067 - JJ Ramberg: Goodpods - What Your Friends are Listening To
Guest: JJ Ramberg is the co-founder of Goodpods, the new app where you can follow your friends, influencers, and favorite podcasters to see what they're listening to. JJ spent 13 years as an anchor on MSNBC and also co-founded the coupon site Goodshop.com. She is the author of two books -- the Wall Street Journal immediate bestseller, It's Your Business, and the children's book The Startup Club.
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Intro: We all love a little “good” in our lives. In this episode, host Emily Binder and JJ dive into the optimism and simplicity that JJ’s app Goodpods offers to its users. The app provides users a way to give and get recommendations for podcasts from their friends and fellow users in a world where podcasting is becoming more and more popular.
Emily and JJ continue their conversation to discuss the ins and outs of building an app, making money, podcast advertising, the podcasts they’re loving right now, and more.
Topics:
0:55: Meet JJ Ramberg
1:20: What is Goodpods?: Gravitating towards goodness.
“At its core, it’s just a way to find great new podcasts, and for podcasts to find new listeners.” - JJ Ramberg
3:45: Goodpods is Goodreads for podcasts. Download the app and claim your handle now. Follow @emilybinder and @JJ on Goodpods.
Co-founders and siblings, JJ and Ken Ramberg
5:00: The origins of Goodpods. JJ co-founded Goodpods with her brother Ken. They are both big podcast listeners.
“In 2019, 50% of the US population has at least listened to a podcast, and a third of them listen at least monthly.” Via Edison Research
6:05: These days, podcasting offers so much more than entertainment. More people are turning to podcasts for up to date news and information about what’s happening in the world, and sharing joy with those around them.
8:30: Podcasts are “low commitment.” You can consume information and entertainment more simply and easily. It’s a short-form content, and that’s the opposite of what we’re experiencing on social media.
9:20: Social media can be a negative space these days, linked to depression and addiction. But podcasting offers positivity, education, and entertainment.
10:21: Sharing podcast recommendations from the app: Ologies hosted by Alie Ward (check out the COVID-19 episode entitled Virology)
12:10 JJ loves Cool Mules podcast from CANADALAND and 10% Happier with Dan Harris
“These conversations are happening everywhere. We’ve just codified it, so you don’t have to remember them anymore.” - JJ Ramberg
15:55: Designing the Goodpods app: “We wanted it to be familiar” - JJ Ramberg
16:50: Beta testing: Goodpods is constantly adopting the app to be as simple and user friendly as possible.
17:01: So how does Goodpods make money? As a listener, a lot of people fast forward through ads. Is podcast advertising in a good place? Is it effective?
19:00 Podcast advertising is going to change in the coming years. Emily recommends: Six Pixels of Separation #700 – Seth Godin on Podcasting
“It’s not about how many people are listening, but what is the quality of the audience. Are they interested in a really niche topic? Because this medium lets you get so niche.”
21:20: Discussing parasocial relationships. Why do we sometimes feel like we are friends with podcasters, tv characters, etc.?
22:00: Growing podcast viewership is often the number one goal or metric for a podcaster. What is the best way to promote a new or existing podcast?
23:58: Emily and JJ discuss “Calls to Action,” or CTAs. It’s tough to get a reaction sometimes; you have to make things as easy as possible for the listener.
25:20: There are 800,000 podcasts. Don’t try to compete with the top podcasts on the charts, compete within your niche, and build the target audience for your specific brand.
“We weren't trying to be everything to everybody. We were just trying to be what we’re supposed to be for our audience.” - JJ Ramberg
28:38: JJ’s podcast recommendations: WeCrashed, a podcast about the rise and fall of WeWork, and the Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris.
Goodpods is always looking for feedback and suggestions for their app. If you would like to submit a comment or suggestion, email JJ at jj (at) goodpods (dot) com.
Goodpods Co-Founder JJ Ramberg
059 - Celebrity Skin for Alexa: Novelty or More?
Amazon is charging users 99 cents to skin the standard parts of its voice experience with a celebrity voice. As we close out this decade, we can see a parallel between these early voice experiences and the beginning years of one of the most successful social media apps of all time: Instagram.
Filters—whether photo filters or voice skins—begin as a bolt-on and a novelty. But imagine where they’re headed.
Think rich, contextual voice experiences.
Hear this podcast in your favorite app:
Similar to what Google Assistant has done, Amazon is now giving customers the option to hear some familiar voices in addition to Alexa’s default voice. Today the company kicked off its celebrity voice program, and it’s starting with Samuel L. Jackson. - The Verge
Enjoy this mini episode! Our regular interview format will resume in January 2020. Find out when:
Want more, but less?
Get bite size news and insights in 1-3 minutes a day on Alexa or your podcast app:
Voice Marketing with Emily Binder
Finalist for Flash Briefing of the Year Award
047 - The New Wave of Financial Literacy - Xipi CEO Christine Concepción
40% of Americans do not have $400 for an emergency expense. We have a problem. Xipi offers a fresh take on financial literacy targeting millennials with a relevant, entertaining tone. Christine and her team aim to democratize education about managing money.
Christine Concepción co-founded Xipi, a fresh and accessible take on financial literacy for millennials
Schools are more likely to teach you "Hot Cross Buns" on the recorder than what a Roth IRA is. With one in five students lacking basic financial literacy skills, it is clear that current methods aren’t working. Xipi (pronounced “Zippy”) CEO Christine Concepción and her co-founders teamed up to create a better way to educate people about their finances. Xipi’s brand is accessible, modern, and entertaining.
Christine experienced poverty in the South Bronx at a young age and realized that education was the way out. She attended Columbia for undergrad then worked in finance and hedge funds in Manhattan. She graduated Columbia Business School in May 2019. Shortly after earning her MBA, she and her cofounders launched Xipi, which was VC funded within about a month (unheard of).
Did you know that if you launch a startup within six months of graduating business school, you’re 80% more likely to succeed than if you wait? Always strike while the iron is hot.
Show notes:
02:30 Xipi will provide micro-lessons in five minutes or less to teach financial concepts through reading, video, or other forms of content - a voice component is coming soon
Beta launch in November 2019
06:00 Gamification is a big part of Xipi
Accessible language, less formal, more fun - targeting millennials with a social media focused marketing strategy, especially on Instagram
06:25 People with low levels of financial literacy rely on friends, parents, or friends to learn about money
06:40 Fact: 40% of Americans do not have $400 for an emergency expense. They often rely on payday loans to cover costs, which puts them in an even more grave situation with extremely high interest rates.
07:30 You see friends living their best life on Instagram but probably don't realize that 70% of young adults in the U.S. (people under 30) are receiving financial support from their parents (see stat from Forbes)
11:00 Is there any money in doing a financial literacy startup?
12:15 Yes. Plenty of companies doing good which have a layer of social responsibility are making money. See: BlackRock chief Larry Fink tells CEOs to fix society's problems in an increasingly divided world - Business Insider):
“Larry Fink, the investment manager who oversees nearly $6 trillion at BlackRock, set off a yearlong conversation among business leaders and policymakers last January when he wrote a letter to chief executives declaring that companies needed to do more than make profits.”
13:05 Disproportionate impact: lack of financial literacy hurts women, minorities, and LGBTQ the most (the people who make less money) - though all income levels can benefit from learning how to manage their money better
14:00 11% more women have degrees than men but two-thirds of student loan debt is held by women
15:30 This gamified education is for everybody - it’s fun, quick, and is the equivalent of a WOTD (word of the day) app or lesson
16:00 WTFWednesday is a Xipi Instagram theme, e.g.: WTF is a rate cut? Let’s learn vocabulary in more than one way.
When bae’s texts turn green… financial humor you can relate to from @GetXipi Instagram (follow for fun)
16:25 Business model: how will Xipi drive revenue?
16:35 Beta launch in November is invite-only, and Xipi will be open to all in spring 2020 based on a freemium model for year 1
18:20 What kind of voice component would be right for Xipi? They are considering an Alexa skill or Flash Briefing
Connect with Christine and Xipi:
Instagram: @GetXipi
Christine - LinkedIn
Xipi - Team: https://getxipi.com/team
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034 - Unilever’s Voice Marketing Play on Spotify - Branding without ROI is OK
Not every marketing activity needs directly measurable ROI. Most branding tactics have never had clear ROI. But they're still important - foundational even.
