Posts in Ask An Agent
Ask An Agent -> How do you market yourself?
How do you market yourself as a voice actor? ARE you marketing yourself?
Agents market on behalf of the agency. We push to get new ad agencies, production companies, casting directors,etc. And when a job comes in we audition as many talents as possible within the restraints of the casting. Rarely does someone ask my opinion of who's the ONE person we rep that's right for the job. Sure we all have a few folks who use only our agency but those tend to be local/regional. Those are my favorite accounts anyway because they tend to use us more often. But it's usually megasite auditions or ad agencies who invite a few of us individually.
So, how do you bring business in for yourself? I think you should be working with your agent on your individual marketing campaign. Let's say you're the best fast food voice in the country (or healthcare or real estate). I'd pick an area of the country to start - say the southeast. So, google, bing - whatever and find out all the markets in the SE. Start with the majors. Let's say you start with Atlanta. Look up all the ad agencies in Atlanta (search engine/Redbook, etc. http://www.redbooks.com/) that handle fast food.
Next find out who does R/TVVO. Then start a funny email campaign. Make the email short and to the point but be funny and ask them when you can audition their next project. Don't say keep me in mind. Ask for a response. It takes about 8 emails to get a response so you'll need to have 8 ready to go. If someone says they have nothing now send that to your agent to follow up and also send your own follow up in 3 months.
Then pick another city, repeat, and soon you have a HUGE spreadsheet of your own contacts. So why use the agent? Because an agent is usually better at pushing you than you are. It's also easier for us to make sure you're getting a fair rate, scale, etc. and collecting that money. And no, we won't offer other talent. That would be biting both of us. And yes, sometimes they'll use someone else. Or, you COULD just sit there and wait for the phone to ring. The choice is yours.
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Ask An Agent -> Hi dB, How should I label my audition?
Labeling instructions vary with many clients so please watch for the instructions in your audition email.
But in general, label with name only if there's only one role. Ex: Sally Smiles.mp3
Notice that the first letter of Sally is capitalized, then there's a space, then the first letter of Smiles is capitalized. And in case you didn't know, when you bounce your file to mp3 format it automatically puts .mp3 at the end. If you also include it while labeling your file will look like Sally Smiles.mp3.mp3
Just look at it before sending. Also double check to see that it's not 0MB or you're sending a blank file. Just rebounce - hey it's a computer - it happens.
The reason for the spacing & capitalization is because that's the standard for most of the ftp sites we upload to. If you run your name together, sallysmiles, then you are placed by the ftp site at the bottom of the list.
Scott Sullivan
Tom Pyles
sallysmiles
In addition, if you are reading for more than one role please label as follows:
Anncr-Bubba Blue.mp3
Jolly Man-Texas Tramp.mp3
Again, notice that it's a hyphen & not an underscore. putting an underscore will also put you at the bottom of some ftp sites.
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Ask An Agent -> Hi dB, What are you currently looking for?
We will resume listening to demos in February. Things are still relatively slow but we're extremely interested in the following categories:
1) Commercial Voice Actors 18-25 M&F
2) Political Voices - all ages M&F
3) Videogame Voice Actors 18-25 M&F
4) Children Voice Actors (8-12) M&F
All talent MUST HAVE OWN ISDN studio and CURRENT working demo.
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