VOICE ENTREPRENEUR WITH BEN SMITH #29
<5 min listen by audio:
Do people use Alexa on the weekend?
Today marks my 29th consecutive day of posting voice briefings on the Amazon Alexa platform. I’m one away from a month!
As a wannabe data nerd, I thought you might find it interesting to see what my listenership looks like:
Voice Entrepreneur daily streams (March 20th – April 18th 2018)
Via Pippa.io
1. Nobody listens on Saturdays
Those dips you see? Each of those dips represents a Saturday in the last month. I’m fascinated to see that people don’t use Alexa on weekends. I’m frankly a bit relieved to see people shut devices down at least temporarily in order to go do life things. It suggest to me that the morning routine and morning commute time is truly primetime in the Alexa world. I try to get my new briefing and blog post done by 7:20am pacific time every morning because I want to make sure my west coast listeners can catch a new episode as the day begins.
As a marketer, I find this data fascinating. If Alexa users don’t use flash briefings on weekends, then perhaps it’s better to create complementary skills that are more entertainment based for weekend interaction. If I’m marketing my flash briefing through Facebook ads (which I hope you’re doing), then maybe you don’t run Facebook ads on the weekends. I’m also thinking about changing the content format for the weekend to something that feels less “newsy”.
I’ll be exploring this trend in the months to come. I bet the Voice Entrepreneur community starts to figure out how to play it.
2. Consistent posting DOES create growth
As a new Alexa broadcaster and podcaster, it feels amazing to see my listener numbers go up and to the right. Starting a new podcast and voice briefing is not easy (simple, but not easy). It takes some time to find a voice, and to figure out the small details that make listening fun for listeners.
Posting everyday is highly recommended. I’m not even taking Saturdays and Sundays off because I want to get better, and I want to create a daily habit for users.
It pays off. While the listener numbers are not huge, I largely attribute the fast ramp to posting consistently every day. While it’s fantastic there are over 500,000 podcasts out in the wild, it also means I need to fight to be in your steady rotation, and for you to remember to keep playing the brief. Unless I’m as funny as John Oliver, I probably need to post daily in order to have my message heard in this era.
3. Library content is unsexy but does the heavy lifting
Were you shocked to read that 80% of views on Netflix comes from licensed library content, not their sexy originals?
I wasn’t.
There is a reason all of the film and TV studios are so valuable. The original IP these studios have created over the years is extremely valuable. Once original IP is created there is nearly zero additional cost to distribute and generate income for the studio. It’s the same with podcasts. Once I’ve created Voice Entrepreneur content, the library is there for all to enjoy with no additional work on my part. And it turns out, once a new listener finds you, they like to listen to the archive. It’s fun to go on binge benders. It’s a win/win all the way around.
I actually think this is one of the biggest issues for Amazon to solve. In order to become a hospitable place for podcasters and influencers, they will need to create Alexa archives that can be easily accessed and actively managed.
If you have questions, hit me up. I’m around, and here for you! As always, thanks for reading– Ben
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