Top Three Brands with Alexa Skills - Voice Marketing
Which companies have the best Alexa skills? Which brands are succeeding with voice marketing?
It’s the ones who understand that voice is all about enhancing or improving the customer experience. Keep it simple. Make things easy on people. That’s the “killer” app.
Your customers want convenience. The best voice apps offer it. It’s that simple. The Starbucks Reorder skill and Domino’s Pizza Alexa skill accomplish this.
By 2021, the number of US voice assistant users will reach 122.7 million, representing 42.2% of US internet users and 36.6% of the US population (eMarketer). Digital voice assistants in use will triple to 8 billion by 2023 (Juniper Research).
Amazon Alexa has maintained market share for smart speakers so let’s look at which brands are succeeding on Alexa and why. Note, these brands also have Google Actions but we’ll just examine their Alexa skills here.
Here are three slam dunk examples of major brands using Alexa to drive sales and/or add value through voice-first content marketing.
Which brands have the best Alexa skills?
Starbucks Reorder Alexa skill: you can:
– Reorder your Usual from one of the last 10 stores you’ve ordered from
– Check your primary Starbucks Card balance
– Switch between your last 5 previous ordersWhy we like it: This lets customers easily order hands-free. It’s convenient to do while you’re busily getting ready to head out the door. This makes Starbucks even more ubiquitous and reliable, two of their brand success hallmarks (consistency of experience, much like McDonald’s provides so well).
Domino’s Alexa skill: With the Domino’s skill, you can build a new order from scratch, place your Easy Order or your most recent order. You can ask Alexa for your order’s status with Domino’s Tracker®. Available only for orders placed in the U.S.
Why we like it: Thanks to the AnyWare suite of technology, customers can place their favorite order via text, tweet, TV, smartwatch and more. Domino’s Alexa skill is just another channel making it more convenient for people to buy pizza. It demonstrates a commitment to ease of use. This will drive sales because like Starbucks does too, this removes friction and makes Domino’s ubiquitous.
TED Talks Alexa skill: Explore TED's vast library of inspiring talks and ideas worth spreading by world-renowned speakers and thought leaders from around the globe. You can play the latest TED talk, play random TED talks, or search for talks by topic or by speaker name. You can also play talks that are funny, inspiring, persuasive, courageous, or jaw-dropping. New TED talks are available every weekday and are always free to the world.
Why we like it: This is the best example of content marketing unrelated to voice shopping or commerce. Content marketing works when it adds value and is published consistently. This checks those boxes. Read more on TED’s blog: “Alexa, open TED Talks”.
Starbucks Reorder
Reorder your usual coffee, check your Starbucks Card balance, and switch between your last five previous orders.
TED Talks
With their Alexa Skill, nonprofit organization TED allows you to play the latest TED talk, play random TED talks, or search for talks by topic or speaker name.
Domino’s
With the Domino’s Skill for Amazon Alexa you can build a new order, reorder your most recent order, place your Easy Order, or track an order using Domino’s Tracker®.
Takeaway:
Voice offers your brand an opportunity to be of service. Help before you sell.
And look, don't be intimidated by voice! You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Look how simple the Starbucks, Domino’s, and TED Talks skills are. They just voice-enabled the most common customer activities. Reduce friction, increase sales. Convenience for the win. It’s what Amazon sells, after all.
Domino’s AnyWare is the strongest example of the real driving principle behind all of this: it’s not about the specific channel (be it voice, SMS, or social media); it’s about being widely and easily available where your customers are. Voice just happens to be the fastest growing consumer technology, and an obvious and growing use case for voice commerce (AKA v-commerce), expected to be over an $80 billion market by 2023 (via Juniper Research).
What you can do:
Identify the top three or five things that your customers want or need. That could be simply re-ordering or asking an FAQ or checking their account balance. Then voicify it. We can help.
Your Brand and Voice Marketing in 2021
If you need help creating a custom voice experience, whether that's an Alexa skill or a Google Action, or adding voice or chat to your mobile app, reach out to us. Get ideas here: check out our case studies from clients we’ve helped.
Learn more:
Binge our 3-minute daily briefing podcast about voice marketing with Emily Binder:
Or hear Emily’s briefing on Alexa News (new episodes every weekday). How to listen:
Enable Voice Marketing with Emily Binder - Alexa Flash Briefing here
Then say, “Alexa, news.”
Amazon's Easy Way to Top Search Results - "Financial Advice" SEO Example - Citywire
Voice search presents a huge opportunity because there is a scarcity of content. Instead of competing with 1.03 billion search results on Google, you can be up against ten on Amazon Alexa (for “financial advice” at least).
Would you rather compete with a billion others or ten? Here’s a stark example of just how blue the ocean of Alexa Skills and voice search is.
Google’s SERP (Search Engine Result Page) has 1.3 billion results for search term “financial advice”.
Search for “financial advice” on Google. There are 1.03 billion search results as of this writing.
Then search on Amazon.com under the “Alexa Skills” department, or under Skills in the Alexa app. There are TEN results.
Amazon.com’s SERP (Search Engine Result Page) for Alexa Skills has 10 results for search term “financial advice”. (The top two results happen to be the skills we built for Ritholtz Wealth Management - case study.)
Press play below for a 2-minute briefing about:
Why it’s easy to rank for your keywords on Amazon Alexa vs Google (SEO for Alexa Skills is a big opportunity)
Flash Briefing is far less competitive than podcasting (and shorter is better for most content)
How to repurpose Flash Briefing beyond just Alexa - it’s a marketing tool
Understand that this applies to almost any industry - not just finance!
