I know what you’re thinking, marketers and small business owners.

“I can’t even get my website right, let alone create social media content, and now some dude is telling me I need a presence on Alexa?”

Yep. You want to be in business over the next 10-20 years?

Having an Alexa Skill or Podcast or some other kind of audio content or skill available on Alexa Enabled devices like Echo or Echo Dot by Amazon, or even the Roav Viva Alexa-Enabled Car Charger, is going to go beyond just customer acquisition.

Correction, already has gone far beyond customer acquisition. It’s going to hit the heart of your business within the next 4-6 years.

What am I talking about? Employee recruitment and retention.

That’s right, St. Louis University just ordered 2,300 Echo Dots for all campus housing, meaning 2,300+ more young professionals entering the workforce will have familiarity and affinity to voice-activated digital content, marketing and software.

This not only means they’ll consume their information via voice and expect this experience from those they interact with as consumers, but it will become a prerequisite for vetting who they want to start or continue their careers with, just as a company’s website is and was back in 2005.

But the good news for you small business owners and Marketing Directors is that the cost of entry on Alexa right now is slim to none, especially to create a simple skill like an Alexa Flash Briefing, which is essentially a consistent audio content snippet that gets deployed consistently into the Alexa Skill store that can tell your company’s story, provide useful or educational information to your current and prospective audience, and/or provide information on deals, hours of operation, or expected crowds/lines at your store/business.

If you polled 10 colleagues now, maybe 2 would say that they own an Alexa enabled device and they would say that they only use it for streaming music or asking what time it is or checking the weather report.

But the proof is in the data. 2,300+ more super qualified US residents soon to be in the B2B space are “growing up with the technology.”

And where St. Louis University started, dozens of others are soon to follow.

The current Alexa whitespace will soon become a crowded party. Build your knowledge and Skills now.

We can help.

Hit me up with any questions anytime at paul@datadriven.design.

Thanks for reading, watching and listening, and have a great day!

KEEP MARKETING!

Paul Hickey, Founder / CEO / Lead Strategist at Data Driven Design, LLC has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.