The voiceover market is changing very rapidly. There are many new ways to get jobs and many new ways to market yourself to try and get those jobs. You have a number of choices and we are going to cover just a few of them.
You can set up your own web site or put your own voiceover demo on one of the many voiceover talent sites. Or you can do both. One of the main newer strategies is to have your own web site, which can be very simple and then pick three or four of the voiceover talent web sites to also put your demo and contact information on. This way you have postings on a number of talent sites and they all have links to your website. Each of these talents web sites spend a small fortune on advertising, so you don’t have too. There are literally thousands of potential clients visiting those sites so it’s very rapid exposure for the new person. You just have to make sure you’ve got a great demo so you can compete with all the other voices out there.
There was a time not so long ago that you either had to be represented by a voiceover talent agency or had to have a friend get you into corporate voiceover work. The internet has changed all of that. Everyone knows that money is much tighter now and many organizations are making use of on line casting rather than going to the more expensive voiceover talent agencies for talent. This means that you want to do as many marketing crossover plans as possible so all the organizations that need voiceover talent can become aware of you.
Many of the companies who do educational CD Roms post casting notices online and no longer go through voiceover talent agencies any more. They have discovered that they can get great talent at more competitive prices.
When you start thinking outside the box, you will come up with your own bright ideas about where to look for work and turn a lack of representation into an advantage because you can work cheaper and directly with clients. People ask me if they have to be online with a web site or have their demo on a voiceover talent site and the answer is absolutely yes. People have to be able to find you online.
Here’s a story to inspire you. A little while back a man called me and said he was doing a 30 second commercials for a company’s web site and needed a female voiceover artist. He said it was not for broadcast but for web use only and that it payed $1000. On a flat buyout. He asked if I could send him MP3s of 3 women that he could choose from. I said yes, I’d be happy to do that. He said, “Well, you’re the only one!!!!!” I was a little shocked and said what do you mean. He then started to explain that he had called three different talent agencies in town and they wouldn’t submit any demos of talent until he took the time to aswer a number of questions about his project and that all three of them said they would assign him an agent in the next two or three days to handle his project.
He laughed and said ya know, I‘m just trying to meet my production deadline and don’t have time for all of this red tape...
Well there you have another clear illustration of why more and more people are casting outside of voiceover talent agencies. These are just a few samples of how the industry is changing. Time is money and casting from online is very fast indeed.
Now lets move on to another issue. World wide buyouts. Many one or two line ads have involved an international buyout for 60k to 100k.
I know of two companies who decided that they would only pay 10k and the other company 20k for two short sentences in each case. Well everyone screamed and yelled, but in the end the voiceover talent who was getting 80k absolutely refused to go from 80k to 10k. How could she accept so little when she had been making 80k... On the other hand, the new person was of course thrilled to get 10k for two sentences... It’s still a lot of money.
It’s important to remember that work can come from the most unpredictable places. Sometimes people think they can only get work if a voiceover talent agency chooses to represent them, that is simply not true. Use your imagination and think where you might network to discover new opportunities.
In marketing and advertising, presentation is as important as networking. You are going to the trouble of finding networking opportunities and when you find them you don’t want to teach them that you are unprepared or amateurish. I recently watched a voiceover artist talk to the owner of a foundation that wants to hire some voiceover talent. He wanted to read for him on the spot, did so very poorly, and then wrote his name and number on a scrap of paper saying to the man, “I don’t have business cards or anything but I’m really glad I met you and I’d love to work for you”.
I mean, good grief, who in the world would ever be interested in someone who is that unprepared and sloppy. If you want to be hired by professionals who will pay good money, you must act like a professional who is worth good money. What do your materials look like? Are they clean with a nice design, or have you just printed your name on your demo. Graphic design services can be very affordable and they are a must so your business cards and your demo look like they belong to a pro. Make sure your email address has your name in it! Nothing bugs people more that not being able to type in your name and have you appear in an email address window because you use some “cool” name or phrase that isn’t your actual name. Save the funky email names like talldude@... for your friends. In business, it’s about making it simple for people to contact you.
You can be excited about your voiceover future, because there has never been a time when there are so many opportunities to do voiceover work, and so many new ways to find them.
