James Poulter, CEO and Co-Founder of Vixen Labs Discusses Creating Voice Experiences for Brands (Episode 163)
Welcome, James Poulter!
James Poulter, CEO, and Co-Founder of Vixen Labs, which is one of Europe’s leading voice consultancies and design studios. Vixen labs work with global brands to help them determine what voice means to them; whether it’s setting strategy, building apps, and also for their partners (Amazon and Google).
What Are Some of the Things that James Has Brought to Market Recently?
James compared voice at the moment to the same kind of position that social media was a decade ago. Instead of people saying, “should I do this” people are saying “how should I do this.”
James mentioned that people tried things; however, those things did not hit scale. The focus has been on trying to bring data and insights and projects that have scale. Furthermore, to show real use cases where voice is going to drive commerce and make the wheels of a business turn.
James sees an opportunity to not just make money but save money with voice. James mentioned they launched a Voice Commerce Report in October and this focused on use cases when it comes to voice. He stated that the purpose is to educate the market on what opportunities are available across various sectors such as education, food delivery, retail, and more. James wants to show people that there is much more to voice than just what you currently have on your mobile app or voice app.
What Were Some Key Findings from the Voice Commerce Report?
James said that the most important finding was that voice purchases and voice commerce is happening in the UK. James found that 40% of people are making voice purchases and that 70% of the people are specifically looking for information about brands and businesses.
The issue is that most brands have not done anything about positioning themselves for voice. James believes that we need brands to realize that there are ways to answer the questions their consumers have via voice.
What Are Some Approaches to Implementing Voice Experiences for Brands?
James mentioned that there are a couple of different types of approaches. One approach is if someone is requesting a search query via a voice device. The search result page is something that can be influenced by optimizing your content, web pages, and implementing custom frameworks that are available from Google such as FAQs, how-to’s, recipes, podcasts, and more.
Another way is via custom answers and applications, which involves getting into more conversational actions, Google actions, and Alexa skills.
Why Did James Break Down the Demographics in the Report?
James found that when they looked at the data in various categories of voice commerce, whether making purchases, ordering food, or searching for brand information; parents and families over-indexed in all of those categories. One reason for this is that the pandemic has driven more people to find solutions and resources to get things done.
James noticed that people (especially parents) are wanting to automate the things that they do every day and also to incorporate reminders of things they need to do every day. Furthermore, the study found that the younger demographic that is between the ages of 18 and 24 are utilizing Siri on their phone every day.
Ian Asked How James’ Agency May Incorporate a Bootcamp Strategy
James believes that regardless of money the root cause is still the same. The most important aspect is to understand the consumers, including their habits and rituals. Voice is a technology and conversation is the most appropriate way of accomplishing that. There are also some free tools to check out for more information such as Google Talks, the Voice Talk Series, and Amazon Alexa Curriculum. James said it is possible to get started with no investment. The most important thing is to understand who your customers and consumers are and it is good to have data points to work with. James suggested utilizing free tools such as the Google Keyword Tool to do pertinent research.
James said it is best to start with understanding what consumers want, and then obtain a real developer persona of who you are trying to solve the problem for. From there, perhaps build a custom Alexa Skill, consult Teri about how to do a flash briefing, or utilize attention live to create podcast content that is optimized.
Learn More About James Poulter and Vixen Labs
Vixen Labs Website
Follow James on Twitter
Connect with James on Linkedin
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