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What to Consider Before Getting Into Voice Acting

March 2, 2022 by Leah Arscott

“Oh, you’re a voice actor? That’s so cool; how can I get into that?” I get this question monthly from friends, family, and acquaintances. I thought I would write an official article on this topic to refer whoever is interested in starting a career in voice acting to a single resource with all the information they require. Before anyone is interested in diving into this fantastic, fun, competitive, and crazy industry, here are four main components to consider.

#1 Background and Experience
#2 Business Ability
#3 Artistic Ability
#4 Technical Ability

Background and Experience

Most voice actors fall into this industry from previous roles and backgrounds. While some children live on cartoons and dream of being the next Daffy Duck, that isn’t the usual trajectory. Most grow up and get into the world of business, technical roles, or acting. Each background is unique to giving the new voice talent the skills they need to succeed in their new career. Many feel that their knowledge isn’t sufficient to make them successful. However, when you begin to peel back the layers of your experience, skills, and background, there are things you can use in your new career.

If you were a manager in a previous role, you are undoubtedly organized, have good time-management ability, and can set goals and prioritize throughout your workday. If you had a technical role, you are detail-oriented and have a high aptitude for learning new hardware and software tools, and can break down complex problems into more manageable pieces. If you have an acting or musical background, you can perform at a moment’s notice, understand rhythm, pitch, and dissect a script quickly.

Business Ability

The ability to run a business is important for voice acting. Voice actors don’t usually belong to a single company or enterprise. They are entrepreneurs running their own businesses. It is imperative to inherit professional skills to run a successful business. I have seen voice actors fall flat after only a few months because they don’t want to do the tedious paperwork; they just want to act. That can be possible if you score an agent who provides you with endless opportunities and auditions, but that’s just not how it works in today’s age. You need to hunt down the options. Voice acting is selling your voice to buyers. Agents are just one tool in your voice over prospecting toolkit.

How to Develop Voice Acting Business Ability

A business is broken down into various departments:

Sales
Marketing
Accounting
Legal
Customer Service
Finance
Business Development

You will need to become proficient in all these aspects. This doesn’t happen overnight but slowly but surely, and if you are committed, it’s possible to run your business like a well-oiled machine. So get out a pen and paper and start brainstorming which skills you possess? Have you worked in customer service in your past? What about accounting? Do you know how to draft an invoice? Have you sold anything before? Make a list of all your skills, and you’ll come to see you know more than you think. If you need more help, research your local business school or online learning programs to take a course in achieving business skills.

Artistic Ability in Voice Acting

The second most crucial ability is artistic. But, wait! Shouldn’t this be the first? Well, no, talent can be learned, trained, and crafted, but the majority of voice acting falls under the business ability even more than the acting itself. Auditioning and recording jobs for clients is a small fraction of all the other tasks involved in running your voice acting business.

I will say that some have a natural ability to act or perform, and that certainly comes in handy and will set you apart from the rest. This talent will help you to book better jobs. However, if you don’t follow up with them for payment, send them marketing emails, and audition again and again you will not be successful.

How To Develop Artistic Ability?

You can work with a Voice Acting Coach, join an improv class, attend an acting school, or take drop-in acting classes. All of these are ways to train your artistic ability. The best actors in the world never stop coaching, and neither do voice actors. There are different coaches for different genres, so be sure to research which coach is right for you and the genre you are aiming to perform in. It’s always beneficial to start with a Commercial coach.

How to Develop the Technical Ability for Voice Acting

To be a successful voice actor, you need technical skills and know-how to use voice acting hardware and software. Examples include a microphone, computer, Logic Pro X, Adobe Audition, Audacity, and Izotope RX7.

This skill can be quickly developed by taking online or in-person courses. You can also ask around if any of your friends know of the hardware and software, and they can show you how to use it. If you are willing to learn the required business, artistic and technical skills you will be well rewarded with the opportunity to work with amazing people, and projects!

Advertainment Voiceover – Effective Marketing Strategy #3

February 17, 2022 by Leah Arscott

We will discuss the third and last article of the most effective marketing strategies series this week. This is advertainment voiceover. The word advertainment is a combination of two: Advertising and Entertainment. It is a method of posting videos and marketing to your customers in a fun and engaging way. The most common way we see this method used today is the business videos on TikTok and Instagram. This method is not just for millennials who like to dance, it can be beneficial for large companies and single-owner businesses, and the ROI can be impressive.