We’ve become obsessed with measurement. But measurement can become unproductive, especially when it’s imperfect, like so much in digital today. Think about the 100+ year history of advertising from one of the world’s most recognizable brands: Coca-Cola, with slogans and ads dating back to 1886. Little to no tracking for most of its time.
Many Fortune 100 companies spend millions on television advertising. It’s not measurable. It’s a dying medium. Nielsen ratings are and always have been a joke. Companies still buy media. They don’t have one-to-one tracking on conversions (impressions of network TV ads translating to sales). Billboards are the same. These methods of advertising are still effective, and majorly lucrative for media companies. I’m not saying buy more TV. But don’t get so obsessed with tracking that you miss out on an opportunity for branding - especially on a cool new medium that isn’t crowded.
It’s 2019 and we still do terrestrial radio ads. There is no reliable data on the results. I mention all this because if we look at a voice ad like the Unilever one on Spotify, I don’t want anyone to bemoan the fact that it won’t translate to trackable sales. It isn’t meant to.
Not every voice effort will be perfectly trackable early on. Your digital marketing result today are polluted by major bot traffic as it is. However, technology seems to get challenged on tracking because it’s assumed that digital should be perfectly trackable. It just isn’t, for so many reasons.
Early voice-enabled ads like Unilever’s AXE ad on Spotify hint at the wide open space for a new, frictionless way to access sponsored content or helpful information from a brand. Great targeting, context, timing, and intent are key to making the experience worthwhile instead of a nuisance. This is a good start from Unilever. Even if all that happens is a listener plays the AXE playlist. If anything, it’s an experiment worth running regardless of measurability of resulting sales. So much advertising is already difficult to measure. At least this is progressive.
Spotify’s feature, which debuts today, will only work if the person listening has their microphone enabled, the company says. A listener saying “Play now” when prompted by a specific AXE audio commercial from Unilever will cause the streaming service to play a curated playlist from the brand (which come with commercials). Afterward, the mic is turned off, Spotify says. -AdAge, 5/2/2019, "Spotify debuts voice-enabled audio ads with Unilever"
Pandora and NPR have experimented with voice-enabled ads before.
Stats and citations:
The Association of National Advertisers reports that only a quarter of all digital ad spend reaches real people. (entrepreneur.com, July 2018)
According to another study done by Imperva Incapsula, bot-driven ad fraud costs businesses $7 billion dollars annually. (entrepreneur.com, July 2018)
I mentioned that “65%” of traffic is from bots. Now I can’t find the source where I read this stat. However, Incapsula reports 61%. Other sources say anywhere from 20-50% or more.
The point: this is a huge margin for error in interpreting the success of a digital marketing campaign judged by clicks or traffic. Perfect measurement is but a dream today.
023 - Easy Alexa Skills for Brands - Brielle Nickoloff, Voice UX Design - Witlingo
Hear my conversation with Brielle Nickoloff, Voice UX Designer at Witlingo. We discussed what the startup is doing to help podcasters, politicians, entrepreneurs, authors, comedians, and other content creators or personal brand promoters get voice skills onto Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant quickly and easily.
“Castlingo is the easiest way to publish short audios to let your audience listen to what you have to say.”
Get a Voice Marketing Presence with Castlingo (check out their promo which ends 12/8/18).
Brielle Nickoloff is a Lead of Voice User Experience Design and Research at Witlingo, a Washington D.C., based startup that builds products and solutions for Voice First devices and platforms, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana.
Brielle earned dual Bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Much of Brielle’s research in the space began with a closer look at the ways one’s emotional reaction to a voice interface is notably more inflated than reactions to other types of user interfaces. She loves to design for maximally accessible and minimally intrusive technology by leveraging the beauty of natural human language.
Attend the Alexa Conference January 15-17, 2019 (Brielle and I are both speaking - come say hi!)
40% of adults now use voice search once per day. Read more Voice First Facts from Witlingo.
Follow Brielle Nickoloff on Twitter: @ElleForLanguage (I love her handle!)