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?

1. 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 orders

   1. Why 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).

2. 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.

   1. 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.

3. 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.

   1. 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).

Domino's Pizza (NYSE: DPZ), the recognized world leader in pizza delivery, knows that customers want to be able to order their pizzas from anywhere, at any time, on any device including Alexa. Thanks to the AnyWare suite of technology, customers can order via text, tweet, TV, smartwatch, and more.

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.

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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:

1. Enable Voice Marketing with Emily Binder - Alexa Flash Briefing here

2. Then say, “Alexa, news.”

Top 5 Tips to Grow Your Podcast - Marketing and Gear

Get voice marketing expert Emily Binder’s top five tips for creating and promoting your podcast. Level up your podcast game with our most popular videos (links open YouTube):

1. The #1 Mistake Podcasters Make on Social Media

2. EASY Video Podcasting - Best Audio and Camera Gear (Zoom Friendly)

3. Video: Spotify playlist marketing hack to promote guests (such as yourself)

   1. Blog post: How to Use Spotify Playlists to Grow Podcast Plays – Guest SEO Hack

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This playlist includes two popular podcast expert interviews from the Beetle Moment Marketing Podcast:

1) Podcasts: Your Brand's Unfair Advantage | STEVE PRATT, Pacific Content

Steve Pratt is one of the co-founders of Pacific Content, a company that creates exceptional podcasts with the best brands in the world. Clients include: Facebook, Dell Technologies, Mozilla, Slack, Red Hat, NYT T Brand Studio, BMW, CBS, and Charles Schwab and more.

2) Tess Neudeck: What Podcasters Should Know - Acast

Tess Neudeck is Manager of Marketing for Acast in the Americas. Acast is the largest global podcast company. Founded in 2014, Acast is the best curated, fully integrated, fastest growing podcast marketplace in the world. Tess is responsible for shaping Acast’s marketing strategy across its 10,000+ podcasts, its advertiser business, and all of the products and services the company creates for podcasters, advertisers and listeners. Find out the advice a top podcast company gives to podcasters to grow their audience.

Get Emily’s mini podcast about marketing, tech, and business:

Under 5 minutes on Alexa News or podcast apps:

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Why You Shouldn't Host PDFs on Your Website

What Is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is an incentive that marketers offer to potential customers in exchange for their email address or other contact information. Lead magnets usually offer a free piece of downloadable content, such as a PDF, whitepaper, infographic, checklist, report, ebook, or video.

Should I host a downloadable PDF?

No. There’s a better way to collect email addresses than gating your content behind a form to download a PDF. You should still collect emails in exchange for your proprietary content.

Gated content is any content that your visitors can access only after providing their information. PDFs are a common lead magnet, but they’re actually in conflict with your marketing goals to keep users on site and track their behavior.

However, there is a more optimal method of presenting the content to keep users interacting with your website. It beats losing them and any tracking you might have had when they download a PDF and you lose the trail and their attention on your site.

Play our 2-minute flash briefing episodes to hear more about the solution:

Part 1 of 2:

Whether you want to entice an audience with a white paper, infographic, or one-page PDF, here's why you should stop with those downloadable assets. Press play below:

Subscribe free to this daily show on your podcast app or Alexa Flash Briefing.

Part 2 of 2:

You want to keep users on your site, not send them off to a PDF where you lose insight on their activity and clicks. Downloadable PDFs are popular lead magnets (forms where users give their email address in exchange for downloading your content like a white paper, infographic, or one-page PDF).

What is a better lead magnet than a PDF?

Publish a short (100-200 word) indexable abstract followed by a form to fill out in order to access the full content. Have that full content appear on the page (staying on your site) only after they submit the form, giving their contact info.

That way you don’t lose tracking or engagement on your site to a static offline asset (PDF), or risk them forwarding it for free to their friends (also without any tracking or email addresses for you).

Keep users on your site which is designed to usher them through a purposeful buyer journey. Don’t send them off site!

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Advertising in 2020: Stats (3 Episode Miniseries on Voice Marketing Flash Briefing)

People wouldn’t mind if 77% of the world’s brands ceased to exist, according to a recent study by Havas. That’s up 3% from 2017.

Photo by Dan Farrell on Unsplash

6.5 minute listen:

Below you can play our three-part miniseries about key advertising and marketing stats for 2020. This aired on Voice Marketing with Emily Binder, our Flash Briefing and daily podcast (links to subscribe are at the bottom).

Episode 1 of 3: 84% Expect Content from Brands

Havas research from 2019 says that 84% of consumers expect brands to create content. But where will you create it tomorrow? Data from Havas’ global Meaningful Brands® 2019.

Episode 2 of 3: 70-80% of Consumers Avoid Paid Search Results

SEM, Your Days are Numbered

70-80% of consumers avoid clicking on paid search results - via Search Engine Land and/or Hubspot / IMForza.

Episode 3 of 3: Videos Are Shared 1,200% More

Videos are shared 1,200% more than text and links combined - Forbes.

Stay on Top of Marketing & Voice, Easily:

We publish new episodes every weekday! Listen free on Alexa or your podcast app:

Working from Home - Our Favorite Products for Productivity and Health

Are you working from home? Here’s a list of our favorite products including everything from electronics and computer equipment to natural snacks and ergonomic gear to make you more productive and energized.

Shop our favorite home office products from electronics to healthy snacks

The list includes:

• Backup cables (don't be quarantined without a spare charger!) #preparation

• Ergonomic desk gear (see Emily’s reviews of the best standing desks for more info)

• The best quality water filter (the Big Berkey removes pathogens, impurities, and more)

• Aromatherapy for natural energizing ambience (peppermint helps when you have OD’d on caffeine)

• Natural healthy snacks and mold-free coffee

• Laptops and USB-c / USB hub adapters (especially handy for Macbook and Macbook Pro)

Links support our podcast and help pay for hosting, so if you’re going to buy something, we appreciate your click-through!

YOUR HOME OFFICE SHOPPING LIST:

Working from Home Goodies and Gadgets - from Emily Binder's Recommendations

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Listen to Some Good News

Coronavirus got you down? Need a break from the headlines? Get Emily’s daily update about marketing and voice, a Flash Briefing of 2019 Award Finalist. It’s one to three minutes, every weekday.

How to listen:

1. Enable this Alexa Flash Briefing skill then say “Alexa, news”

2. Subscribe free in your favorite podcast app:

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.

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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.