Where Advertainment is Used

This media is a fun and creative way to get your customers to see your business or service. The key is to give your customers what they want to see, not what you want them to see. An excellent example of advertainment is a super bowl ad. There is a hype around those highly produced videos, and there’s a buzz around those commercials. Your advertainment voiceover marketing can be just as entertaining, and it sells a product or service.

What Makes It Work?

Consumers are more likely to purchase something from a video than read an article. Advertainment works because it’s engaging, easy to consume, widely accessible, and popular. Additionally, it’s relevant and relatable to your target market. This type of advertising stands out in a sea of boring content that can make us feel sold to online, on television, and on the radio every day. Advertainment voiceover is a way to be unique, compelling, and break the norm. In addition, most busy people have lost their patience to read lengthy text content. Watching videos allows consumers to absorb both information and emotion quickly.

How to Get Started with Advertainment Voiceover

Identify a target market
Do a focus group and get to know and understand who that individual is
Create a mind map of what that person does for a living, what they listen to, watch on tv, eat, where they travel too, etc.
Create a piece of content specifically targeted in that individual
Analyze the results
Repeat the process

Creativity That Leads to Interest

When creating your videos, create content that you would want to watch. There’s a fine line between selling and selling creatively. Videos allow the brand or person to come across in a humanistic, relatable, and genuine way. One popular advertainment voiceover created a TikTok page about food reviews. He posted each day about his favorite snacks, cereals, and takeout. Now and then, he would sprinkle in some content about being a voice actor. Before he knew it, he had over 6 million organic followers. His page wasn’t even geared toward voice over. However, after gaining so many followers, he realized people were tuning in to see his reviews and hear his voice. This attention led to a definite increase in his popularity and customer base.

Another place I’ve seen many of these videos is on Instagram. Each day I scroll through seeing Marketing Coaches, Realtors, Holistic Nutritionists, etc., posting small tidbit videos about their products and services. I may watch a video or two on their official website, but having it posted in a fun, lighthearted way on social media draws many more eyes and ears to their business.

Purposeful Advertainment Voiceover

Creative, wacky, and fun videos can be enjoyable for yourself and your audience, but they should have a strategic purpose at the end of the day. An advertainment voiceover should tell your audience what they need to know about your project or service. If you’re a voice over actor, you can execute this by using your existing voice over demo and adding a video to each spot. You can create a demo reel of your favorite ads and add amazing music and effects if you’re a creative director. Another way is to make fun videos about all the tasks that make a broadcast commercial or a non-broadcast corporate video. You can also break out each video spot and post those at a different time of the day on various platforms.

Consistency Across Platforms

Posting one video may bring some traction to your business; however, many people are busy and preoccupied. The goal is to be consistent, so your video is being watched no matter what time or day of the week. Another trick is to stagger the times you post. Share the same video on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook but alter the times to ensure a different audience each time.

Once you’ve created your amazing videos, analyze the results by the number of likes, comments, shares, etc. If the video is a success, make another, and most importantly, have fun in the creative process!

Effective Marketing Strategy #2 – Voice Over Podcasts

February 8, 2022 by Leah Arscott

As a business owner, you’re always looking for new ways to grow and reach existing and new audiences. With so many marketing tactics out there, which one is best? One tactic that has seen a rise in popularity over the last seven years has been voice over podcasts. Many are still new to podcasting, but there has been a large rise in how many have hit the airwaves since the pandemic.

As COVID-19 started, business owners were scrambling to find new ways to connect with their consumers and clients online. As we were stuck in our homes, many turned to Youtube, Streaming platforms, and Podcasting as a way to create and maintain human connections. Let’s learn more about voice over podcasts and why this is a great way to market your business.

Get Personal Again

As mentioned in Effective Marketing Tactic #1, it is essential to connect with your audience. Podcasts are a way to get personal with your audience and build trust. Once clients hear your voice weekly regarding whatever topic you choose to talk about, you will demonstrate your authenticity. In addition, people will begin to trust your opinion and enhance your authority over time. Think of podcasts like the new blogs. No acting is involved, no written script. Just make points from notes and speak. Minimal notes will allow you to talk naturally, and your genuine personality will shine through. Podcasts also help you increase your brand visibility.

