I subscribe to a fantastic e-zine called The Publicity Hound written by Joan Stewart. In each week’s issue, she posts a question to “help this hound”, and the question this week was from another voice talent who wanted to know how to drive traffic to his web site. I answered with 20 suggestions on Joan’s blog but am including my answer here these ideas may help other people. Also, I am adding 5 more ideas that I didn’t include in my original answer.
As another voice-over talent, many newcomers to the industry ask me the same question. I have written essays on my blog in which I point out that voice-over is a business that requires a marketing plan. Like any business owner, the talent should determine where s/he fits in the marketplace and develop a marketing plan that targets the primary prospects on a steady and consistent basis.
Numerous ways exist to contact the prospects and depend on a person’s time, budget and creativity. If the goal is simply to drive traffic to a web site, obviously, getting a link to your site published in a popular e-zine like The Publicity Hound will do the trick!A web site is just one aspect of a marketing plan. In order to increase business and develop sustained relationships, the voice-over talent must be persistent in taking actions, such as:
1. Creating and maintaining a personal web site
2. Making phone calls to casting directors, producers, directors
3. Networking at industry meetings and events
4. Sending direct mail (postcards, newsletters, etc.)
5. Auditioning for one or more agents
6. Joining on-line casting services and submitting auditions
7. Writing postings in forums to show your expertise
8. Sending e-mails when you see opportunities such as those posted on CraigsList
9. Writing articles that can be reprinted in on-line e-zines
10. Exchanging reciprocal web links with complimentary sites
11. Listing your site on free web directories
12. Speaking at industry or community events
13. Presenting training classes
14. Placing industry advertisements in printed and web-based directories, CraigsList, etc.
15. Including your web site on the signature lines on your e-mails, on your business card, and on every piece of correspondence both on- and off-line
16. Sending imprinted products with your web site to your clients
17. Starting a blog on your web site and post comments on others’ blogs when you have expertise
18. Publishing a regular e-zine to maintain contact and requesting people to forward it
19. Asking for and rewarding referrals from satisfied clients
20. Posting testimonials of satisfied clients on your web site
This list is by no means all-inclusive, and most items don’t apply only to those in voice-over. By implementing one or more of these ideas on a regular basis, a person could spur traffic to his site and potentially increase his business.
Of course, I could have added a few more things, like:
21. Establishing a pay-per-click campaign
22. Generating press releases to announce your news
23. Getting feature stories written about you in the newspaper (a feature story is so much better than an ad! Just ask my friends and fellow voice talents Susan Berkley and Mary McKitrick if you don’t believe me)
24. Sending clippings of news stories of interest to your contacts
25. Joining an on-line networking service
26. Using search engines to locate potential contacts and querying them directly
27. Starting your own podcast
28……
I only promised 25 ideas but got carried away! When you aren’t working, you are working on obtaining work, using the tools and technology at your disposal and through whatever means you feel comfortable. It’s meaningless if someone simply visits your web site. I think a better goal is to think of ways to make connections with your prospects so that you can develop on-going business relationships.
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#15 is a great piece of advice. Tammy saw a huge spike in traffic when she added her site to her signature line to just a single message in one of the forums she posted to.
That said, your readership shouldn’t run out spamming every newsgroup in uunet just to get their website out there. Post responses on topics in which you are credible and the click-thrus will come. Best of all, they’re free!
Karen, your ideas are fantastic! I told Ginger and Bobby that they can probably spend weeks and even months implementing all your ideas.
Hi, Mike. Thanks for the ringing endorsement of that technique! I also have seen great success with it.
I write a lot of posts in an extremely active forum where people discuss their dream lives and the obstacles they face in living the lives they envision. It happens that I am one of the few voice-over artists there and the only one who posts with any consistency.
While I help people whenever I have the opportunity, I have become the resident expert on voice-over work. The board owner even quoted me in one of her books!
Meanwhile, I have a steady flow of traffic just from that forum. Whenever I post something, I see an increase in traffic to my web site.
Hi, Joan. Thanks for stopping by my blog and for the kind words. I really love marketing and publicity. Your e-zine and web site definitely help me think of fresh ideas, so please keep ’em coming!
Karen,
Great stuff- thank you! A few on the list I have done/ am doing already- a few others- I hadn’t thought of! And those? I will start doing 🙂 BTW: the article in the local paper is what got my career off to a flying start! When you are cast in a great part- let the media writer at the paper know! They love to write GOOD news anytime! Thank you again!
-Kara
Hi, Kara. I’m delighted to hear about your success with the journalists! I think the newspaper article is such a great publicity tool because it makes you an instant celebrity and allows people to find out more about you than they would otherwise know. With a little legwork, you can pitch the same story with a different angle to journalists in other media.
For instance, after we built my voice-over recording studio, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance wrote about the problems that I had with my contractor. I used the basis of that interview to write my free pdf Karen’s Crash Course in Avoiding Ca$h-Poor Contractors. I now can send that file and a pitch letter to other journalists who may be doing a story about home renovations.
You have to look for every opportunity to promote yourself!