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3 Criteria for Vetting Voice Over Leads

Before you invest a lot of time in researching and pursuing voice over leads, it’s always nice to know if there’s potential for return. Although it’s impossible to know this up front every time, there are certain things you can look for with each lead to help determine if they’re worth connecting with.

Watch this video tip for the 3 main criteria I use to vet each voice over lead.

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Why You’re Not Marketing

Marketing is so hard.

“I don’t know what to do. I’m not sure where to start. I don’t know what to say.”

Ever feed yourself any of those lines?

After you did, what happened next?

  • You signed up for another casting site and spent your day auditioning?
  • You fell down a social media rabbit hole and lost an hour on Facebook?
  • You went back to binge watching your new favourite show on Netflix?
  • You spent some more time complaining that you haven’t got enough opportunities?
  • You doubted yourself and your abilities because the work isn’t there?
  • You cleaned your house, mowed the lawn, ran an errand?
  • You bought a new piece of studio equipment thinking that would solve your problem?
  • You decided to outsource your marketing, except you never actually followed through?
  • You sent out a tweet directing people to your demo, and called it good enough?
  • You send a couple blind connections on LinkedIn to make yourself feel better?
  • You booked another voice over conference thinking that’ll help your career?
  • You spent an hour in a meaningless text conversation with a friend?
  • You read another book or another blog about marketing but didn’t take any action?
  • You downloaded a podcast to listen to, meanwhile, not doing any marketing?
  • You sent demos to six more agents, despite having no work from your current three?
  • You joined a Facebook rant about rates and blamed Fiverr for your problems?
  • You booked a session with a big name performance coach so you can name drop?

Majoring On Minors

After all this, you’re no closer to new work because you still haven’t done the things you need to do to find new leads… because it’s sooooooooo hard.

You sound like my five-year-old when I ask her to clean her room.

“But Daddy, it’s soooooooo hard.”

Harsh?

Let me remind you, a good coach tells you what you need to hear. Not what you want to hear.

Obstacles Aren’t The Problem

Next time to wonder why your business isn’t where you want it to be, and why you’re not booking as many jobs you want, remind yourself of this quote.

“You aren’t stopped by obstacles, but by easier paths to lesser goals.”
Benjamin P. Hardy

In other words, the fact that you don’t know how to market (so you tell yourself) is not the reason you’re not doing it. The reason you’re not doing it is because all those things I just mentioned above are easier. Paths of least resistance.

As long as you’re doing work you’re making progress, right?

Wrong!

Do you know why Musk, Bezos and Zuck are billionaires with the same 24 hours a day as you and me?

They’re intentional with their time and they work with purpose.

They don’t do easy stuff to avoid hard stuff.

They do what needs to be done.

You don’t have bookings because you’re not doing what needs to be done. #vopreneur
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If you don’t have a voice over booking this week, it’s because you’re not doing what needs to be done. You’re taking easier paths to lesser goals.

What To Do Next

Know what you need to do now?

Close this browser window, turn off all notifications on your phone, lock the office door, and don’t let yourself get up from your desk for any reason until you’ve contacted at least twenty new leads today.

Then do it again tomorrow…

And the next day…

And the day after that…

And… you get the idea…

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What’s Your One Thing?

Everything isn’t a priority.

Repeat that phrase. Out loud.

“Everything isn’t a priority.”

When you allow your task list to continue to grow, eventually you begin to feel overwhelmed. Once you feel overwhelmed, you end up getting stuck.

“Where do I start?”

When you don’t have an answer to that question, you end up not starting at all. You get paralyzed. Stuck.

Are you nodding your head in frustrated agreement right now because I just summarized your current state?

The best way to overcome it, is to figure out The One Thing.

What’s the MOST important thing you need to be doing right now? No… for the record… they aren’t ALL important!

Pick the one thing.

Take the first step.

Task lists can be great tools when they’re used properly. That includes prioritizing them.

Everything isn’t a priority.#vopreneur
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What’s Your One Thing?

What NEEDS to be done and what you’d like to do aren’t always the same thing.

Do what NEEDS to be done.

What is it?

  • Finding some new leads?
  • Sending some follow up emails?
  • Making a few marketing touches on social media?
  • Chasing down a couple of invoices?
  • Finally booking a session with that performance coach?
  • Reaching out to those past clients?
  • Writing and mailing a couple postcards?
  • Posting that new demo on your website?
  • Getting that website built?

One of the reasons I’m able to stay so productive is because I know what’s important and what isn’t. I plan out my week for success by choosing just a few goals that will get accomplished and not worrying about the rest.

Prioritize and take action.

Even small action.

Any action is better than no action.

Yes… you’ve got a million things that need to get done. They don’t all need to get done today.

Figure out your one thing and get started. Deal with the rest tomorrow.

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How to Fail at Marketing

The week before I go away on any kind of trip, whether it’s a vacation, a conference or otherwise, I do very little marketing for my voice over business.

Although I always teach that marketing takes time, and very seldom will you generate work based off the first email, it does happen. Not very often, but it does happen. The last thing I want is to market my voice over services to someone, talk with them about my quick turnaround times, and then have them book me while I’m away.

How’s that for a first impression?

Yes, I can deliver your audio in 24 hours or less… except this week… because I’m away… and you’ll need to wait five days.

That’s an impression I never want to make; so to avoid it, I just don’t reach out to new leads a week before my trip.

If a new client reaches out to me, I want to deliver fast. I want to wow them with that first project so they’ll be more likely to come to me with the second. Third. Fourth. Twenty-second.

