← Everyday VOpreneur® with Marc Scott
Everyday VOpreneur® with Marc Scott
Finish the Year Strong: 4 Marketing Pillars for Voice Actors in Q4 with Marc Scott
00:24:29
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It's go time in the fourth quarter. It is not necessarily the best voice actor that gets the job. It's the voice actor who is top of mind. If I can't contact 10 or 20 leads a day, what is the point in contacting three or five? You have to give people the opportunity to get to know, like, and trust you. Because it's not enough to just do the thing.
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You're a voice actor, you're an entrepreneur. You're a veopreneur. Welcome to the Everyday Veopreneur podcast, your guide through the business of voiceover.
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I am constantly thinking about ways that I can grow the Everyday Veopreneur podcast and provide even more value to you who is listening. I want to get better guests, better subjects, better content, and one of the ways that I can do that is by having a bigger audience. So do me a favor. If you are enjoying the podcast right now, but you've never subscribed, would you please subscribe wherever you're listening? It could be on Spotify, it could be on Apple podcasts, it could be on YouTube. Your subscription can help me to get access to even bigger and better guests.
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Are you on the edge of your seat yet? You should be.
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Let's talk about the fourth quarter, because we are now firmly into the fourth quarter. This is where you gotta put the final push on if you want to finish the year strong and if you want to be able to carry momentum into January, it's got to happen now. It's go time in the fourth quarter now, traditionally speaking, at least the beginning part of the fourth quarter, one of the busier times in voiceover. Lots of stuff happening as companies get ready for the holidays and as they set themselves up to kick off the new year as well. So there should be no shortage of opportunities at this point. Not to mention, you know, political. Maybe you've heard of it. I don't even know how many billions of dollars are going to be spent on that. But the bottom line is we are now in the fourth quarter and it's time to make things happen. So you may be familiar with the 30 day marketing challenge that I ran in September, and a lot of people joined that challenge and saw results from that challenge. The big part of that challenge was showing up every single day consistently for 30 days and doing the thing, small, little things. And I think one of the areas where voice actors miss out on opportunity is because they feel like if they're not taking giant, massive action every day, then it's not worth doing anything. If I can't contact 10 or 20 leads a day. What is the point in contacting three or five? And so we have that mentality where it's got to be massive action in order to move the needle, but when we don't have the ability, the capacity, the time, whatever to pull off that massive action, then we end up doing nothing. That is not what you want to do. In the fourth quarter, I created another challenge. I called it the final 90. Basically, every single day for the final 90 days of the year, we are going to be doing some form of marketing. And this challenge has been running since October 1st. It's gonna run right through until December 31st. Whole bunch of voice actors that are participating, consistently showing up and doing a thing, building that momentum. I was looking over the final 90, and let me tell you something, that's really hard. Doing marketing every single day. Not so hard. Coming up with 90 unique marketing challenges, that's a little bit more difficult. But as I was looking over all of these challenges, brainstorming out ideas, coming up with all the different things that we're going to do over the course of this final nighty challenge, what I realized was I had distilled it down into really four main areas. And so even though I would have loved to have had you participating in the final 90, and I think it would have been good to have you doing that final nightie. And by the way, if you're doing the final 90, amazing. Amazing. Excited to have you doing the final 90, I'm doing it as well. It was a challenge for me just as much as it was a challenge for everybody else. But if you're going to finish the fourth quarter strong, I think from a marketing perspective, there are four main areas where you need to focus. I think there are a lot of voice actors that are really good at maybe doing one or two, or at least they put in an effort to do one or two. But I think if you really want to crush your marketing, you've got to put time and effort into all four. I just finished enrollment for voiceover marketing playbook, and the people who are doing Playbook right now are learning about this stuff on a much deeper level. And by the way, if you want to learn about this on a much deeper level, Playbook will be back in January. Head to voiceovermarketingplaybook.com, sign up for the wait list. We'll get you set up and ready to roll in January. But what do you do now? Where do you put your focus for the fourth quarter in order to produce Some results and build some momentum. I think there's four main areas that you can lean into. So I'm going to give you those four areas and then we'll break those down a little bit further. So the four areas are outreach, follow up, visibility, and reflection. Like I said, as I was going through the final 90 and plotting out 90 days worth of challenges, I realized that on some level, a lot of the challenges that I was coming up with niched down into one of these four areas. So what we'll call these your four content pillars for a successful fourth quarter, if you're really looking to try to level up your marketing. So let's dig a little bit