CPG marketing has long since evolved from emphasis on traditional advertising (television, print, on-the-shelf) to an emphasis on digital marketing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) has become both an art and data-driven science, and social media marketing is standard for CPG brands today as well.
Voice assistants are increasingly helping people when they search for products. Currently, about 30 percent of U.S. consumers use voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, but those numbers are expected to grow as calendars flip over to 2020.
How can CPG marketers make the most of the increase in voice search? They can do so mostly by paying attention to their traditional branding and marketing strategies. Here are some specifics.
Continue to Work on Overall Brand Awareness Efforts
Voice search is not necessarily brand agnostic. When people search using voice, their devices recommend products based on several factors including brand popularity, reviews, availability, and user history. Voice search engines also use machine learning, so if anything, they are likely to gain more knowledge about users’ brand preferences. Moreover, people who use voice search often find they get more helpful answers if they are specific as to both product and brand. Therefore, brand awareness efforts are as important as ever.
Keep Your SEO Efforts Up-to-Date
Likewise, if you pay attention to your SEO, you stand to benefit from the rise in voice search. The more you know about the keywords people use when their searches take them to your brand, the better you can optimize your content for those keywords.
Including information about where your brand can be found helps too. One of the most common voice search directives is “near me.” So if someone asks for “organic soy milk near me,” and your brand of organic soy milk is available at a store near the searcher, your brand is likelier to be recommended.
Optimize Online Product Listings
Make sure your online product listings are descriptive, detailed, and rich (but not stuffed) with keywords. It’s also wise to get as many of your products as possible into Amazon Prime and to ask consumers to leave reviews. Ensure the channels to which voice search leads people (such as their local supermarkets) are all well-stocked with your products.
Consider Adding Alexa Skill Capability
The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is a collection of free-to-use self-service tools that help brands add skills to Alexa. There are plenty of online guides and training courses on how to make the most of ASK. An Alexa Skill could, for example, help Alexa advise consumers on which beer pairs best with your brand of bratwurst, or help them develop meal plans with your brand of cheese. Currently, only seven of Alexa’s top 100 skills are devoted to CPG brands, so there’s plenty of potential opportunity for early adopters.
An “Audio Logo” May Be in Your Future
Keep the idea of an audio logo in the back of your mind. We already encounter audio logos, primarily through entertainment (like the staticky HBO intro sound). If voice search takes off, audio logos could become more important, so it’s worth considering as a small, but potentially helpful, element of CPG marketing.
Voice search is growing and has excellent potential for further growth. More states are enacting “hands-free” driving laws, making voice search a convenient option for people on the go. As the voice search platforms become more knowledgeable, they are likelier to improve and meet consumer needs better.
Now is an opportune time to ensure attention to SEO, brand awareness, and optimized product listings, not only because they help with overall CPG marketing, but also because of their potential help in positioning your brand for voice searches. Hangar12 is always on the forefront of new CPG branding and packaging initiatives; please subscribe to our blog for the latest package design industry news!
Topics CPG Trends