You may already have a system in place where you reach out to many potential clients each month. However, putting yourself on the map can be challenging. How do you find the right clients so that you know for sure it will strengthen your VO business on the long run? How can we influence relationships with clients so they get to know us and then book us for their next project?
Let's create a winning voice-over marketing strategy
Your starting point: Make a clear choice
You do this by asking yourself the right questions. Crystal clear questions, lead to crystal clear answers. For a start you could write down where your strengths and weaknesses are in voice-over. What type of work would you like to do? Who would you like to work with? Write it all down, don’t hold yourself back. Be generous to yourself and dare to think much further than you ever imagined. Write down what you could do for small businesses and large corporations or brands. Let’s say you would like to voice for BMW. Would you like to voice explainer videos, be the voice in their next ad which airs in the cinema or are you happy to voice tutorials for employees of BMW who need education to learn their skill and craft? Be very specific. Define it for yourself and write it down.
What have you got to offer?
Without sounding harsh, the key here is to NOT put yourself in the centre point of attention. A good question to ask yourself is: what is this client looking for when they work with voice-over talent? What are their needs? Write down what your specialties are; are your recordings clean, ready to use, do you offer several reads, how fast can you deliver the audio etc..? But also, think of how you could serve your clients by talking about them on social media or your own blog. After you have worked with them, would it be an idea to send them nice gift or a personalized card, thanking them for a job you worked on? If they are local, why not ask to meet up for a coffee? The feedback you get from these conversations is a very powerful way to find out what your clients needs.
Beat Fear – Big time!
Stop thinking what someone else might think. We have enough to think about ourselves. But it’s not easy to do, as we all fall for these voices in our head. However, the way to beat that fear is to keep in mind what you want to achieve – your goal. Never let go of it and powerfully move towards it. One day you might struggle, but the next day you are moving forward again. This is perfectly normal. However, don’t be beaten by fear. Drown it out by staying focused on your Voice-over Marketing Strategy. You’ll never know how much you would have saved the day for someone if you never reached out to them. You are not a failure if something didn’t work out. It’s just feedback that it wasn’t meant to be. Your position just got stronger. You now know what to do to succeed next time.
What are your fears? Let’s face them and write them down. Then write next to it one thing you could do to change that for yourself. You will see that fear is not you. You are not fear. It’s something outside that we can shut down and turn off by approaching it head on and doing the opposite of what it wants us to do.
Drown fear out by staying focused on your marketing strategy
Plan ahead in time
They say that timing is everything. Also, it will take time for a client to get to know you. It might take 7-10 times to reach a potential client before they would like to use your services. A good thing to do is to allocate moments in your calendar for the year to come, when you will contact these people, without sounding repetitive or “stalky”.
Be resourceful and “outsourceful”
Realise that no voice-over artist is able to do everything by themselves. We live in a time of resourcefulness. Sometimes this means delegating a task to someone else, whilst you are able to shine in your creativity. Marketing is a profession. It evolves all the time. There is a lot you can learn by reading books, viewing videos on YouTube or social media, but marketing is a job in itself. Sometimes it can be wiser to talk to an expert. It might cost a little, but it will be done well and bring the results you are looking for.
Are there any areas that you could outsource so that you can focus on your skill set and deliver outstanding VO reads? Write them down and work towards it.
Running a voice-over business is hard work and it can easily feel overwhelming. Creating your ‘Voice-over Marketing Strategy’ will help you to see things much clearer. Small steps lead to great results.
