’t predict exactly what will happen when in terms of the pace of technology, it makes sense to get on board now with the societal and behavioural changes being driven by home assistants to ensure that your business is not left behind.