Why New Alexa Programming Tricks Are a Treat For Users
In a very short period of time, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant have gone from tech novelty to an honorary member of the family for millions of people. With Alexa programming growing ever more refined and powerful, it seems as if there’s no end to what smart speakers can do around the house. And now thanks to some recent upgrades, you can add “trick or treating management” and “voting assistance” to the list. Why Alexa’s new tricks are a real treat Alexa’s ability to respond to what’s happening in the world around us is one of its most intriguing qualities. A great recent example is Alexa’s capability for making event-driven announcements via smart cameras and doorbells. These announcements can be customized to fit almost any event, including holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions. During Halloween, if a smart doorbell sees kids approaching, Alexa can be programmed to turn on house lights and music and either welcome trick or treaters to a home — or inform them that the candy supply has been depleted and the home is closed until next year. Amazon released two new APIs (Doorbell Event Source and Motion Sensor) that allow developers to quickly and easily add this functionality. Once added, Alexa users can enable the announcement feature in Alexa’s Smart Home device settings section. This new integrated feature comes off the heels of Amazon’s recent purchase of Ring, the smart doorbell company. Some Alexa devices (including the Echo Spot and Show, also allow for the enabling of two-way communication via smart camera between residents and those knocking on their doors. How Alexa is creating more informed voters Halloween isn’t the only example of Amazon working to make Alexa’s skills more timely and relevant. Prior to Election Day in the United States on Nov. 6, Amazon equipped Alexa with a much wider base of election data. This information included polling station locations, real-time election results, and detailed information about various local ballot measures — exactly the kind of information that voters need, but often have a hard time finding in one central location. All of the election information delivered by Alexa is strenuously non-partisan; Amazon worked with three partners to help furnish the necessary data: RealClearPolitics for polling, the Associated Press for election results and Ballotpedia for ballot measure language and explanations. Amazon said it chose these sources because they were the most “credible and neutral” that the company could find. Amazon assembled its own “war room” of data scientists, engineers, and other personnel to ensure the election information provided by Alexa was as accurate as possible. Given the recent electoral disinformation controversies involving Facebook and other social platforms, it’s not surprising that Amazon chose to prioritize neutrality and accuracy. For Alexa users, the ability to access high-quality election data that’s updated in real time is a significant plus — and one more example of how Alexa programming is improving the lives of users in small but tangible ways. Looking for a skilled Alexa programming partner? As a digital marketing agency, we help clients maximize the reach and power of Alexa by creating skills that help deliver valuable products, services, and information to their consumers. If your business could benefit from a new, more sophisticated approach to Alexa programming, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.
How to get your business on the first page of Google through SEO
With the data suggesting that there are more than 6 billion Google searches each day and that 91.5% of the total clicks go to websites listed on the first page of Google, it’s no surprise that the first page is a popular place to be. But how can you make sure your business appears there? There are actually many ways to appear on the first page of Google – from paid listings through AdWords, to local listings on Google My Business, to news listings for certain queries. But when you are looking to appear on the first page, the primary place to start is with the organic listings. These listings appear on every single Google search results page, and show 7 to 10 webpages that are both relevant to the search query and well-structured for search engine optimization, or SEO. Since these listings make up the majority of first page results, we’ll focus on the process behind trying to get your webpages ranked in this very important space. As with most things in life, good search engine optimization (SEO) and ranking on the first page of Google starts with research. Keyword research can be used to determine categorically those services and goods that your target audience is using the internet to search for or conduct research on. (And the data suggests that it’s over 80% of their major purchases)! More specifically, keyword research allows you to determine what keywords your audience is using when they search for specific products. You could have the best SEO in the world, and yet if you haven’t done the research to know that your consumers are searching for – such “gizmos” and not “gadgets”, Google won’t see your page as relevant enough to rank on the first page for all the users who are searching for “gizmos”. [blogCTA] Request a free SEO report [/blogCTA] Keyword research: The beginning of the SEO process Keyword research is