Tag: Prospecting

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How To Use Your Marketing Tools

A frustrated voice talent comes seeking advice.

“I’ve got a great demo. I’ve got a website. I post on Twitter. Why am I not booking more voice over work? What am I doing wrong?”

“Tell me about your marketing efforts,” I reply.

“Well, I have a great demo. I’ve got a website. I post on Twitter.”

“Ok, I understand that, but what about your marketing efforts? Tell me about your marketing efforts. What are you doing with that great demo and website and Twitter account?”

“I don’t have time for more marketing,” is their frustrated response. The conversation ends.

Don’t Have Time For Marketing

There’s only one logical reason why a voice talent should have no time for marketing. That’s because they’re so busy in the studio all day everyday with paid voice over gigs that there’s no time left for anything else.

Even then, they should be finding a way to market!

2015-baseball-cardsHot streaks happen. Dry spells are practically inevitable. If you’re not continuing to market yourself during the hot streaks, the dry spells could very well last a lot longer!

To be clear, simply having a demo, a website and a Twitter account are no more marketing than having a collection of baseball cards is the equivalent of owning a Major League franchise.

Never Stop Marketing

When I started getting busy with regular voice over work walking through the door I was having a hard time keeping up with my daily marketing goals. I knew if I didn’t find a way to keep making new contacts eventually the work would dry up.

I don’t want work to dry up.

That’s when I hired a Virtual Assistant. I set my VA up with everything necessary to help me keep up with my marketing. They spend an hour a day, five days a week finding and reaching out to prospective clients. That way, even when I’m busy, there’s always new prospects flowing into my pipeline.

If you’re going to build a successful voice over business it will be built on the back of your marketing efforts. Click to Tweet

How You Use Your Tools

Your demo does you no good if people aren’t hearing it.

Your website does you no good if people aren’t visiting it.

Your Twitter does you no good if you’re not working it.

Effective marketing isn’t simply having these tools. It’s how you’re using them and making them work for you.

So… how’s your marketing?

Thanks for sharing this post from Marc Scott's Voice Over Blog.

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Clarifying A Fact About Following Up

In last weeks video tip (check it out here) I shared some stats about following up with potential voice over clients. One of those stats generated a lot of questions and comments. In this weeks video, I clarify that questionable stat.

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How To Avoid Prospecting Where There Is No Gold

I talk a lot about the idea of prospecting. For those who have missed it, or those unfamiliar, prospecting (in the voice over world) is about the quest to find new clients. And that doesn’t mean auditioning all day on Pay 2 Play sites.

Prospecting is about reaching out to potential clients directly. This can happen in any number of  ways including, but not limited to, emailing, cold-calling, networking groups, social media, referrals, etc.

How To Avoid Prospecting Where There Is No Gold

gold-panning_large-300x241_zps50ec09be.png-originalObviously the idea of prospecting is to find gold (clients, jobs, money, etc). But occasionally, for one reason or another, we find ourselves prospecting where there is no gold.

  • Businesses who don’t use voice over.
  • Clients who already have a VO talent.
  • Companies that do work internally.
  • A producer that wants a female voice and you’re a man!

So you ask, can prospecting where there is no gold be avoided in any way?

To a certain degree… yes. I believe it can.

A Quick Tip Before You Dig In

breaking-groundIn this day and age basically every production house has a website. And, as has become my experience in prospecting, many of those websites include pricing information for their packages.

If you visit one of these websites and the production house is offering fully produced professional videos for $199, ask yourself this question… how much of that budget do you suppose will be dedicated to voice over?

Before you even grab your shovel, you know it’s not worth trying to dig in. There will be no gold for you in that claim!

Doing a little bit of research ahead of time can save you a lot of time in the long run. Rather than going back and forth with a client where there really is no potential for you to draw a decent rate, you can skip over them from the start and head onto the next one.

Don’t drop a shovel where you know there’s no gold!

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A Few Facts About Follow Up

I’ve become a bit of a self taught student of sales and marketing. Perhaps not as much out of desire or choice as necessity. After all, if I don’t tell potential clients about my services, who else will? And really, when you consider what it is we do for a living, voice over, is a large part of it not selling a service and marketing a brand?

Prospecting

man-with-binocularsHowever you do it, via telephone, email, networking groups, social media or otherwise, prospecting is vital if you’re going to succeed in business. Not just voice over. Any business. You need to have clients and you find them by prospecting.

Here’s the thing about prospecting, it doesn’t always lead to gold. In fact, it often leads to nothing at all!

Here’s another thing about prospecting if you give up after your first attempt, you’re never going to find gold.

A Few Facts About Follow Up

I came across some interesting stats from the National Sales Executive Association the other day in my reading. I wanted to share them with you here because they offer a lot of food for thought.

  • 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect.
  • 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop.
  • 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop.
  • 10% of sales people make more than three contacts.
  • 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

Which category do you fall into? I know where I landed… and I’ve got some more prospecting to do!

FOR COMMENT: Which category do you land in?

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