Voice Over Podcasts That Focus on Your Expertise

A podcast can help you build your brand and reputation. It allows people of all sorts to hear your purpose and establish trust and credibility. For example, if you work as a voice actor, what better way to market yourself and showcase your talents than to use your voice. This way, your clients can hear exactly what they are booking. You don’t even have to make a podcast about voice acting. It could be about a completely different topic, but your voice will sell your skill. Most listeners admit being influenced by what they hear, and if you make it a point to give thoughtful, simple tactical advice, it generally will keep listeners coming back for more.

Cost-Effective Marketing

With paper costs, postage, and shipping rising by the month, marketing can be expensive, and digital marketing can also be costly. Podcasting is relatively inexpensive to get started, and all you need is a computer, a microphone, and some software. Audacity is a great free editing and recording software, and there are economical USB microphones. You can find great deals on Amazon, Best Buy, and many other technology websites. The most important item you need is a great niche topic.

Voice Over Podcasts are Flexible Marketing Tools

Most marketing requires reading or watching something, and we are busy and can’t commit to sitting and reading articles and videos. Podcasts are time-efficient portable learning tools, and you can download them quickly or stream them and listen to them while commuting, exercising, at work, or working around your house.

Creating Engagement Opportunities

Podcasting allows you to engage with your audience. Week by week, you will be chatting about a great topic, and your listeners will begin to email you, leave comments on your social media, and open up conversations about your latest episodes. Don’t forget to finish with a Call to Action. Get them to subscribe, leave a review and share your podcast with their friends and family for more engagement opportunities.

Inbound Marketing

Outbound marketing and inbound are two categories. Podcasts are a great way to drive inbound marketing traffic to your website and social media accounts. You chit-chat about a topic you’re passionate about while traffic is drawn to your website, increasing sales.

There is really no reason not to have a podcast. It’s inexpensive, portable, and drives inbound traffic to your website. Think of podcasting as a long game. You won’t see overnight success. Most experts claim you can see the results after six or so months, so ensure you have enough content to discuss for some time. Get your thinking caps on, start brainstorming, think of a great targeted topic and start talking!

Effective Voice Over Marketing Strategy # 1

January 27, 2022 by Leah Arscott

Whether you’re a lone voice over artist or a well-established company with hundreds of employees, the goal is the same. You need sales to survive and thrive. Without sales, there is NO business. But how do you get more business to your B2B or B2C customers? Well, here is the short answer, you need to market! But with so many tactics available, how do you know which voice over marketing strategy is the right fit for you? Over the next few blog posts, we will be highlighting the top 5 most effective methods. These are very current and popular strategies that are sure to spark your creativity.

Get started with the first effective way to market your product or voice over service.

Let’s Get Personal!

However you market your talent, this means it needs to be personal to your customers. Some may argue it is easier to do with small businesses, but even large-scale corporations can be effective in this category. For example, a few years ago, Coca-Cola embarked on one of its most successful campaigns. Do you remember the personalized bottles with people’s names? I’m sure you do! Everyone, even myself, was running out looking for a bottle with either my name or my friend’s name to surprise them with a little gift. This was a relatively simple yet, highly effective way to market. They had us, and we did the marketing for them. People were tagging the bottle on Social Media left, right, and center, which got the word out.

Customizing Your Voice Over Marketing

The voices you use in your campaigns can also help you Get Personal to your clients. Are the voices you use disconnected to your audience? Or do they draw the customer in? Gone are the days of the big, booming announcer voices. Watch a little TV today, and you will come to realize most of the ads use softer, more conversational voices. Nobody wants to feel sold too. They prefer to feel like a friend describing this new cool thing. Those are the voices that reign on the small screen, and this is a great way to get personal.