the process of using Google’s search tools to build out a list of commonly searched keywords with statistics such as their average monthly searches, competition rating, and average cost per click price from AdWords. It’s best to utilize keyword research to find low-hanging fruit: keywords that have high monthly searches and a low competition rating. And if those keywords also happen to have a high average cost per click, well, that’s even better – if people who are purchasing keywords for paid search commonly view that keyword as being valuable enough to spend a lot of money to purchase, then it’s probably a strong keyword! After you’ve completed your research and identified which keywords are likely to be the best drivers of qualified traffic to your website, you’ll want to choose one keyword to represent the content of each page you are expecting to receive organic search traffic from. If you are designing your website as you begin this process, remember that each of these pages will be an entry page for new users who may not have heard of your brand before, or may be unfamiliar with your services. You’ll want to choose a single keyword for each page, so that you can be sure that you are structuring the content on the page to specifically provide the information that users are looking for when they are searching. Remember that people search online to answer a specific need, and if you are not answering that need, they will look elsewhere. Webpages that have strong content that is built to answer a well-researched, common search query are the ones that do best in Google. This is as a result of Google’s SEO ranking algorithm, designed to find content that will answer Google searchers’ needs. The last thing Google wants is for users to click on multiple webpages listed on the first page of Google and not find the information they were searching for. If Google search results couldn’t consistently provide people with the information they are seeking, we would quickly learn to go elsewhere and Google’s central business model would be in serious trouble. Technical SEO After you’ve crafted your content to reflect exactly what users are searching for – utilizing the specific keyword you’ve researched – there’s still some minor search engine optimization work to be done. What is left to be completed are the on-page factors that let Google know you have taken their algorithm’s needs and limitations into consideration, and optimized your webpage accordingly. This is oftentimes referred to as technical SEO, as it pertains to the HTML attributes of a page – the H1 heading, title tag, meta description, and any image or video ALT tags. The H1 heading is general used by a content management system or CMS as the headline of any page, and Google views this as a succinct description of what a page contains. Depending on how much content you have on your page, you may also have H2 headings and H3 headings, which function as sub-headlines to break-up content. Since the H1 heading is a description of what your page content is about, Google looks to make sure that it is relevant to a given search query. You should also be sure to utilize the keyword you have chosen for your page in the H1 heading, and likely in the H2 and H3 headings, as well, if applicable. The title tag (sometimes called the SEO title) and the meta description are the two aspects of your page that Google uses to showcase your webpage in the search results. The title tag will be shown underlined in large, blue font on the search results page, with the meta description included in a smaller grey font beneath it, and the URL. Not only does Google use these attributes to show your webpage to searchers, it also emboldens any words in your title tag and meta description that match a given search query. That means that including your chosen keyword in these attributes will increase the likelihood searchers will click your result
The Expert Methods For Reaching the Luxury Customer
When you think of a luxury consumer, what comes to mind? Is it a young tech millionaire? A wealthy housewife? Someone living off of a family trust fund? At our Orlando marketing agency, we believe that if you’re dealing in luxury goods or services, it’s important to have a deep understanding of your customers – and, perhaps more importantly, how they behave in both the world and in the digital space. This is particularly true with higher-end consumers, as their discriminating taste means they have higher expectations than a typical consumer. For this reason, it’s critically important to employ expert methods to reach your ideal luxury customer. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that the number of luxury goods purchasers increased to 330 million in 2013, and could be as high as 500 million by 2030. The article attributes this growth to rising wealth in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. And, more than half of these purchasers are age 49 or older. Just 13% are between ages 13 and 33. Contrary to what one might think, an article in Forbes points out that luxury consumers love to shop at Costco, which is a far from glamorous experience. However, alongside the rows upon rows of bulk toilet paper and paper towels, Costco also sells things like vacation packages, high-quality electronics and expensive watches. It’s not exactly what you might picture the luxury shopper doing, but it’s important to understand this mindset and