@chrisbarrett Good question. We're wondering about that too. We are seeing a lot of attention in this area...but are not sure how effective it is in reaching new customers. At this relatively early stage I would say in general it's not a pure lead-gen play (although there are clever ways to reach new customers) but more of a part of a multi-channel app experience. (our clients are building Alexa skills as another touch-point for their customers...to make their existing customers lives easier). It will be interesting to see if the ecosystem evolves to include lead-gen as well...I think it's happening but not super mature yet.
Report
Super cool. Do you all have stats on whether or not building skills for Alexa makes sense for brands that are not household names? What can they get out of this platform?
@reidwegs Given that the platform is so new and growing so fast, we're seeing a lot of brands jump on it as an early-adopter investment. In the same way that the App Store had a some early huge winners the Alexa platform will too. So our advice is to focus on providing a really solid user experience, something small but valuable, and use it to augment your current service/platform. This could be a call to action (e.g. download our mobile app) ordering products (through Amazon, natch) or just something fun that drives brand awareness.
Really comes down to the network effect - if you want users/sales, go to the platform that has the most active community. Alexa's user adoption is growing REALLY fast and app developers need to take notice.
Not sure if it’s just me but Alexa “app store” right now feels a lot like “iOS app store” did when it first started out. Tons of big brands have launched their “voice apps”, many more coming, and it’s still the early days.
After reading this ebook I have to agree, it’s probably one of the most overlooked ways right now to find and reach out to new or existing customers. You can do pretty much anything such as:
*Ask customers to buy something
*Ask customers to subscribe to something
*Ask new users to download your app
*Send them a call to action
Found out about it here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/en...
Hey ProductHunters!
We're excited to be on ProductHunt! We're going all in on Alexa skills and have been trying to push the envelope when it comes to building unique skills for some huge brands/clients. It's lots of fun (and frankly at times a bit creepy) to have a bot do so much different tasks for you.
If you're not familiar with us, we're product folks who have worked at HubSpot/Brightcove/Circle here in Boston and are now trying to build the agency we always wanted to work with. Our gut tells us that Alexa/VUX is going to be big so we're learning/building as much as we can on the platform and sharing with others. (Kinda feels like the early days of the App Store)
If any of you guys have any questions about developing your own Alexa skills feel free to ask!
-Josh & the Rocket Insights Team
Report
Looks promising to see Echo and similar platforms open up more opportunities to integrate your product into an user's life (by making something more convenient or fun for them), instead of having to interrupt it (ie with push ads/marketing).
Cryptopotam.us
How To Build Alexa Skills
How To Build Alexa Skills
How To Build Alexa Skills
TopicRanker
How To Build Alexa Skills