VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

todd ellis · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:33 pm Post subject:

the funnel must be fed. if nothing goes in --- sooner or later stuff will stop coming out. anyone who has ever lost a cash-cow gig will tell you that.
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kkuhlken · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:39 pm Post subject:

<==sits back, takes notes, nods head, and learns more good stuffs
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Adam Verner · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:23 am Post subject:

Cold-calling has possibly been the single most effective marketing tool I've used. I don't like it, mind you - I have to gear myself up for it, but it is very effective.

In the past 3 years, the most quantity and highly paid work has come through clients cold-called. The nice thing about this is that I can track metrics. I KNOW that a certain number of calls will result in a certain amount of work - and usually repeat work over time. I've found the turn-around time to be about 6 months. Meaning the first contact doesn't usually result in a hire - it's the follow up postcard the next week, or the second call 3 months later.

Ugh - cold calling, I hate it, but it must be done. Kind of like cleaning the bathtub.
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elisacanas · Contributor II Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Hi everyone!
When I started voicing full time, it really took off for me and for many years I toddled along, popping in and out of my booth, very grateful but very blasé about the whole thing. Then, about a year ago, commercial radio over here in the UK, for me at least, took a major dip. I had well and truly shoved pretty much all my eggs in that basket. Oops!
I, like Adam, have to gear myself up for it but now, when I have a quiet patch, I have a roam around the internet, find some companies that I would be proud to work for, give them a call and send them my stuff.
As others have said, it isn't an instant fix but I'm now firmly in the 'little and often' camp.
I won't be blasé again and I will continue to be grateful for every session I do x
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Scott Pollak · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:42 am Post subject:

Elisa, I think THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT you made here is most definitely the 'eggs in one basket' remark. Wow... can I ever relate!

In 1990 I quit my very-well paying job as a corporate video producer, sold my house and moved to a different city to go into business with another video producer who had had his business going for a while, and it was growing. Problem was, the source of the growth was his one, primary client, a big corporation. Less than a year after I went out on a limb, pulled up roots, sold my house, gave up my high-dollar job and moved my family, we were out of business because the economy tanked and took our one, big client with it.

Today, doing v/o, I do whatever is needed (within reason and morals): e-learning, corporate v/o, commercials, audiobooks, the occasional IVR (which I hate doing, but the check still goes in the bank), etc.

Get as much work as you can, from as many clients as you can. Then, when you lose one or two - AND YOU WILL!!! - it won't mean the end of you.
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Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

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Chuck Davis · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:48 am Post subject:

Amen to that one Scott.

I had a similar experience in 2008 when the auto industry went kaputt.
Car's were my bread and butter. I took close to a 60% hit.

I still do alot of automotive work now but....DIVERSIFY...is my mantra.

I'm back and way above pre-2008 levels. Stronger now that I've managed to grow into other areas.
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elisacanas · Contributor II Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Scott! Thats a helluva story!!
Too right Chuck and dya know what? It's fun too! I'm really enjoying stretching myself as a VO. Commercial VOs had become second nature to me so brain went off when mic went on. I just knew what I had to do.
Then....a corporate script arrived after some marketing in that area. It was for a Forensics Services company. You can imagine...quite murky stuff...blood....shoe prints on victims...not very nice.
My boyfriend heard my first take and told me, in a gently gently softly softly way that he would 'go mad if he had to sit in a conference room listening to that!'
I listened back with new ears and he was spot on!! I sounded like I was selling fingerprints and DNA!! All wrong!
So I got back in the booth and kept trying. It was and still is surprisingly difficult to change the way I work with a script and the way I sound.
I still don't feel I have nailed it but at least I'm learning and challenging myself. Diversity is key...even if you don't really wanna! x
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Darren Altman · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:09 am Post subject:

In the last 6 months I have probably called well over 100 production houses. CALLED! I was lucky enough last year to have voiced 6 national TV ads here in the UK for a directory service called 118 and they have bee on practically every channel here for months... so my call is well rehearsed and goes something like this:

Me: Hello, my name is Darren and I'm a voiceover artist, I voice the 118 ads that are on tv at the moment

Them: Oh! Hello Darren

Me: I'm ringing to say hello and to introduce myself to see if it's ok to send you my details, should you need a voiceover in the future.

Them: Oh yes, please do

...and they give me their email address. It takes 2 minutes, gives the personal touch, puts me in a context immediately and when the email arrives, they were expecting it and don't bin it. IMPORTANT: If the person at reception gives the a generic email like info@blahhblah.com and tells me that they will forward it, or tells me of a generic email to send it to, I will always ask their name and start the email:

Hi @£$! I've just been speaking to Amanda who passed on your details.

Again, it tells them that I have called, made contact and will give the producer a context and a reason to read it, instead of binning it. I will very rarely not get a name, or start an email "Hi there"

I've made contact with so many companies and had so many nice chats that it has to pay off for me, maybe not now or in a month, but somewhere along the line they will dip into their file, find me and get in touch, I'm positive. It's alreaqdy paying off as companies that I emailed months ago are calling me for projects. I've been working too hard for nothing to happen!! Just my thoughts anyway... Wink

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heyguido · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:19 am Post subject:

Clients will not find you just because you have a web page.... or track you down because they heard one of your pieces and liked it. You've got to get your work in front of them, and attract their interest enough to make them listen to it.

It's not rocket science. But it is marketing science.

I am constantly amazed by the fact that those who ignore marketing most are most likely to be marketers.

To those who don't, or won't.... Keep it up. That next job? It's mine.
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"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"