behavior. The reality is that even when these consumers are spending a lot of money, they’re still also always looking for a deal. Many luxury consumers don’t even leave their homes to shop. According to Luxury Daily, in Q4 of 2014, 92% of affluent shoppers made a purchase online. Think With Google reports that in mature markets such as the United States, 69% of all luxury customers searched online before making a purchase, and in newer markets like China, Brazil and Russia, 92% of luxury consumers went online to search before making a purchase. Knowing that the market is rising and that people are using the Internet to guide their purchases and, in many cases, to actually make purchases, it’s increasingly important for luxury marketers to realize that their digital presence is a reflection of who they are as brands. Every time a person has a bad experience with your website or can’t read your email because your business’s emails aren’t optimized for mobile, you’re putting up a figurative wall between your brand and your customer. [quote]Particularly when dealing in luxury goods, the experience is part of the decision-making process.[/quote] It’s hard to convince someone you’re a luxury retailer if your website looks like something you could have designed with clipart on Geocities in 2004. It’s also becoming more and more important for luxury marketers to engage their communities online. If they’re not actively sharing content and jumping into the conversation, they may be costing themselves thousands of dollars in sales each year. The Internet is full of rich data as to how people are using their luxury products and services, and conducting a social media listening audit is typically much less expensive than a focus group. If you’re a luxury retailer and you’ve decided it’s time to finally take your digital presence to the next level, let the passionate folks at our Orlando ad agency help you! From business planning to branding to execution, we’re here to help you revamp your marketing plan, or can even build it from the ground up! Contact us today!
Hyper Targeted Advertising in a Spike Jonze World
Recently, I had a chance to see Her, the Spike Jonze-directed film about a man who falls in love with a human-like operating system. It is a wonderful film, and certainly is deserving of its place as an Academy Award-nominated film this awards season. However, plot details aside, watching the film led me to think about about marketing and advertising in a new way, and to consider whether the current landscape push towards trends such as personalization and geolocation is actually a good thing. How do we address hyper targeted advertising in a Spike Jonze world – of sorts. These days, companies are striving to give us each personalized experiences on our cell phones, tablets and laptop computers. Every day, more and more services spring up, trying to give you insights into the world around you. Many of these businesses purport to clear the noise by offering personalized recommendations as to where to eat breakfast, or which gym to join. But, often times all they do is cause more clutter. The question that one might ask is, “Is hyper targeted advertising actually bad for us?” In the movie, it’s not clear – there are both plusses and minuses to such a hyper specific system that clearly understands the users thoughts, feelings and emotions. But, alas, that’s just a movie, written, shot and performed in a such a way as to help explore our deepest sense of what it means to be human. In the real world, it seems that the answers are much clearer. For example, society hasn’t yet reached a place where artificial intelligence is a reality — just ask anyone from our Florida advertising agency who’s ever tried to get an answer from Siri and has been repeatedly given incorrect results, sometimes to the point of absurdity. We’re a long way from living in a world where machines can fulfill our deepest emotional needs. Rather, it is the content therein that often fulfills us. For example, reading your favorite blog encourages you to be more proactive about your health or your career. When you’re bored, services like Meetup and Eventbrite can inspire a person to take action, to partake in the events going on in the world around them.[quote]Even looking at pictures of food on a friend’s Instagram account can inspire a feeling of positivity and comfort.[/quote] In a lot of ways, the hyper-targeting based on our personal wants and needs seems to be helping us fulfill those internal desires to connect with others. And, with the added convenience of being able to do these things on the fly, one can make a strong argument that our constant connectivity brings us closer together. Of course, that’s sometimes harder to believe when an acquaintance spends a full five minutes browsing the internet while you’re out to dinner together. Still, it seems to me and the team at our Orlando ad agency that being able to receive personalized recommendations based on your location, age, gender, preferences and a host of other factors seems to be the best way to receive and digest information. Until we reach the day where artificial intelligence can seriously impede our need to communicate socially as human beings, then I believe we can live in a world where our connectedness can continue to bring us closer together. For more on hyper targeted advertising strategies, contact our team of experts today to make a new connection!
