Positioning Problems in Voice Over Marketing

Most people outside of our industry don't even really know what a voice actor does.

You tell somebody you work in voiceover and they'll get some sort of vague idea about cartoons or a guy yelling about a mattress sale on the radio or some sort of nebulous idea about podcasting.

They don't automatically picture the tutorial video for their project management software.

They don't think about the training course they had to complete at work, the explainer video on a medical company's homepage, or the pre-show announcement at a live corporate event.

More importantly, though, they don't know what kind of voiceover work you do best, who hires you, or why somebody would choose you over the 10,000 other people out there who call themselves professional voice actors.

And that isn't the prospect's problem or fault.

It's our job to make what we do easy to understand.

Clients don't buy what they don't understand, and people don't refer people to them.

Unless they've got an easy way to describe what they do.

If your entire explanation to somebody is, I'm a voice actor, then you're offloading all the work on the other person.

And they have to figure out where you fit, what problems you might solve, and if they know anybody who can use what you do.

Most people won't bother, not because they're jerks or because they're being antisocial.

It's just because they don't care that much and you're making them work too hard.

And this is one of the biggest gaps in what has been traditional voiceover training.

We're taught mic technique and how to edit and how to record, how to break down a script and inhabit a character.

And all of that absolutely matters, but very few people are taught how to define and defend and describe their place in the market.

So they default to listing genres.

Well, I do commercials, corporate narration, medical narration, technical narration, audiobooks, promos, in-show, documentary, and anything else people will pay me for.

But that doesn't position you as versatile.

It makes you sound like you haven't figured out where you belong.

Your marketing message isn't supposed to be some sort of inventory laundry list of every possible service you could provide.

It's your job to give your buyer a clear, compelling reason to hire you.