deeper into each one of those, or start with outreach. Show me the size of your pipeline and I will show you the size of your business. This is something that I have said for many years, and basically what I'm saying is the number of people that are in your pipeline or CRM, or in your inbox or on your spreadsheet, whatever you're using to track it, ideally a CRM, to be clear. But the number of people that are in there is going to give me an indication of the size of your business. If you have a very small CRM, if you're talking about a database of 50, 75, 100, even, even a couple hundred people, that's not enough to grow a large scale, sustainable voiceover business. You're getting a lot more people in your pipeline than that. If you have a CRM that has thousands of people, then chances are you're running a bigger business. And so I really think that outreach is one of the most important areas when it comes to determining what your success level is going to be in this industry. So I think that outreach should be one of the areas where you are absolutely digging in and focusing time in the fourth quarter. Now, granted, I think that's somewhere you should be focusing time all the time. But right now we're just talking about what can I do, practically speaking, in the fourth quarter to try and build a little momentum for my voiceover business. Outreach has to be one of those things. There needs to be new people going into your pipeline. I think every day, by the time this podcast drops, there's going to be, I think, just under 50 business days left in the year. Somewhere in the upper 40s. We'll call it 50 just for easy math. Okay, so if you reached out to five people every day for those 50 business days between now and the end of the year, we're talking about 250 people going into your pipeline between now and the end of the year. Now, if we assume a 3% conversion rate, which is a reasonable conversion rate, 3% conversion rate on those 250 means probably seven or eight of those people are ultimately going to hire you. This is a numbers game. It is a consistency game, it is a persistence game, but it is an outreach game. So the number one pillar that you need to be focusing on for your business to finish out the fourth quarter strong is outreach and having a very clear and intentional plan about how you are going to put new people into your pipeline. Does that look like email marketing? Does it look like LinkedIn marketing? Does it look like in person networking? Does it look like Instagram? Is it TikTok? Is it some combination of all of those things? It doesn't matter. But the point is there needs to be new people going into your pipeline every single day. So focus on outreach as one of your main pillars. Let's talk about pillar number two, and that is follow up. How many times have you heard me say success is in the follow up? Now, given that we just finished talking about outreach, I think follow up in this case, I think breaks down in two different categories. First of all, there is following up with the people who already exist in your database, making sure that your clients and your prospects do not forget about you. You have to have some sort of system that puts you in front of those people on a very consistent basis, adding value to them in some way on a very consistent basis. Whether you are sending them emails, whether you are engaging with them on social media, dropping comments on what they're doing on LinkedIn, you know, commenting on the reels or the videos that they're posting on Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is, you have to have some sort of system in place to keep up with the people who are already in your database, particularly with your clients, because if they've already hired you once, there is a higher probability that that they're going to hire you again. New client acquisition is the hardest part of this business. And so you have to make sure that you are dedicating time in your marketing every single week to consistent follow up. Because if you've gone to the effort of acquiring that client, you do not want to just rest on your laurels at that point. You have to have a system in place to maintain that relationship so that they don't forget about you. I have said for years that sometimes it is not necessarily the best voice actor that gets the job. It's the voice actor who is top of mind. Who is the voice actor that is top of mind. That is the voice actor who is doing the consistent follow up. So make sure that you are consistently following up with the prospects and the clients who are already in your database. Just to clarify, clients, pretty self explanatory, right? The people who have already hired you in the past. Prospects. Those are the people who have expressed an interest but they haven't worked with you yet. You want to make sure that you are nurturing that relationship so you can get them to a point where they do hire you. The second side of the follow up coin is following up with new leads. One email, one point of contact, is not going to get the job done. My current follow up sequence sees my new leads receiving up to five additional follow up emails. It's going to take a couple of times sometimes it's going to take a couple of times because maybe they missed the first email, maybe they missed the second email, maybe they don't get you till the third email. Sometimes it's going to be because you don't say the right thing to hook them specifically until the second or the third or the fifth email. Sometimes it's because they're just testing you to find out whether or not you're serious and committed. If you only email once, how serious and committed could you actually be? But if you're willing to follow up with me several times, I know you're serious, I know you're persistent, I know you're someone who's committed to your business and that speaks to your character. And so you have to have a follow up strategy for all of those new leads who