alexa

Holiday Gift Guide: 3 Best Alexa Smart Speakers: Echo Dot and Show Review

Thinking about business or family and friends gifts for the holidays? Scoop up these powerful Echo devices and share the gift of voice! Here are our top three recommendations with honest product reviews:

1) Echo Dot 3rd Gen (Echo Dot Clock) - “Add Alexa to any room”

$34.99. File under: Gifts Under $50:

Our most popular smart speaker - Now available with an LED display that can show the time, outdoor temperature, or timers.

This is the newest generation Echo Dot with a digital clock. It's a smart speaker without a screen but it can display short messages like a stock ticker crawl. This feature is going to be used a lot more in 2020, just wait for it. We'll see brands begin sending notifications from their custom skills with this LED display. Because the price point is low, this will be a top popular Echo device and now it has a visual component. I’d grab one of these to replace any clock in your house because it is a clock and so much more.

2) Echo Show 5 - “Compact smart display with Alexa”

At 5.5 inches, it sits compactly on a nightstand, office desk, or book shelf with a handy clock face whose appearance you can customize from several artistic visual options. The smaller size means it’s not obnoxiously large or a big space commitment. Good for a smaller kitchen or limited desk or counter space. However, it is a bit small if you intend to watch video.

The speaker quality is not fantastic but it’s good enough for the average person. It’s about as good the quality as playing music straight out of an iPhone, but louder. The Echo Show 2nd Gen (see #3 below) has even better sound if you are looking for a high quality speaker. If you’re not a major music aficionado and not buying it for primary use as a music playing speaker, the Echo Show 5 is FINE.

Bottom line: If you want a smart speaker with a screen (known as multimodal) to start using Alexa, grab the Echo Show 5. It’s perfect to: hear Flash Briefing news and weather, to set timers, to play Spotify or Pandora or Amazon Music etc., to control your smart home, Roomba, smart plugs or Philips Hue lights, to cook simple recipes by voice, or as an additional device in another room of the house, and more.

3) Echo Show (2nd Gen) - “Premium sound and a vibrant 10.1” HD screen”

10.1 inch screen. Buy this for your favorite friends, family members, or clients. It’s really nice.

  • Premium speakers with Dolby processing let you stream music and books in crisp, stereo sound. With a vibrant 10.1" HD screen for watching videos, movies, and TV shows in a new fabric design.

  • Ask Alexa to see lyrics and album art with Amazon Music. See weather forecasts, calendars, to-do lists, and your favorite playlists.


Disclaimer: We post these types of links a couple times a year to get a bit of listener and reader support for producing all the free content we provide on shows like the Voice Marketing Flash Briefing. It’s a win-win since you may have wanted to buy this stuff anyway. Thank you for supporting our shows by shopping through our links!

We use Amazon Associate links which help cover hosting costs for our blog and podcast. This means if you click through and end up buying, we will get a small affiliate commission. It’s really small, but it helps a bit. Details are in our disclosure.

Definition: What is Voice Marketing?

Definition: What is Voice Marketing?

Voice Marketing is the strategies and tactics used to reach your target audience through audio content and/or voice-enabled devices powered by AI voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri. Podcasts, Flash Briefing, and all branded audio including sonic logos, audio marks, and IVR phone systems are also considered voice marketing.

7 Powerful Stats About Voice Technology & #VoiceFirst Marketing

Last week my smart friend Michelle Excell from The Antipodean (and my cofounder at quartet.agency) asked me for some stats about voice.

michelle-excell-voice-marketing-question-emily-binder.jpeg.PNG

Michelle is not the only one who’s asked. So let’s all share. Here are the top stats about the power and rapid growth of voice technology, voice search, and #voicefirst marketing.

Voice Marketing Stats for 2019:

Smart speakers are the fastest growing consumer technology of all time, reaching 50% of U.S. population in under five years.

Smart speakers are the fastest growing consumer technology of all time, reaching 50% of U.S. population in under five years.

  1.  Smart speakers are the fastest growing consumer technology since the smartphone (above - this is the popular chart from The Alexa Conference - see my top takeaways here).

  2. In 2018, voice purchases increased 3x on Alexa compared to the 2017 holiday season.

  3. Typing is very slow compared to what our brains can process through speaking and listening. 

    1. The average person speaks 110-130 WPM (words per minute). 

    2. However, we have the mental capacity to understand someone speaking at 400 words per minute (if that were possible). 

    3. We only type 38-40 WPM. Think about the implications for voice search:

  4. Voice searches will account for 30-50% of all searches by 2020. (Gartner predicts 30%, Comscore predicts 50%).

  5. Two stats from my most recent podcast focusing on Alexa in-skill purchasing (ISP) and high conversion rates inside skills for purchases with voice:

    1. Early results show that voice skills have higher conversion rates for purchasing than any standard website or mobile experience. E.g.: Two skills with very high conversion rates for upsell to premium version (34-50%): Big Sky (weather) and Escape the Airplane (game). -voicebot.ai, 1/24/2019

    2. Voice in the car - huge opportunity: twice as many U.S. adults have used voice in the car compared to smart speakers and monthly active users are 60% higher. 

  6. 75% of smart speaker users interact with their speaker daily.

  7. Ownership rates for smart speakers are nearly equivalent among people 25, 35, 45, or 55 years old. -Edison Research, The Smart Audio Report - 7/18/2018

Amazon Echo First Generation. Photo by Loewe Technologies on Unsplash.

Amazon Echo First Generation. Photo by Loewe Technologies on Unsplash.

