Respond Fast founder, Mike Gunderson, was interviewed by Ben Shapiro on the Martech Podcast. In a series of three articles, we’re sharing highlights from the interview covering specific topics about voice marketing technology. To listen to the full interview, click here.

Ben Shapiro: Why does direct response through voice matter to marketers?

Mike Gunderson: Well, I think the biggest thing is that the less friction we can cause the prospect, the better or quicker we’re going to get that lead top of funnel. So what we love about this is it allows the user to not have any technology in front of them, but utilize the tools that they have in their kitchen or their bedroom or their living room to respond by voice. And this allows them to quickly access the information or the offer that’s being presented to them, whether that’s on a television ad, whether that’s a podcast you’re listening to, or whether it’s direct mail coming in through their mailbox.

Another exciting way to access this offline call to action is to have it on the back of product packaging. So a good example would be, if you wanted to have some recipes for a marinade you just purchased, you could have this call to action on the back of that bottle and then get recipe sent right to your mobile phone so you can start cooking with it.

Ben Shapiro: So I think that there’s two important things to break down from a marketing perspective here, the use and adoption of voice-activated speakers is, A, they’re prevalent, B, there are more and more of them, and it’s moving beyond just people having Alexa and Google Home in their houses. More and more people are having Google Home devices, or Android devices, the Google Assistant in their ears. They’re walking around with their phone, they have their headphones on, so it’s a way for people to interact not only just at home, but also on the go. And it enables marketers to be able to drive direct response with essentially a non trackable format of marketing or a very hard to track format of marketing. So Mike, tell me about some of the different mediums of marketing that people are using voice-activated call to action for.

Mike Gunderson: Yeah. Well, I mentioned a little bit about packaging, but what these are really great for is really offline marketing efforts, so direct mail, radio and podcasts, print ads and collateral, television, billboards and signage. So really everything that you can either see or hear and are not directly in front of the computer is a perfect example of why you would want to use Respond Fast as an option for your call to action.

Ben Shapiro: I think that’s the reason why I am so excited about this technology is having interviewed marketers talking about the various ways which offline marketing campaigns are tracked, your out-of-home, your billboards, your transportations. And even for me, your podcast advertising where somebody is walking around with their headphones on, they’re not going to pull their phone out of their pocket, they’re commuting, they’re on the treadmill. You’re basically playing the game of building awareness and hoping that you’re able to get enough impressions to drive recall when they are in front of their laptop or back in front of their phone. And this technology where people can just simply talk to a speaker, or their Google assistant if they happen to have one, allows you to actually drive conversions more in real time, which increases your conversion rates.

Respond Fast provides a service that combines offline marketing with smart speaker usage to help clients get the most from this service. Smart speakers are everywhere and leveraging them is important for advertisers who want to take the next step. Contact Respond Fast for more information on what this technology can do for your business.