Alexa skills have become increasingly important, thanks to the exponential increase in the adoption of smart speakers. At least one living room or kitchen table in your neighborhood is bound to have Alexa speaker rested on top of it.
And with voice technology and it’s increasing usage, marketing strategies are undergoing a major transformation. Alexa can help you market your brand’s vision, mission, and goals way better than most of your employees. It’s just an opportunity you have got to grab.
Why are Amazon Alexa Skills Important for Your Brand?
According to the latest statistics, Amazon Alexa and Echo devices are the most sold smart speakers. With increasing strides made in the field of voice-technology, more and more homes are adopting smart speakers into their humble abode.
That being said, it’s no news that voice-searches have skyrocketed. According to Google, more than 20% of searches done through mobile phones occur via voice. Here comes the role of an Alexa Skill. You can build Alexa skills on anything and everything.
The already built-in Alexa skills can plan a trip, put a kettle to boil, hail an Uber, set a reminder, and so forth. You wouldn’t want your potential rivals to steal all your customers in terms of Alexa skills and disrupt the markets.
Alexa can endorse your brand, so don’t let go of the opportunity. Unlike your employees, machines don’t ever get tired or have a bad day. Alexa can market your brand 24/7, whenever needed. You need to make her work to your brand’s full potential.
Is Building an Alexa Skill worth my time?
Yes! It is. It’s better to stay ahead of the curve than behind. Rather than waiting for your potential competitors to win the rat-race in the voice technology industry, make the first move.
Often, we wait around for someone else to take the first stride whenever there is an advent of new technology – and in no time do we realize that we’re too late to catch up. Depending on your brand, Alexa skills can be a great way to start conversing with the masses and transform it into a much broader domain.
Alexa skills can promote your offers and deals, your brand’s vision and mission. Although, do not create a skill for the sake of creating a skill. Your Alexa skill should add user value and goodwill to the market.
How will Alexa Skills Impact the Marketing Domain?
Now that you know that building an Alexa skill is worth it, you must know how and why is it going to disrupt the market. Here are a few statistics to walk you through the skyrocketing popularity Alexa devices have gained in these years. Recently, Amazon and Techstars declared their 2020 Alexa Next Stage program, to bring in new enhancements and changes into their smart voice assistant.
- By 2017, Amazon generated more than $178 billion in revenue just through Alexa product sales.
- In about 564 million products that Amazon sells, Echo Dot was the topmost bought product.
- AI incorporated speakers are rapidly finding their ways into the homes of millions. More than 47 million people have access to Alexa smart devices.
All these statistics legit paint a picture of how frequently consumers interact with smart speakers on a daily basis, and how it’s only growing, that too exponentially.
Mobile Comes First, but Voice Comes Foremost
Back in 2016 Google claimed that around 20% of searches that happened in mobile phones were through voice. According to ComScore predictions, the voice searches are to grow up to a whopping 50% by the end of 2020.
Fewer people are willing to go through the drudge of turning on a laptop or PC to search for queries instead of just speaking through voice over a smartphone. This is drastically affecting SEO, and more brands are trying to optimize their sites according to voice searches instead.
How Do AI Skills Matter?
AI is the primary aspect that imparts more functionalities and capabilities to the already built-in ones in smart speakers. Skills can provide updates, promotions, monitor smart home automation, set up a reminder, and whatnot.
The more AI and its refined functions you impart into your applications, the more attractive and accepted will it be.
Amazon once stated in their blog, “A consumable is an in-skill product that customers can purchase, use, and then purchase again. In addition to one-time purchases and subscriptions, consumables give developers more ways to deliver premium experiences to customers. With consumables, you can sell products that are relevant in the moment to customers as they experience your skill.”
Voice technology coupled with AI, basically Alexa skill, has the potential to significantly increase your revenues. The growing acceptance of such skills has primed the market for the introduction of consumable skills.
Learn about the new Amazon Developer Tool outlines and market your brand better!
How Can Marketers Capitalize?
Here are a few ways how existing market giants have already used Alexa skills to market their brand and capitalize through it.
- Tide Stain Remover skill provides step by step process of how to remove stubborn stains.
- Campbell’s Kitchen skills assist Alexa users by planning and listing ingredients and methods in chronological order. It helps them cook meals.
- 1-800 Flowers created Alexa skills to let users order flowers for their loved ones through voice.
- eCommerce sites are thinking of modifying Shopify’s Alexa skills to monitor their orders, inventories, traffic analysis data, and so forth.
- Digiday created Alexa skills to brief its users on the top marketing news in 90 seconds.
- Marketing School’s Alexa skills provide a ten-minute podcast every day to its users regarding top marketing tips and tricks.
- Web Analytics Alexa skills can pull out the numbers and metrics of your new campaign, just like Google Analytics. And it all happens through a single voice command.
- The American Heart Association walks you through the step by step processes of potential first aids during emergencies.
- AskStubb’s Alexa skills give you daily tips on grill and barbeque.
So you see, Alexa is gaining rapid popularity among the masses, and brands have already started to use the Alexa skills to their advantage. Why should you stay behind?
Steps to Market Your Own Brand Through Alexa Skills
1. Know your audience
Figure out your target audience and their needs and wants. Design and develop a skill that can help them in their requirements. Don’t make a skill just for the sake of it! Add goodwill and user value to it.
2. Be consistent in your brand voice, tone, and goals
No matter what your customers are doing – whether they are listening to your content, reading them, or hearing you talk about them, there should be consistency in all three.
3. Personalize and Customize
If you have any ideas to personalize or customize your content in such a way that it gives it a unique touch, go for it!
4. Quality Matters
Try incorporating real voices, music, and speeches to enhance the listening experience.
5. Market well
Your content or Alexa skills shall transform your listeners into your potential customers. Make sure that you incorporate a call to action, and your content makes them take the next steps.
Don’t wait for the world to leave you behind in this growing, market-disrupting technology. Give your brand a Voice!