Want more information about voice? Great resources:

This Week in Voice Podcast - Emily Binder with Jason Fields, Voicify (Season 3, Ep. 13)

Emily Binder joined Jason Fields, Chief Strategy Officer at Voicify, and host Bradley Metrock, CEO of Score Publishing and head of VoiceFirst.FM on This Week in Voice.

Stream the episode here or click the image below:

This Week in Voice Podcast: Guests: Emily Binder and Jason Fields (season 3, episode 13) with Bradley Metrock

This Week in Voice Podcast: Guests: Emily Binder and Jason Fields (season 3, episode 13) with Bradley Metrock

Listen on your favorite podcast player:

  1. Apple Podcasts (iTunes) - This Week in Voice: Season 3, Episode 13

  2. Stitcher

  3. TuneIn: on your smart speaker, say:

"Alexa, play This Week in Voice."

"Hey Google, play This Week in Voice podcast."

Timestamps and stories (sources linked):

1) 04:15: Amazon's Super Bowl ad, featuring Harrison Ford, is already drawing positive reviews in advance of the big game

  • Amazon is reassuring us that they can be trusted (PR wake)

  • “Not everything makes the cut” re: Amazon Alexa hardware

  • I love this - very Bezos: Queen: “Don’t Stop Me Now” plays at the end

  • Celebrities and testimonial - well cast, diverse (Harrison Ford, Forest Whitaker, Broad City women, astronauts)

  • A little creepy

  • Transparency about product failure - brands can make mistakes (this is the zeitgeist we’re in)

    • 10:35 - Amazon Alexa microwave

  • Clever psychology

2) 11:48 - Siri Shortcuts can be used to steal and send personal data

3) Voicebot.AI Story of the Week: Walmart pulls out of Google Express and Google Shopping Actions

  • This is about DATA

4) BBC: Are smart speakers good for kids?

5) "Can we create a non-patriarchal, unprejudiced, post-gender virtual world?"

  • What is “post-gender”!?

Marketing and voice tech in under three minutes a day.

On Alexa Flash Briefing and Google Home.

Click to hear samples.

Case Study: Alexa Flash Briefing - Ritholtz Wealth Management Voice Marketing

In 2018 we began working with Ritholtz Wealth Management on a voice marketing strategy to get their foot in the door of the Alexa ecosystem. As trailblazers in blogging and social media in the finance and investing space, “Downtown” Josh Brown and the Ritholtz Mafia wanted to beat the crowd to voice, too.

"Downtown" Josh Brown (@reformedbroker) asks Emily about the voice marketing work she’s done for Ritholtz. Hear why Ritholtz is "kind of a big deal" when it comes to voice in the investing and finance space.

Barry Ritholtz and Josh Brown. Image credit: thereformedbroker.com

Barry Ritholtz and Josh Brown. Image credit: thereformedbroker.com

Top Flash Briefing about Stock Market History & Investing


Market Moment is an Alexa Flash Briefing we created with Ritholtz Wealth Management, a New York City RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) run by two of the most online-savvy and established advisors in the industry: Barry Ritholtz (Masters in Business podcast and Bloomberg columnist) and Josh Brown (The Reformed Broker). Josh and Barry wanted to be first and best in voice in the investing space - and now they are.

IN ITS FIRST MONTH IN 2018, MARKET MOMENT BECAME THE FASTEST GROWING BRIEFING IN THE ALEXA BUSINESS & FINANCE CATEGORY … ORGANICALLY ($0 MEDIA BUDGET).

Based on the popular “Today In Market History” tweets from @RitholtzWealth, Market Moment hosted by “Downtown” Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) is a 5-star briefing packed with great information about business and the market.

The Ritholtz team has been a blast to work with. They’re hands-on, ahead of the curve, and excited to invest in voice branding.

Having vision in 2008 that social media would explode helped Josh and his team get millions of followers. They’re doing the same thing with voice. Check back in a couple years and see who in finance-related content marketing had the head start voice.

Tactics:

We took care to choose keywords, title, and description for Amazon SEO (search engine optimization). Through monitoring and tweaking these fields, we have been able to climb the rankings for our top search terms, including investing, stock market, and financial advice. For example:

Improving Alexa Skills store page rank (SEO):

  • After eight weeks, with $0 spent on promotion:

    • We improved from position #75 to #20 for "investing", a 73% improvement. I.e. we were #75 of total results and now we are #20, on page 2.

    • We improved from position #24 to #8 for "stock market" (and to #7 a week later, below):

Amazon SEO: Market Moment Flash Briefing climbed rankings in Alexa Skills store from #24 to #7 for keyword “stock market” in first nine weeks.

Amazon SEO: Market Moment Flash Briefing climbed rankings in Alexa Skills store from #24 to #7 for keyword “stock market” in first nine weeks.

Phase 2: The Compound Show - Mini Podcast and Alexa Skill

In March 2019, we launched a first-of-its-kind custom voice skill and mini podcast about investing based on The Compound YouTube channel.

What if you could listen in on regular conversations between professionals working in money management today?

Josh Brown:

I invented the mini-podcast. All the financial industry and investment-oriented podcasts are an hour long or more. I think that’s because the person whose podcast it is feels bad about asking a guest to come on and then cutting them short. Some podcasts should be an hour – Patrick O’Shaugnhnessy interviewing Michael Mauboussin, for example, or Barry Ritholtz interviewing Ray Dalio, or Michael Kitces interviewing Ric Edelman.

But most podcasts are too long and not every guest has an hour-plus worth of stuff you want to hear. However, the format persists. I think it’s just something that’s become a tradition – to interview each guest for an hour and change – even though that’s not what the listener actually needs or wants from every conversation.

read more about The Compound Show on The Reformed Broker

Click here to enable The Compound Show on Alexa then say, “Alexa, open The Compound Show!”