This is the fourth of five blog entries that will focus on getting your **** together for 2017. Wanna catch up first? Here’s Part 1: Cash Flow, Part 2: Tools, and Part 3: Technique. Next up: Marketing!
Ah, marketing. What everyone wants to do well, but almost nobody knows how to do it effectively. Not the big corporations, not the small businesses, not the marketing majors, not me, not you, nobody. Why? Two reasons:
Nobody knows what is.
It’s one big guessing game.
I define marketing as the effort of developing and maintaining meaningful relationships. Relationships are everything in marketing. Not “making connections”, not “beating the competition”, not “getting your big break”, and certainly not “luck”. It’s all about being a good human and collecting good humans.
Understanding the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing can’t hurt, either.
It’s critical to effectively communicate the truth of you. The truth of your talent, your skill sets, your value-add, etc. are critical to impress upon voice seekers and others in the voiceover industry. You can’t fake it in voiceovers. That is why effective marketing is so elusive. It is is an art as well as a science.
TIP OF THE WEEK
In my experience, I’ve noticed that there are three steps you must take in order to have a chance at an effective marketing campaign.
Build your brand. As Doug Turkel would say, your branding is what people say behind your back. And it’s more than just a pretty logo and a catchy tagline. I’ve noticed that the most effective voice talents brand either their sound, their personality, or both. To read more about my branding thoughts, click here.
Build your social media presence. An effective social media presence flows from your brand. What I mean by this is making sure that your website Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other profiles make people feel about them they way you want them to feel about you. To read about the pitfalls of social media, click here.
Get your ass out of the booth and meet people. Social media has made everyone lazy. Don’t be lazy! The most effective form of “analog marketing” as my friend Paul Payton likes to call it, is to meet people in person and get to know them as people. Go to conferences, seminars, networking events, Meetup Groups, and any of the myriad of other public events that can make you shine. To learn more about how to succeed at networking events click here and here.
BONUS TIP: You need Cash Flow to effectively market your voiceover business. You don’t need a lot, but you do need to invest something. If you chintz on your marketing materials, the voice seekers will just add them to the circular file. That’s a fancy way of saying garbage can.
NEWS AND NOTES
Contest! The first three people who email me at tom@nulltomdheere.com will get a free digital download of the audio book Culture Crossing: Discover the Key to Making Successful Connections in the New Global Era by Michael Landers.
Announcement! I’m gonna be the voice of an action figure! It’s part of a soon-to-be-released game called Lightseekers. It’s a video game and card game with interactive action figures. I play Jax, an orange lizard-looking dude who loves to build all kinds of crazy gear. There aren’t any videos with my voice in it yet, but in the meantime you can check out their YouTube Channel which has lots of great content. The game is currently in beta-test mode and will release this Spring.
Reminder! There is one week left to get 25% off on any VO Strategist booking in January. Just reply to this email or contact me at tom@nulltomdheere.com to get the ball rolling.
HAPPY HAPPYS
Happy Peanut Butter Day and Hugging Day!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, GKN News…
Tom Dheere is a 20-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice Over Strategist, and is currently writing & producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.