Set Your Small Businesses Apart

Small businesses can do the same. Every marketing email sent and phone call should be done with the customer in mind. Never send an email with the heading “Dear Client.” Take a few extra minutes to log onto their website and social media accounts and get to know the individual you email. Find some sort of common ground. Do they like cats? Did you go to the same school? Do you like the same sports? In a sea of impersonalized content out there, a little bit of personalization goes a long way, and THAT is what will set you apart. 🙂

Authenticity and Voice Over Marketing

With that said, not only do you need to be personal with your clients, you also have to be personal. That means being authentic in every way possible. Some of the most successful and legendary people in history are always authentic! For example, Elvis Presley, Andy Warhol, Princess Diana, Martin Luther King Jr, Albert Einstein. Many people viewed these individuals as radical, vulgar, deranged, or mad. But they are some of the greatest artists, activists, and scientists of all time because they were authentic! How can you be original? Once you identify this, it will help set you apart, and your marketing will become more strategic and targeted.

Social Media Deep Dive

Take a quick look at your company profiles, whether social media or your website. Is it basic or boring? Is it just a bunch of corporate mumbo-jumbo? Would you want to hire you based on your current marketing strategies? Is it tailor-made to your clients? Do you stand out above all the rest in your voice over niche?

These are essential questions to ask yourself. Once you identify your current social media profiles, there is usually room for improvement to get personal. So don’t be shy about posting your favorite moments. That picture of your kitty sleeping in the window, those excellent seats you got for the basketball game or that beautiful sunset you saw the other day. Once potential clients feel they are connecting to an actual human, then long-term relationships form.

Voice Over Marketing That Builds Relationships

So, what have we learned? Well, being personal is the difference between making a sale and keeping a long-term client. This is why the art of building relationships is a vital skill that most companies look for in their sales staff. This is why so many deals occur on the golf course, right? So don’t be shy, get personal, and enjoy the benefits that will come from it. Just don’t take it personally, ok? 😛

What is the Metaverse?

March 27, 2021 by Leah Arscott

It’s an exciting time to be in voice over, and now there’s a new revolution coming. The metaverse is an interesting world, and the word hasn’t even been added to the dictionary. In its simplest form, the metaverse is the new internet. It converges digital and physical experiences with an immersive space to create a virtual environment.

A Little Voice Over History

Voice over has been in existence for over one hundred years. The first voice ever recorded was by a Canadian inventor in the 1900’s. Over the years, we have seen tremendous leaps and bounds in technology, talent, and opportunities. Reel to Reel used to be the technology of choice. Now everything has gone digital and is stored in the cloud. Professional recording used to be done exclusively in the studio, now, it has moved into the home.

Where We Are Now

Voice over used to be applied for a few methods, such as television, radio, and the cinema. Nowadays, thousands of satellite tv channels and web pages demand voice overused for in-show narration and commercials. We hear Artificial Intelligence at self-checkout at the store, when we call companies on the phone, and when we ask our phone a question. We are inundated with voices speaking to us, and most of us don’t even notice it.

Is Metaverse A New Revolution?

In the 1990’s we saw Web 1, the internet where we connected with Yahoo, Google, Bing, and Wikipedia. Later we saw Web 2, connecting the internet with social networks like Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and Instagram. Now we are in the realm of Web 3, connecting the internet to people, places, and things.

The Metaverse was first coined in 1992 as an escape from reality. This new internet will enhance all the senses and fully immerse them into a virtual world. This Metaverse won’t only be a place for gaming, it will be a place where people can attend virtual events such as business meetings, first dates, places of worship, and even attend weddings and sporting events.

The Metaverse will contain various virtual land where anything can take place. There is big business regarding purchasing this land, and companies such as Cryptoland are selling virtual land at reasonable prices.

As well Non Fungible Tokens (NFT’s) have become all the rage making the news recently. NFT’s are items that use blockchain technology to price the authenticity of a digital item, such as art. Investors are scooping original art pieces at high price tags to get in first on this new way of doing business.

For many, the Metaverse doesn’t sound real, it sounds like the Matrix. But 30 years ago, nobody believed that we would do our banking, listen to music, and buy our groceries with our phones. This new internet is coming, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

Voice Over’s Role in the New Age of Metaverse

With the excitement of this new technology quickly growing, what role will voice over play? Nobody knows. But we know how Web2, the internet we use now, has featured in our day-to-day business. I would only imagine that the voice over industry will grow with every company expanding into this new digital space. Explainer videos will be needed for this new advertising venue, and perhaps other new technology we haven’t dreamed of yet.

It’s an exciting time to be in voice over. Companies now have an entirely new space to advertise and engage with customers. We may not know how it will unfold, but we are happy to be here to experience the journey.