Are You Voice-Search Optimized?

While radio continues to place within the Top 3 categories of communication (behind email and TV, but not by much), the great thing about radio is the story of its demise is greatly exaggerated...for most, at least the ones who are streaming.

Like it or not, your audience is shifting part, if not all of their listening to online sources, via their phone or the Smart Speaker (Alexa, Google, et al). Notice I didn't say their computer. That isn't to say, that no one is using their desktop or laptop, but if you look at the analytics of your website, it is being accessed a majority of the time via your audience's smartphone. And now with the power of the Smart Speaker and it's integration with your Smart TV, you could be missing a large part of your audience, if you aren't Voice-Search Optimized.

It is great to have a memorable URL, but when you ask Alexa to bring up your favorite radio station, it is much easier to say, "Alexa/Goggle play X101.5". You can even do this for TV, "Alexa play WAVY".

But what happens when you ask your Smart Speaker can't find you? Then what?

1.) Your Smart Speaker will normally find the next best voice match, which is NOT your radio station.

2.) The user chooses another radio station in another marker, or worse, a competitor in your market. 3.) Then there is the user, like my kids, who choose to access Spotify and Pandora, regularly.

There are a plethora of uses for the Smart Speaker and with this item tripling in sales in 2017, plus being one of the biggest Christmas gifts of 2017, this item isn't going away any time soon. You might as well join the party, as the first people in this space have the best chances of being the winners.

Keep in mind, Amazon lost money, while tripling their market share, which speaks volumes (no pun intended) as to their dedication to making the Smart Speaker a permanent fixture in the home/office/bedroom.

People I know have mentioned that they have seen the Echo in their hotel room, instead of the old fashioned clock radio. Keep in mind, you can set reminders, an alarm to get up in the morning and set a radio station to come on at a certain time (which I do at home)

Now, if your radio station isn't streaming, that is a difficult decision to wrestle with, as streaming fees and ASCAP/BMI/SESAC fees can be scary. But if you can monetize it, it could be worth the investment, especially if you set yourself up to be Voice-Searched Optimized.