This is the Inside Voiceover Video Training Blog and I am your host, Susan Berkley. This week, we’re going to talk about the third pillar of Voice Over Success. Last week, it was number two, which was gear; and before that number one, which was your performance. But this is the pillar without which nothing is going to happen for you and all that gear is going to be gathering dust, so let’s get down to it.
Now, marketing of course is a huge topic. I spent an entire day at bootcamp walking you through my mic-to-money method, but I thought, well, you know there is a key concept that I think if you grasp will be totally worth the couple of minutes we spend together on this blog. That big concept for you as a voice talent is, the who is more important than the what.
Now, what’s the who? The who are your customers. The what is your voice in your studio and your turnaround time and your gear and your ability to perform. All that stuff that makes us great voice talents and makes voiceover so much fun. But at the end of the day, without a customer, you don’t have a business. That is the key point I want you to get.
Some quick tips that are going to really help you. I think the number one thing is an idea that I brought to Voiceover several years ago that many people have imitated, which is that to be successful marketing wise, you really need to target your marketing efforts. Choose a niche. There are over 14 niche markets in voiceover and you really need to target one of them or a couple of them to really see some traction because you don’t have the time, you don’t have the money to market yourself to everyone, and there are thousands and thousands of people who hire voice talent every day.
Also, once you figure out who your niche is, you should spend some time going online and researching the companies you’re marketing to so that when you speak to them you can talk to them about them, not yourself. Because What’s In It For Me is everybody’s favorite radio station, WIIFM, so research your potential customers and talk to them about them.
And then the final thing is, it’s all too easy to become a voiceover commodity these days because a lot of people go on Fiverr or they go on Upwork or they go on Voice123 or voices.com to hire voice talent. And they think, “Okay, for $50 bucks, for $100 bucks, for $500 bucks, I can get somebody to work for me, and there are kind of all the same.” Well, they’re not. Because if you scratch the surface, if you talk to voice buyers, they’re really complaining. They have a problem, which is that in this vast market of voice talent, a lot of people just are incompetent. They complain about quality, they can complain about reliability and they complain about people who have no idea what they’re doing and who can’t take direction. That’s a pain point you need to know about your customers that you can agitate. And by understanding where they’re coming from, they will love you and you’re going to get a lot more business.
Hope that’s helpful. I’m Susan Berkley with this week’s Inside Voiceover.
