Consumers to Buy Smart Speakers to Control Smart Home Devices

BY Rachel Cagle
Featured image for “Consumers to Buy Smart Speakers to Control Smart Home Devices”

New research from Parks Associates shows the prospect of saving money, either through reduced household bills or a discount on insurance premiums, raises the interest in smart home devices among 60% of the U.S. broadband households that do not own and do not intend to purchase a smart home device.

Top Drivers for Buying Smart Home Devices:

  • Ability for the product to save me money on my bills
  • A discount on my home insurance premium
  • Make smart home devices cost the same as regular products
  • Ability to exercise control over how my data is collected or used
  • Ability to try smart devices out at a retail location with knowledgeable staff

All of these drivers are easily searchable by Smart Home Product Buyers. According to AudieneSCAN, 64.1% of these consumers used a search engine to research a product they were considering for purchase last month. Google is the preferred search engine of 91.7% of these buyers. Only 22.2% will go past the first page of results though, so SEO and SEM are crucial.

"Roughly 46% of U.S. broadband households currently have no intention to purchase any smart home devices," said Patrice Samuels, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates. "Delivering on the promise of saving money is among the key factors that will drive purchase intentions among these consumers."

"With an average of nine devices in U.S. broadband households and growing, today's home WiFi resembles a small business network, but without IT staff to secure and manage it," said Jeremy Hitchcock, Founder/​CEO, Minim. "It's no wonder we're seeing increased call volumes to ISPs, fifty-​percent of which are WiFi related. We believe service providers can transform this pain point to increased revenue and customer satisfaction by offering holistic, smart home tech support. They just need the right toolset."

"Connected products are innovating our lives," said Jennifer Mallett, CEO/​President, Level Up Your Home. "Service experiences need to be designed to meet that innovation in order to drive anticipated adoption and a more effortless ownership experience."

"To deliver on the promised savings in the connected home, the devices need to work flawlessly from installation onward. Unfortunately, this promise isn't always kept, and the end user needs help to remedy the situation," said Alton Martin, Co-​Founder/​Chief Evangelist, Trusource Labs. "At this point, a superior service experience will make the difference between a happy customer and a complainer."

So, what are the most effective methods to advertising the money smart home devices can save Smart Home Product Shoppers? According to AudienceSCAN, last year, 62.5% of this audience was driven to action by email ads and 61.3% were motivated by either ads via text message or advertisements they saw on their mobile smartphone apps. They're 97% more likely than other adults to find advertising on their mobile apps useful. This consumer group also responds well to traditional advertising. Last year, 74.7% took action because of a TV commercial and 68.2% reacted to direct mail ads.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.


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