What we talk about in this article
The Alexa skills store starts to fill up quickly.
Voice technology is gaining ground around the world, and even in this area, to become well-known, you will need a strategy to attract the attention of users. You will need a plan to promote your Alexa Skill.
Just as good marketing cannot make up for a poor product, a promotion strategy for a low-quality skill will not get you good results.
A successful skill must be very engaging for users and must meet (or even better exceed) their expectations to give a pleasant experience that they will want to repeat often.
When we have a good starting point, we can dedicate ourselves to promoting our skill.
Here are 7 useful tips that will help you and your skill be noticed in the Alexa store or in your network of contacts.
7 Ways to Promote Your Alexa Skill
1. Effective skill and invocation name
To sum it up very briefly you need to be able to find a clear name, simple to remember and pronounce.
Even better if the name already helps you to understand what the skill does and then what the user can expect using it.
For example, if you call your skill “Hotel Los Angeles”, it will be pretty clear right away what the content is about.
Find a short name and then test it properly to be sure before publishing the skill.
I recommend you read the article I linked to you here to find out the simplest and most effective process to test the trigger phrase.
2. Use an icon that catches your eye
Even if we talk about voice-based technology, the visual aspect still plays an important role in the discovery of skill.
To get the best out of the moments when users visit the store and scroll through the list of skills from their smartphone, an icon that stands out from the others can make a big difference.
Do not think you need an exaggerated design. Some of the best skills have a simple, clean design that already makes you guess the capabilities of the skill.
Make the icon recognizable, avoid details that you’d see badly in small sizes, use little or no text. Also, don’t use photographs (in smaller sizes they would be hard to see clearly.
Once you have caught your eye with your icon, it is time to win over the user with the description.
3. Write an attractive and valuable description
Imagine a person visiting the Alexa Skill Store.
He wants to activate some new skills to make his Echo device more complete.
It flows in the thousands and must evaluate what is right for you.
Some have a short, cool description that speaks only of what the skill does, its characteristics.
Then he finds one that has a detailed description that tells the functionality of the skill, the benefits of its use, enhances its value and makes you imagine while using it.
It shows usage examples, provides the main keywords to use to find it, informs you how often the skill will be updated with new content (so that retention can be fostered).
Which of the 2 types of description do you think will distinguish one skill from the others and prompt the person to activate it?
Even if the skill is perfectly realized, but not communicated properly, the perception will be of a skill like many others. Many users will continue to scroll through the list and activate those with more curated descriptions.
4. Send an email to your contacts
Family, friends, and colleagues are always a good audience to start communicating your news and promote your Alexa Skill.
Notify them with a short message that you have just published your skill, leave the link to the skill. It’s important to give some useful information on how to activate and invoke it.
You can also notify your existing customers (if you have any). The ones that you’ve added this new communication channel, to stay in touch with them.
Give us some examples of how it can be used and maybe enter some details in your newsletter.
5. Take advantage of your email signature
Signing your emails is an important space to give visibility to something you want to promote.
You could add the link to your skill, with a short description and maybe an example of a phrase that the user can pronounce to get started easily.
And since you now have a well-made icon, add that icon too (and join it anywhere with all your social icons).
6. Show off the skill on your site
Where better than your site to announce the launch of your skill?
Think of a short presentation message and put it on your homepage. Make it clear and visible by also inserting the link to the skill in the Alexa store.
Perhaps a blog announcing the launch of the skill with a specific post where you explain in more detail what the skill does. Add what your audience can achieve using it, and why you decided to build it.
7. Promote the Alexa Skill on your social channels
Create posts to introduce your skill, enter the link on the Alexa store or blog post you have written to announce it.
Think of a nice video in which you show the use of your skill. Also, show how it can be invoked and the main ways in which it can be used.
Post it on your main profiles and maybe consider an investment in advertising. This way, reaching a large audience who could be potentially interested (you could reach millions of people).
Well, we got to the end of this article.
There are 7 ways to promote your Alexa skill.
If you have tested others that have performed well let me know and I will be happy to add them to the list.
If you do not have a skill yet, click on “Get Started“ below to publish it in just 3 steps.
I am waiting for you.
Juxhin
CEO and Founder of IPERVOX