are going into your pipeline as well. So if you're going to do that outreach, you're going to contact those five people a day, you're going to put in those 250 people between now and the end of the year. Make sure that you also have a strategy for following up with them if they don't reply. If you don't get a response to that first email, send a second. If you don't get a response to that second email, send a third. You don't get a response to that third email, send a fourth. You understand what I'm saying? This is follow up. This is the second pillar of your marketing strategy for the fourth quarter. Make sure that you are making sure that people aren't forgetting about you. The third one, I think almost goes hand in hand with follow up to a degree. But the third pillar that you need to be focusing on is is visibility. One of the things that I've talked about in the past is that we work with people who we know, like and trust. And I think if you think about the products, the brands, the services that you do business with, the labels that you buy, the people that you hire, the companies that you consistently do work with, the places where you grocery shop or buy your clothes or whatever it is, chances are there's a relationship of know, like and trust in there. You got to know the brand, you got to like the brand, you got to trust the brand. Right? There are certain podcasters that I listen to over and over and over again because I know them, like them, and trust them. And that doesn't mean I know them on a personal level, but I feel like I know them, which helps me to be able to like them, which helps me to be able to trust them. Same thing with people and the books that I read and the authors that I buy. There's this know, like and trust relationship that happens in business. So you have to give people the opportunity to get to know like and trust you. How do you do that? By being visible. This is where taking advantage of social media comes into play. I think that it is so important for voice actors to include at least one social media platform in their marketing strategy if for no other reason. There is an entire younger generation of buyers who have never lived their life without social media, and this is where they're hanging out. And so if you're an older Xer or a boomer and you're like, social media stupid, I don't want to be on social media. I'm just telling you, your millennial and Gen Z buyers, those people are hanging out on certain social media platforms, and I think it's somewhere that you're going to want to be. It gives people the ability to get to know you on a different level. Which is why I also think that it's really important that not all the content that you share is about voiceover. It doesn't have to be about voiceover. You're allowed to talk about other things outside of voiceover because you aren't more than just who you are in the booth. If somebody asked you, tell me something about Mark Scott. Okay, Most people are probably going to say marketing or the opener. There is a very high percentage of the people that you ask who are going to say something about barbecue or Dr. Pepper or the Boston Red Sox, because these are things that people know about me because I share other insights into who I am. You're going to ask about the boo or the bean. Right. You know these things because you've gotten to know me as a person, not just as a voice actor, not just as a vopeneur, not just as a business owner, but you've got to know me as a person and you've got to do that through social media. It's through the content that I share on Instagram, or the posts that I throw up on Facebook, or what I'm sharing and the tips that I'm giving on LinkedIn or what happens during a free Advice Friday livestream or the 12 voiceover gifts of Christmas live stream. These are all things that allow you to get to know me on a different level. And I think you need to give your buyers and potential buyers the same opportunities. So even if it's just one, and I don't think it should be Facebook, to be clear, that's another story for another day. If it's TikTok, if it's Instagram, if it's LinkedIn, if it's YouTube, whatever it is, pick one of these social media platforms and just really commit to it for the next quarter. You can do that for the next quarter. Showing up, I would say hosting at least two to three times a week, maybe more, depending on the platform, but at least two to three times a week. Showing up to post content, share content, but making a point every day of showing up to engage with content. Remember that social media platforms give you a space to share content, but they are really driven by engagement. The algorithms are driven by engagement. And so engagement needs to be part of your strategy. It's not enough to just post. You have to comment and share and react and engage. So the third pillar that you need to be leaning into if you are going to reset your marketing for the fourth quarter is absolutely visibility. And I think that social media is a big part of that. Now, if you are 100% absolutely opposed, I am not going to do social media. There is no scenario in the world where you are going to get me to do social media. You have to find some other way to stay visible and maybe you're incredibly active in your community and that means that you are constantly going to networking events, chamber events, small business events, entrepreneurship events, whatever. Great. As long as you have a way to stay in front of your buyers on a consistent basis and give them the ability to get to know you outside of marketing emails. That's what visibility is all about. So that's pillar number three, visibility. The final pillar is the one that I think is often overlooked the most, but in some senses it might actually be the most important of all of the pillars, or at least it's the one that makes all of the other pillars work. That fourth pillar is reflection. In the final Nightie Challenge, I