This is a line I hear every time I visit my parent’s house. I don’t own a smart speaker, because I’m an apple snob and I can’t justify spending the money on a homepod. Not yet. However, my parents have integrated the amazon echo dot into their home. They make orders, play music, and even create shopping lists for when they need to run to the local grocer. They rave on and on about how much they love alexa, speaking as though she is a part of the family. Yet, I only see them use their echo dot for playing music through their surround sound system.
This is only my personal experience with smart speakers
I have heard of many people, especially in larger metropolitan areas, ordering everyday essentials with their smart speakers, conducting searches residential phone numbers about topics they are curious about, or even playing games on their smart speaker, among other uses. According to a report from rain news, the top five uses of a smart speaker are to play music (60%), gather weather updates (52%), set alarms (39%), search for information (39%), and general amusement (38%). Sounds shockingly similar to a regular clock radio…
Despite the simple functions we use these devices for, smart speakers are being adopted faster than many other technologies. At the end of 2018, 66 million smart speakers were in u.S. Homes, in a report from tech crunch. This was up from 53 million back in september 2018! Not shocking to anyone, amazon is dominating this market with a 70% market share, google has 24%, and rounding off the market is good ole apple with 6%.
With all of the speakers flooding into our homes
As marketers, have seen a change in the way people are searching. Long-tail keywords, similar to how we actually converse, are being included in search IG Users campaigns. Seo is becoming more and more important. Without a screen full of results, these smart speakers are going to be listing out their organic results in order. And if your seo, keywords, or general knowledge of your customer is lacking then being that first result read by a smart speaker is going to be difficult.
