Slides presented at Atlanta Marketing Innovation group by Elizabeth Simpson, Steve Youngblood, and Caroline Dunn on August 22, 2019
Agenda:
- Is Voice the Next Frontier? - Dunn
- Best Alexa Skills - Youngblood
- Best Practices for Designing - Simpson
3. LIZ SIMPSON
• Co-Chair Women Driving
Innovation
• TAG Emeritus Council
member
• ADG CTO-Geek who loves
to create and innovate!
Alexa, Play National
Anthems.
“Give me a Hint”
Hobbies: Darwin the Sheltie and
Painting
4. Steve Youngblood
● 30 Years in Software Product
Management, Sales and CxO
● Defined, built and launched
products that led an IPO
● Started Alexa Skill building in
early 2016
● Currently CTO building a new
B2B/B2C marketplace
● BSBA from the University of
Florida
● MBA from the University of
North Carolina - Charlotte
5. CAROLINE DUNN
• Only Female and only
Atlanta Amazon Alexa Top
10 Finalist 2019
• 2018 New York City
Marathon Finisher
• AWS Certification
9. COMMON QUESTIONS
•How can I change
Alexa’s answers to
promote my business?
•How can I use Alexa to
collect user’s contact
info?
•Amazon decides
Alexa’s answers
• User opt-ins are
required for sharing
contact info
10. HOW CAN I AUGMENT MY MARKETING
STRATEGY WITH ALEXA?
Answer: Deploy an Alexa Skill
for your company.
•”Control” the narrative
•Call your company “Innovative”
•Stay a step ahead of your
competitors
11. WHAT IS AN ALEXA SKILL?
• Similar to an app on your
smartphone
• Brands can publish content to
Alexa
• Free and Freemium models
• News, games, entertainment,
information
• User must “open” or “launch”
selected skill
14. STEVE YOUNGBLOOD
• 30 Years in Software Product
Management, Sales and CxO
• Defined, built and launched
products that led an IPO
• Started Alexa Skill building in
early 2016
• Currently CTO building a new
B2B/B2C marketplace
• BSBA from the University of
Florida
• MBA from the University of
20. Pandora Radio
Links to your Pandora account.
Supports your existing channels.
Supports “discovery” creating
new stations as you request
hearing a new artist.
Supports tuning via thumbs up
and down.
22. Geography Trivia
“Alexa, Open Geography
Trivia
“Which city was built in 1908 as the
capital of its country as a compromise to
the country's two largest cities vying for
the honour?”
24. Geography Trivia
Quiz and Trivia skills are fun,
teaching and simple. Reference
for both young and old.
25. What Types of
Skills are
Great?
● Ones that involve interaction between the
skill and the user
● Multi-player games
● Instant gratification such as turning on
and off electrical items
● Ones that can deliver status, such as the
Nest skill
● Ones that provide feedback-based on
input, like Running Clothes
26. Where Do Skills
Have Greater
Meaning?
● When they touch APIs to deliver account
specific information
● When they tie into other modes of
interaction (SMS, Web)
● Multi-player/user
27. Liz Simpson
● Co-Chair Women Driving Innovation
● TAG Emeritus Council member
● ADG CTO-Geek who loves to create
and innovate!
Alexa, Play National
Anthems.
“Give me a Hint”
Hobbies: Darwin the Sheltie and
Painting
29. Brand Recognition
• Invocation Name
• No confusion with Alexa features (weather, play,
pause)
• Represent skill’s functionality or relevance to your
brand
• Avoid numbers
• Two + words (exception if your brand is single
word i.e. Spanx)
• Logo
• BRAND Recognition
• Cards
• QUALITY images, simple fonts
31. SMART Objectives
(Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Tested)
• Friendly, Helpful, Conversational
• Purpose driven
• Avoid misunderstandings, USE AI
• One breath speech, ELEVATOR PITCH
• Plan for the UNEXPECTED
• uh, umm, IDK
• Background noise
• No response, Variances
• BE FORGIVING!
Hmm, I’m not sure. Can you
repeat that?
32. SMART Objectives
(Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Tested)
• Set the Destination
• Plan for the Unexpected
• uh, umm, IDK
• Background noise
• No response, Variances
• BE FORGIVING!
Hmm, I’m not sure. Can you
repeat that?
33. Measurable Results
• Custom skills
• Unique customers (overall and intents)
• Interaction Paths taken
• Retention Rate
• Session metrics (incl failures and no response)
• In skill purchasing
• Purchases (by product, product type, total)
• Repeat purchases
• Upsell conversions
• Offer impressions
• Subscriptions
• Total subscribers, Ended or Expired subscriptions
34. Privacy
• Is Big Brother listening?
• Records only on wake word
• Certification by Amazon (they check privacy)
• Account Linking
• Permission for skill to collect user information
• Pulled from Amazon account
• Location, Name, address
• Purchasing privileges
• Delete History
• Alexa app
• Similar to browser history
NOTE: Recordings are stored so that your device service can learn and become ‘smarter’.
3. 13% of all households in the United States owned a smart speaker in 2017, per OC&C Strategy Consultants. That number is predicted to rise to 55% by 2022.
4. There will be an estimated 21.4 million smart speakers in the US by 2020, per Activate.
5. The voice recognition market will be a $601 million industry by 2019, per Technavio.
6. One-in-six Americans (16%) own a voice activated smart-speaker, per Edison Research and NPR.