The Wrong Way to Market

Recently, I found myself in need of a freelancer. I was looking to get some work done that I didn’t have time for and I was comfortable with outsourcing. I inquired in a few places and put out a few feelers to see what kind of names would turn up.

One particular person responded to my query via social media… which was great.

This same person did not tell me how to actually contact them… which was bad.

Normally, I’d use that practice as a filter to eliminate unqualified candidates. If you can’t even give me your contact information, after all, you must not want to work with me very badly!

In this case, I chose to look past the error. I was able to find the individuals website and sent them a message.

It’s been two weeks.

Crickets.

After expressing an interest in taking on my project – for which I would’ve paid them an hourly rate – they first failed to give me contact information and then failed to respond to my message when I reached out via their website.

This person just lost the opportunity to work with me.

If you fail to follow through on your own marketing attempts, you’re going to lose more clients than you’ll ever book.
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What Kind of First Impression Are You Making?

If you can’t even be responsible enough to run your own business, why in the world would I trust you with part of mine?

I don’t market to new leads before I go away, because I know if one of them did decide to book me right away, I wouldn’t be able to deliver the very service I would be pitching them in my email.

This person offered me a service, and then failed not once, but twice, to follow through with their offer.

That’s how you fail at marketing!

Whatever it is you’re selling on your website. Whatever the copy is in your marketing emails. Whatever you’re offering on social media. You better be ready, willing and able to deliver.

If you’re making a bad first impression, you likely won’t receive a chance to make a second.

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5 Ways to Stay Top of Mind Without Being Annoying

Touches.

You’ll hear me use this term a lot when I speak about marketing. It’s a term you need to be familiar with. For the record, it has nothing to do with getting physical. Definitely NOT that kind of touch!

Touches is the term I use for connecting with your voice over leads, prospects and clients to keep yourself top of mind.

When it’s time for them to book their next voice over recording, you want to be the first name they think of.

Inevitably you’re now proclaiming, “but Marc, how do I do this without being annoying?”

I’m glad you asked.

Stop Thinking You’re Annoying

The first thing we need to address is this HUGE elephant in the room. The notion that by reaching out to people you’re annoying them. Going into any marketing effort with that mindset is NEVER going to pay off for you. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that mindset has probably kept you from doing a lot of marketing.

Am I right?

I figured as much!

Here’s the fact you need to accept before we go any further. You offer a valuable service to people. Your professional narration is going to enhance their video. Tell their story. Effectively deliver their message. Give life to their commercial. Engage their audience.

You’re not reaching out to annoy people. You’re reaching out to add value to their work!

Repeat that last statement for me.

“I’m not reaching out to annoy people. I’m reaching out to add value to their work!”

This is fact, and I’m glad we cleared that little misconception up. Now we can move on.

5 Ways to Stay Top of Mind Without Being Annoying

The key to making effective touches is to remember it’s not about constantly selling or pitching. You’ve already made contact. They already know who you are and that you’re a professional voice actor. Now your objective is to simply remind them, from time-to-time, that you’re here and available if they need you.

Vacation Notice: ‘Tis the season for summer vacation and this brings about an amazing opportunity to bring yourself top of mind. Let your existing clients know the dates you’ll be out of the office and that you’re making yourself available to accommodate any of their voice over needs before you go. Planning on traveling with gear? Let them know that too.

This isn’t annoying because it’s offering value. It’s giving them a heads up so they can get their projects done before you go, rather than leaving them stuck waiting for your return. Or, worse yet, having to book another VO. Once you lose a client for that reason, it might be hard to get them back.

Your Project: A few weeks after you deliver a voice over recording to your client, look for the project online. Granted, not every project is going to make it to the interwebs, but many do. If you can find it, you now have a reason to reach out and get top of mind. Let them know you saw the project. Tell them they did a great job on the production. Ask them if they mind if you share it on social media. Get permission to use it for demo purposes.

This isn’t annoying because you’re complimenting their work and offering to spread the word via your network. When you share the project via social media, don’t share it by saying, “look at this VO I did.” Rather, share it as a fan telling your friends about a great service or brand.

Thank You: When the cheque arrives, the PayPal notice comes in, or the invoice is otherwise cleared, say thanks. This is especially convenient if you’re on 30 day terms with clients. It’s been a month since you completed the project, and now you just got back on their mind again.

This isn’t annoying because, well, quite frankly, it’s just polite!

What’s New: Has it been a while since you last connected with a prospect or client because you just haven’t been able to find a good reason to reach out? One of my favorite emails for this exact situation is simply to send a note asking if they’re working on anything new. Remember, you’re not selling. You’re just connecting.

This isn’t annoying because you’re simply showing interest in them and their work, and let’s be honest… we all love to talk about cool projects we’re working on.

Get Social: Did they share something on Twitter? Reply. Did they post something on Facebook? Comment. Did they write an article on LinkedIn? Share it! All of these social triggers are simple, effective ways to bring yourself top of mind.

This isn’t annoying because it’s how social media works!

Want to get in touch with your #voiceover prospects and clients without being annoying? Check out these five tips!
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Just Do It!

All five of these simple tips offer you convenient ways to get back in front of your prospects and clients without selling, pitching, or otherwise annoying. These are just relationship building techniques that all add value and serve a purpose.

The most important thing you can do to grow your database and convert leads to prospects and prospects to clients is to make those touches every week.

How many? That depends on the size of your database, but I always say if you’re reaching 50 new leads each week, then you should have a large enough database to make 50 touches each week too.

Get a system in place, like a CRM, and start holding yourself accountable to making those touches and staying top of mind. The success of your business depends on it!