VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[colinsz1]

Hello all VO Artists,

In your personal opinion, how important are promotions in actually moving your career forward? Have you or someone you know seen great results? Average results? Poor results? I'm just curious.

[DougVox]

What kind of "promotions" are you talking about?
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Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com

[Jason Huggins]

If you do no promotion, you do no work. (until you get established and just ride the wave for a while)

If however, you're talking about BOGO promotions...that's a different conversation.

[colinsz1]

[Bish]

If you give a promotional price up front, that sets the expectation of that customer forever. It can be part of the price negotiation if you want... but don't sell your services out of the cheap rack... set rates fairly and give yourself some wiggle room.

As for marketing collateral and email shots... I shall defer to the wiser minds here. But, maybe an email every six months to existing contacts... something interesting that isn't just a "hire me" plea.... more often than that and you'll be straight in the trash with the rest of the spam.
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Bob Bergen]

I'm up at 4-5am getting my auditions out. I try to be done by 8am as my agents send more throughout the day. If I have no outside sessions or auditions, my day is spent marketing until about 5pm. Marketing is essential. If actors find no returns on their marketing investment, I think they need to reevaluate their product and their approach. The product needs to be brilliant. The marketing needs to be strategic and specific. I would suggest taking marking and business classes at a local university.

Now, I only market electronically. The days of snail mail marketing are way over. But marketing and PR are vital for any business.

[DougVox]

First of all, there are no "right" answers here.

The best answer I can offer is a heartfelt, "It depends." On a lot of things.

To begin with, if we aren't talented/skilled/good enough to book work, then all the marketing in the world isn't going to do any good.

If our branding isn't accurate and impressive (remember that most of the people we send our materials to are around top-shelf design, creative and writing all day long, and aren't likely to be impressed by anything less) we're never gonna be remembered.

Poorly targeted marketing won't do any good either. We could put together the best package ever made, but if it doesn't get to the right people, it's wasted effort.

Plus, you have to think about how potential clients expect to be marketed to, which can vary widely from niche to niche.

And I've never been a fan of promotional pricing, though others may disagree. The way I see it, if I've marketed myself effectively, and to the right people, they'll see the value in what I offer and will be willing to pay for it.
_________________
Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com

[todd ellis]

i agree with bob (and others) if i am not actively talking out loud into a microphone, i am promoting, marketing, shaking the bushes. there are a HECKUVA lot more people out there who DON'T know me than DO --- so --- they need to know me.

as for promotional pricing i think a couple of different ways. for the vast majority of my business the answer is "no". i might give a "discount" for one reason or another - but it is reflected as a discount on the invoice with my usual rate above. on the other hand, i do a lot of IVR/telephony stuff and work directly with interconnects who buy my services in bulk then re-sell it to their customers. every quarter i offer this select group of folks a deal of some kind - like "buy 4 MOH get one free" - that sort of thing. it does a couple of things for me - (1) my telephony customers like it (2) it creates a habit of them buying from me - not somebody else, and (3) it's a nice infusion of cash all at one time.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Frank F]

Rather than "promotions" the term you are searching for is: Marketing.

Since VO is not "retail sales", a one size fits no-one promotion is not something which would work well in our business. I know of a local VO who tried the BOGO thing some years back. His results in the short term were, at best - fair. In the long term he was seen as a low ball talent. To this day it still hurts his business. And, I must add this VO is a good talent. His reputation precedes him because of ONE mistake in judgement.

You only have a short moment to make a good impression and your "brand" reputation can be scuttled in less than a heartbeat if you do not protect and live the promises you have made with your brand identity.

Frank F
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[Foog]

I have been coasting on established clients for far too long (like a small scale version of Jason's "wave riders") and my career has suffered for it. I have so much antipathy towards all things marketing that I don't even have a dedicated web page yet. And self-marketing gives me the heebie jeebies worst of all!

And yet I know that if I want to get to a point where this is again the lion's share of my income, I will have to bite the bullet and market, market, market.

Does anyone else share my distaste for the whole "market yourself" thing? How did you overcome it?

[bobsouer]

Eventually hunger will become a powerful motivator.
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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[Foog]

[chrisvoco]

I sure can sympathize on the dental surgery thing. I had pork chops the day before they removed my mouth, then not again for five months. Sometimes I would drink A-1, simply because it was as close to cooked animal as I could comfortably get. My advice for the non-eating period: Ensure makes you feel old, but the Pedialyte chocolate drinks are really pretty good.

Note: the bit about A-1 is a lie, because it would've likely stung like the dickens.
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Finally, Ford stops starting to say things and starts.

[Philip Banks]

My 25% off all free auditions promotion went really well.

"Awesome Philip, can you do me an audition for this 60 second spot"

I dutifully sent back 45 seconds of audio. He was so delighted he was stunned into silence.

THAT'S why I earn the big bucks!

[heyguido]

Priceless.
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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"