Smart Speaker Usage is on the Rise. What Does That Mean for Your Marketing?

I swore up and down I’d never have a smart speaker.

When Amazon’s Alexa came out, I believe the first thing I uttered was something along the lines of “Here comes SkyNet”.

Today I have a Google Home and a Home Mini -- and quite frankly I love the damn things.

Oh how far we’ve come…

Not shockingly, overall smart speaker usage is on the rise - up 78% in just one year to roughly 118.5 Million people in the US, according to a survey done by NPR and Edison Research.

Why You Should Care

You may or may not know this -- but you can actually utilize these nifty little robots for marketing purposes.

After all, someone has to provide the answers to those zany questions you have. And with roughly 21% of US adults owning a smart speaker, it’s a safe bet that a good chunk of your target audience is utilizing these home assistants.

By creating a skill (on Alexa) or action (on Google), you might be able to start to solve your prospects' problems faster -- and potentially get them into your sales funnel sooner.

MarketMobile also reported on the study, noting that with just 21% of the market having adopted smart speakers, there’s still a ton of growth in this area - meaning the potential upside for creating a skill or action is pretty large.

What You Should Do About It

Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@amanda_zw) over at HubSpot wrote a great article about creating experiences for Google Home and other ways marketers can take advantage of the Google Assistant.

I’d assume the tips and insight parse nicely over to Amazon’s Alexa as well.

The big takeaway, in my opinion, is that we as marketers need to be thinking outside the box and looking to where our audience is spending their time. There’s potential to figure out this new arena before the other 79% of the market begins to adopt it.

Those who move fast to address this opportunity will be positioned as the resource their prospective customers find when asking questions you’re apt to solve.

With the growth of smart speakers in the home, and how much these assistants are learning about our habits -- there’s a vast amount of untapped potential for content that solves your target audience’ problems.

Are you ready to answer the call?