In the B2B marketing world, people are always looking to predict the next major trend, and the one that keeps cropping up is voice search. Voice assistant devices are becoming commonplace, and businesses are adapting to the way consumers are using the technology to shop online. Amazon Echo has established itself as a popular device. A swiss army knife of voice assistants, Echo integrates with Alexa to stream music, make phone calls, set alarms and do all manner of wonderful things that can be achieved with a few words.
A great addition to Echo is the presence of ‘skills’ that can be downloaded to achieve other tasks, like finding a lost phone. A skill that’s widely used on the Echo is Flash Briefing, which delivers pre-recorded news snippets from media outlets. From a B2B marketing perspective, this is huge.
Setting up a flash briefing allows for readily available audio content to be delivered to customers daily. If you are serious about incorporating voice search into your B2B content strategy, downloading flash briefing is invaluable because you can reach an audience in a new way.
How do you set up flash briefing?
To create your own flash briefing you’ll need to register with the Amazon Developers portal, which allows you to build custom skills. You’ll also need to create the content feed and pass a ‘skills certification’ process to make sure it meets Amazon’s security policy.
The Amazon Developers portal offers a guide on the full set up process, as well as what to check for passing the skills certification test.
How could flash briefing help my B2B business?
Direct access to your audience
Amazon recently revealed that they had sold more than 100 million devices with Alexa built in. This is an indication of how popular Amazon voice search products are in the home and the potential reach of flash briefing. Imagine the kind of relationship you could build with your audience by speaking to them through flash briefings. You’d be able to craft hyper-personalised messages in a news format, while giving your customers regular updates.
Earn new customers with helpful content
When thinking about the customer journey, your flash briefing content needs to appeal to new and existing consumers. This might involve talking about ‘how to’ guides or finding new ways to interact with existing products. Over time, this helpful information could prompt new customers to buy into a service.
Marketing diversification
Think of flash briefings as another tool in your marketing kit. It grants another channel of access to your audience, running alongside other platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The diversity allows for a potentially broader reach.
Develop your brand voice
When creating content for a flash briefing, it’s important to remember that it should be story-focused. Sales spiel isn’t going to cut it. Flash briefing provides a valuable opportunity for creating engaging news content that tells your brand story. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Avoid sales language
- Keep the tone of voice light-hearted and professional
- Use simple language
By establishing an entertaining flash briefing voice, it increases the chance of customers coming back to listen to more.
Present new products
This might sound contradictory to the last point, but there’s nothing wrong with using flash briefing to pitch a new product, so long as it’s done in the right way! While the style of your flash briefing should be framed as a news piece, there’s room to fit in the occasional campaign launch.
If you’re thinking of launching a new product via flash briefing, make sure it’s customer-focused. Mention how it can help them and appeal to their emotional pain points. Cap the launch off by sharing a link that your customers can use to find out more information.
Repurpose existing content
Do you have a high-performing blog or whitepaper that you published a couple of months ago and it resonated with your audience? Chop it up and repurpose it for a flash briefing. Pull out snippets of relevant content and tailor it to the audio format of voice technology. As the content already exists, you won’t have to invest a great amount of time or money in creating a new piece.
By investing in flash briefing, you can interact with your customer base in a fresh way and stay one step ahead of the competition.
Helping brands stay ahead of trends like voice technology is part of the BDB ethos. Download the BDB guide to voice search to discover how you can use voice assistants like Alexa to your advantage.