Greg Kihlström launched his latest book “The Agile Brand” in August. It gives a sophisticated analysis of the relationship between brands and the consumer. We spoke with him about his recent blog post “3 Predictions About the Future of Search” and Greg revealed the important role of voice search and its connection with consumers.
An interview with Greg Kihlström, SVP of Digital at Yes& and author of “The Agile Brand.”
Greg Kihlström launched his latest book “The Agile Brand” in August. It gives a sophisticated analysis of the relationship between brands and the consumer.
We spoke with him about his recent blog post “3 Predictions About the Future of Search.” Greg revealed the important role of voice search and its connection with consumers.
How should brands optimize online content for Voice Search?
Greg: “Optimizing for Voice Search means that you need to embrace the fact that the user intent is often much more transactional, with a focus on even quicker results than text-based searches. Thus, it’s more important than ever to quickly get to the point with your web copy.
It’s also important to look at the way that you structure information around the fact that while most voice searches expect short results, their queries are often much longer. In other words, people type less words when searching than when they speak the query out loud.
FAQ pages were always useful to customers, but in a world of voice search, they become even more helpful. This is a way that you can take advantage of using natural language and questions to help your customers get valuable search results when searching by voice.”
According to the Global Web Index,
- 27% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile.
- 34% of internet users say they’re interested in purchasing a voice-controlled smart assistant.
With those figures in mind, we asked Greg about current leader in voice search – Google. Who is their biggest competitor?
Greg: “While it might seem obvious that another direct search competitor would be their closest rival, I believe that Amazon is the company that competes most with Google in this area. After all, voice search is far more transactional than traditional text-based search, and Amazon’s close ties with shopping, as well as its larger initial market share with Alexa (as much as 75% last year vs. other devices like Google Home), keep it competitive. That being said, Google is quickly closing in on this.”
On February 26, Greg will lead an in-depth discussion with AMADC on how brands can create an adaptive optimized approach to consumer experience. To learn more from Greg about becoming an agile brand, please join us on February 26th, at WeWork Chinatown. Register today!