How to build a 'super-hero' reputation

Whether you are looking for leads or potential leads are looking for you, building trust is essential. Trust has to do with how you are ‘known’. It’s your reputation.

It’s quite remarkable to realise how much influence you have on building a strong reputation. We want to make sure that we come across in the right way, keeping in mind the standard etiquette of behavior for the VO industry. This goes for social media, as well as in our personal interactions.

"Reputation is everything"

In today’s world, the gatekeepers are human. Your prospects will look for your credentials; how your website looks, what your voice reels sound like and what your testimonials say about you. A strong reputation leads to many leads, which leads to an amazing voice-over career!

There is one truth that stands out in building a strong ‘super-hero’ reputation and that is that it is all about ‘THEM’!

So how do we go about this? Here are five points that I’ve found useful building my reputation which I would love to share with you.

1.     It all starts with quality.

You need to understand who you are, what you are doing and what you can offer. You don’t need to know everything. No one does. However, make sure you always offer the best service you can provide. This needs to be shown in your demos, your website, the way you speak on the phone, your emails, your branding, your communications on social media as well as in personal interactions. It’s part of the voice-over etiquette.

2.     Know your target group.

Who do you want to build a good reputation with? What are their needs? If you know this, you can target your communication specifically to your audience. For example: a versatile voice-over would be able to deliver different types of reads. Maybe you have a demo for children's toys commercials and another one for explainer videos. The key is to make your potential leads understand you. This builds confidence that working with you is the best decision they can make, thereby building your reputation.

3.     What do you want to be known for?

What is your role in the voice-over industry. What’s your expertise and unique selling point (USP)? What is the target group looking for? Would they like to work with a chirpy, enthusiastic individual who has a great creative buzz, or are they the type of people who like to work with someone who smoothly gets the job done without too much fuss making their day an easy sail. This can vary from one client to another.

4.     Show the world what you can do!

Once you have identified what reputation you want to build, it is then time to act accordingly. Everything you now say, publish or showcase, needs to link back to your reputation, your brand, social media interaction, your profile picture, the way you speak at network meetings, your blog etc. Show yourself to be someone who advises, someone who helps and guides. Most importantly; amaze your clients! Our role as a voice-over artist is to help them build their reputation too.

Show yourself to be someone who

Advices, helps and guides

5.     Let others say what they think of you.

You probably have some testimonials on your website. This is a fabulous way to communicate who you are. It tells other people what you can provide and whether you are the right person to work with. You can even share testimonials on social media. Another idea is to write about others on social media. Everyone likes it when they get mentioned in a positive way. This is a very powerful way of building a sterling reputation and helping each other in the process.

It will take time to build a ‘super-hero’ reputation, but the rewards are enormous! It will help you to become even more confident in your ability to deliver an outstanding service which in turn will build your clients’ reputation, who will love to work with super-heroes who save their day and make them look good!

Creating a VO Marketing Strategy

You may already have a system in place where you reach out to many potential clients each month. However, putting yourself on the map can be challenging. How do you find the right clients so that you know for sure it will strengthen your VO business on the long run? How can we influence relationships with clients so they get to know us and then book us for their next project?

Let's create a winning

voice-over marketing strategy

1. Your starting point: Make a clear choice!

You do this by asking yourself the right questions. Crystal clear questions, lead to crystal clear answers. For a start you could write down where your strengths and weaknesses are in voice-over. What type of work would you like to do? Who would you like to work with? Write it all down, don’t hold yourself back. Be generous to yourself and dare to think much further than you ever imagined. Write down what you could do for small businesses and large corporations or brands. Let’s say you would like to voice for BMW. Would you like to voice explainer videos, be the voice in their next ad which airs in the cinema or are you happy to voice tutorials for employees of BMW who need education to learn their skill and craft? Be very specific. Define it for yourself and write it down.

2. What have you got to offer?

Without sounding harsh, the key here is to NOT put yourself in the centre point of attention. A good question to ask yourself is: what is this client looking for when they work with voice-over talent? What are their needs? Write down what your specialties are; are your recordings clean, ready to use, do you offer several reads, how fast can you deliver the audio etc..? But also, think of how you could serve your clients by talking about them on social media or your own blog. After you have worked with them, would it be an idea to send them nice gift or a personalized card, thanking them for a job you worked on? If they are local, why not ask to meet up for a coffee? The feedback you get from these conversations is a very powerful way to find out what your clients needs.

3. Beat Fear – Big time!

Stop thinking what someone else might think. We have enough to think about ourselves. But it’s not easy to do, as we all fall for these voices in our head. However, the way to beat that fear is to keep in mind what you want to achieve – your goal. Never let go of it and powerfully move towards it. One day you might struggle, but the next day you are moving forward again. This is perfectly normal. However, don’t be beaten by fear. Drown it out by staying focused on your Voice-over Marketing Strategy. You’ll never know how much you would have saved the day for someone if you never reached out to them. You are not a failure if something didn’t work out. It’s just feedback that it wasn’t meant to be. Your position just got stronger. You now know what to do to succeed next time.

What are your fears? Let’s face them and write them down. Then write next to it one thing you could do to change that for yourself. You will see that fear is not you. You are not fear. It’s something outside that we can shut down and turn off by approaching it head on and doing the opposite of what it wants us to do.

 

Drown fear out by staying focused

on your marketing strategy

4. Plan ahead in time.

They say that timing is everything. Also, it will take time for a client to get to know you. It might take 7-10 times to reach a potential client before they would like to use your services. A good thing to do is to allocate moments in your calendar for the year to come, when you will contact these people, without sounding repetitive or “stalky”.

5. Be resourceful and “outsourceful”.

Realise that no voice-over artist is able to do everything by themselves. We live in a time of resourcefulness. Sometimes this means delegating a task to someone else, whilst you are able to shine in your creativity. Marketing is a profession. It evolves all the time. There is a lot you can learn by reading books, viewing videos on YouTube or social media, but marketing is a job in itself. Sometimes it can be wiser to talk to an expert. It might cost a little, but it will be done well and bring the results you are looking for.

Are there any areas that you could outsource so that you can focus on your skill set and deliver outstanding VO reads? Write them down and work towards it.

Running a voice-over business is hard work and it can easily feel overwhelming. Creating your ‘Voice-over Marketing Strategy’ will help you to see things much clearer. Small steps lead to great results!