Six years ago, Neil Patel started advocating for voice search optimization. Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, and other assistants were gaining popularity for information gathering, booking reservations, setting appointments, and shopping.
Demandsage 2.0 reports 1 billion voice searches daily, compared to 8.5 billion Google searches. While text search is still king, over 10% of all queries in both categories are processed via audio assistants.
A year ago, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app on the planet. Launched in November 2022, it reached 1 million active users in 5 days and 100M users in just 2 months.
For context, it took Instagram 2.5 years to reach 100M, Facebook – 4.5 years, Netflix – 10 years, Spotify – 11 years.
And optimizing for AI search is just as important. DevriX ranks in the first spots for buyer intent keywords in ChatGPT since our inbound journey taps 14 different channels at a time.
User adoption and time to market play an integral role in consumer behavior and buying habits.
As the old playbooks of demand creation and generation no longer work, brand identity and omnichannel marketing solutions are on the rise.
Even with Google’s Search Generative Experience launched last year, many TOFU searches will see diminishing returns and organic traffic, but transactional keywords will still hit home.
Marketing directors and VPs pitching the 2024 roadmap upstream should convey the following:
1. What worked in 2021 to early 2023 is no longer relevant. The rules of the marketing game are different. Resetting expectations is a hard requirement.
2. PPC and demand generation are getting more expensive and less effective. MQLs cost thousands of dollars with a low conversion rate, leading to CAC anywhere from $10K to $60K with aggressive lead/demand generation strategies.
3. Buying cycles are longer. The added cost for sales and account managers, CRMs and marketing automation platforms increase the CAC payback period.
4. Powerful brands will stand out. Market leaders like WPP and Dentsu consolidate internal brands to form stronger entities instead of spreading budgets across different entities.
5. With the dynamic shift across demand channels, ongoing experimentation is vital. Maintaining Paretto’s 80-20, allocate at least 20% of the marketing budget on omnichannel that isn’t 1st tier now (social, PR, sponsored ads, influencers). Channels come and go and you need a baseline to jump off of + businesses conduct a more thorough due diligence and want to see you’re alive and kicking on all fronts.
6. Your site could perform better. Successful enterprises invest in CRO and UX heavily, A/B testing messaging, CTAs, lead magnets, and different packages for different audiences. With only 3% of all visitors in a buying stage, losing 97% with inefficient sales pages is unacceptable.