have made a point that every weekend from now through until the end of December, there will be very specific challenges around the concept of reflection. Because it's not enough to just do the thing. You've got to take time to reflect on what you're doing so that you can determine whether or not what you're doing is actually working. When you sit down and you look back at okay, here's all the stuff that I posted on social media in the last few weeks, you can start to see, wow, okay, this post and this post did really well. But this post and this post, not so well. What is it about the two that did really well that made them do really well? What is it about the two that made them that didn't do so well that made them not work? Are there commonalities that you can find? Are there clues? I think the data gives you clues. If you're writing a whole bunch of marketing emails, but those marketing emails aren't working, how are you going to know that if you don't take the time to reflect on whether or not the strategy is working? Because maybe it could be something as simple as tweaking your subject line that makes all the difference in the world. And so you want to make sure that you're doing that after the 20th email, not after the 200th email. If you're targeting the wrong people, you send out a bunch of emails, you're not getting responses, and then you realize, maybe this isn't who I should be reaching out to. Wouldn't you rather find that out after the 10 or 15th email than after the 250th email? Or if the content of your email isn't great, wouldn't you rather figure that out because you're taking time to reflect at each point in the journey? And again, figuring out after the 10 or 15th or 20th email, this email doesn't seem to be working. Let me tweak my content before you get to email 250. But we don't often take time for reflection. We put our heads down and we just do the thing. And when it doesn't work, what is our natural response? Do more of the thing, right? Double down. Crap, this isn't working. I gotta send more emails. Oh no, this isn't working. I gotta put more posts on social media. Maybe that's the answer. But Maybe the answer is I've got to write better emails, or I've got to target them to better people, or I have to try to come up with a way to use a better subject line, or I have to include a more clear call to action, or I have to evaluate my content strategy to make sure that I'm sharing the right things that speak to my audience. You learn those things through reflection. When you have the opportunity to sit down and look back and say, okay, here's what I did this week, and of all of the things that I did for my business this week, here's what worked really well and here's what didn't work so well. How can I do more of the thing that worked really well? And with the things that didn't work so well, is there ways that I can make them work better? Can I improve in some way? Or are these things just not effective? And maybe there's something in there that I need to eliminate. One of the reasons why I made so much money in explainer videos for about a three or four year stretch was because I was looking at the data and the data showed me very clearly, dude, you are making a lot of money in explainer videos. You should absolutely double down on that genre. And so I did, and I got even more clients and I made even more money and I booked even more explainer videos. And when that trend shifted, then I started to recognize, okay, I'm making a lot of money in elearning. So I doubled down on that trend and I started focusing more on my elearning work and getting a better elearning demo and reaching out to more people in the elearning space. But those things didn't happen by accident. They happened because I was taking time to reflect. If you are not evaluating the things that you are doing, how will you ever know whether or not they're working or whether or not there's room for improvement or whether or not there's something that needs to be eliminated? Because maybe some of the things you're doing you shouldn't be doing at all. But you won't know that unless you're reflecting. So if you are looking to reset your marketing for the fourth quarter to start to build that momentum that is going to carry you through to January of 2026, by the way, what the heck, 2026? I can't even believe I'm saying that. I think these are the four pillars that you need to be leaning into now if you want to dive more deeply into specific strategies for outreach for follow up for visibility, all of these things. That's where Voiceover Marketing Playbook comes in. It's tons of content that walks you through all of these things on a much deeper level, actual strategies, what it actually looks like to implement. So get on the Playbook wait list@voiceovermarketingplaybook.com and be ready for January. But in the meantime, ask yourself every week, am I being intentional about doing outreach, putting new people into my pipeline? Am I being intentional about follow up, making sure that the people that I'm communicating with are not forgetting about me and I'm always staying top of mind? Am I being intentional about being visible? How can you take advantage of things like social media to get yourself in front of more people and help them get to know you on a different level? And am I being intentional about taking time to reflect on what's working, what's not working, and where I can improve and what I might need to eliminate? I think that if you can focus on those four pillars for the rest of the year, you can do some pretty amazing stuff in your voiceover business.
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The Everyday veopreneur Podcast Available everywhere. Find podcasts are given away for free. Mostly, we thank you.
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And that's a wrap. Thanks for hanging in. Thanks for hanging out. Want more? Veopreneur Goodness Jump online at veopreneur. Com.