EVENT: October 3, 2019: Online event - join me and other Flash Briefing experts at The Voice of the Flash Briefing to learn more (get tickets for the webinar)
Bottom Line about Voice Marketing
Voice is a big opportunity because right now there is a scarcity of content. It was like the early days of the internet when there were only 10,000 web pages. (There are currently about 10,000 Alexa Flash Briefings.)
Amazon is the third largest search engine in the world.
And it’s no longer about just products and ecommerce results. With Alexa providing answers, information, and voice experiences, this is becoming a search engine to compete with Google.
#CitywireRIA
I’ll be presenting this and more cool information about how to use Alexa for marketing your wealth management firm at Citywire RIA on October 2, 2019. See you there!
-Emily
Voice Marketing Success Metrics - Alexa Skills ROI
ROI: How do you measure your voice marketing efforts? Four ways to determine success in the voice space, focusing on Alexa Skills.
Amazon dominates the smart speaker market and is predicted to easily hold onto its top spot through 2021, when nearly 70% of total U.S. smart speaker owners will continue to use an Amazon Echo device. (via eMarketer, 2020)
What metrics should your company or brand look at to determine success in voice marketing? Let’s focus on Alexa first. Beyond the stats available for Alexa Skills (including Flash Briefing) in your Alexa Developer Console, you have ratings (how many reviews, how many stars your skill averages). But what else matters and how do you know your voice marketing efforts are paying off?
First, remember that on an early platform like voice, you won’t see direct ROI as quickly or easily as on more established platforms. That’s fine. You’re not doing voice to increase sales 50% this year. You’re doing voice to get in on the fastest growing consumer technology since the smartphone. You’re here to learn, set your product or service up for longterm success, and avoid falling behind. In two years, everyone else will be playing catch-up.
Why voice analytics are distinctly powerful:
70% of online carts are abandoned. If someone leaves your website without buying anything, you can often only speculate as to what went wrong (or try to learn after the fact, via a survey for example). You can email them coupons to try to lure them back to complete the purchase. And many users are savvy to this automation so the exit the site to simply wait for your “Come back!” coupon email. It’s an ecommerce rat race.
With voice, the customer has literally told you what they’re looking for, even if your voice app (Alexa Skill, Google Action, or Siri) wasn’t able to handle it. You get that human insight. That’s a win.
Voice Marketing Success Metrics
1. If success is defined as Alexa skill use/engagement:
The obvious metrics in Amazon Developer include:
Customers
Plays (for a Flash Briefing)
Sessions
Lifetime enablements
But go further and calculate stickiness. I.e., of total enablements, how many return to use the skill more than once?
Metrics available in Alexa Developer Console - Analytics for custom Skills
Figure out how many people come back vs enable once, use, and forget. Some skills should have higher retention than others; for example, Tide’s Stain Remover should be invoked a few times a year at least, or however often you stain your clothes. Get Urgently’s frictionless roadside assistance Skill may only be used about once a year or less - it would still be successful though. It depends on the functionality and use case.
2. If success is defined as showing up when people search for your brand name, product, category, or service (SEO):
Figure out the top 3-5 essential phrases your customers might use to search for your brand or type of product with voice. Are you showing up based on those voice queries? Example: “Alexa, show me the best running shoes.” (Note - as of this writing, Alexa on the Echo Show 5 shows men’s Nikes no matter the gender of the person who searches. This is a miss because Amazon has the user and shopper data to show a personalized result. That will come.)
3. If success is defined as increased interaction outside voice (multi-channel):
If you have any sort of CTA inside your skill, whether that is to visit a web page or comment on Twitter with a certain hashtag, track it. Use a specific URL or hashtag that you only share on your Alexa skill or announce in your Flash Briefing. Drive customers to your other channels if it’s valuable for them. If your Skill provides appointment booking or location information (such as for a local business) then track how many users found you this way.
4. If success is defined in terms of revenue:
Caveat: revenue as a KPI for voice is a simplistic view that doesn’t account for the value of being early to a new platform. We don’t focus on revenue yet. However, voice commerce is expected to be an $80 billion market by 2023 (via Juniper Research). Hold on.
Incremental sales: what revenue have you driven that you can attribute to voice search or voice commerce?
Marketing Tip: how to promote your Alexa Skill or voice experience
When you run surveys in your general marketing practice, whether those are on a sales receipt, a website pop-up / survey form (“How did we do?”), or a thank-you email post-purchase, include a question or two about whether your customers are aware of and have used your Alexa skill.
5. If success is defined as insight that will inform your strategy:
Look at Alexa as a way to learn from your customers - what do they ask? What do they try to accomplish? Use Amazon Developer to begin understanding what users want and like based on utterances. If you gain insight, that is success. Consider:
What is the ROI of voice marketing? It’s hearing what your customers want in real time. Click here to retweet this image
How many utterances users make in a typical session with your Skill?
What percentage of user interactions with your Skill result in a successful outcome?
Which of your Skills’ capabilities are being used the most and the least? What does that tell you?
Cohort analysis: see whether people acquired during a given month (e.g., after you launched a new feature) behave differently than those who joined prior
Retail: See where in the sales path customers are having to ask for help (note: transcripts aren’t available for voice assistants like Alexa at this point, but you can still identify friction points by volume of questions and the answers your skill is called on to give).
Want more?
Get short daily tips and insights on voice marketing:
A) On Alexa Flash Briefing (enable here then say “Alexa, news”)
B) Stream in your favorite podcast app: