Realizing the Dream
You have decided you want
to become a voiceover talent. So what do you do next? To be successful in this
field you'll need to come up with a plan that you can follow through with. To
build a successful online voiceover business, you will need the proper tools of
the trade. To help you get started, here is a list of some of the tools you'll
need to operate your voiceover business online.
Essential Home-based Business
Technology
- Telephone with voicemail
- Personal computer, printer
- Business software MS Word, Excel
- High-speed Internet connection
- Accounting software such as QuickBooks
Brand Your Voice
Right from the
beginning you need to start thinking about how to build your professional
brand. Building your brand is one of the most important things that you'll do
to market yourself! It refers to the way
other people see you as a business owner, and if you manage to successfully
master it, it can set you and your
offerings apart from your competitors.
Many professionals decide to keep their
real name, but selecting a stage name has its advantages. There are many
reasons to choose a stage name. Perhaps your given name has an unfortunate
connotation or has about ten too many syllables. Either way, you may find you
need a name that is memorable and can help establish your personal brand.
Choosing a stage name can help separate
your professional life from your home life and in some cases gives you a more professional
persona. Basically, you can choose any name that you feel serves you well, it
can be a unique name or a memorable name whatever feels right to you.
Your approach to choosing a stage name
will vary according to your desired image. Most importantly, select a name you
can remember, easy to spell and easy to say. Check online to see if the name
you would like to use is available and if it is buy both the .com and .net
version. If your lucky no one else will have it and if so, look into building
your own personal brand website. This will allow you to secure your brand name
on the Internet.
Building your voiceover brand to
promote your business is one of the most important steps you will take before
beginning to market yourself. One thing a good brand image does is bring a
consistent message to your audience, and helps establish your businesses
purpose.
If you take the time to properly plan
and brand yourself well before the release of your first demo, you'll find that
your efforts have gone a long ways to differentiating yourself from other
voiceover artists.
Finding a name for your company, selecting
domains for your blog page & voiceover website, creating a logo, writing
copy, selecting music, sound effects, picking colors, creating a slogan, and
voice-over imaging is all part of building and branding your voice-over career
and online presence.
Need a demo reel in Los Angeles call Recording Star Studio at (407) 687-8323 Or visit us at 5355 Cartwright Ave. Suite #203 North Hollywood, CA 91601 or email info@recordingstarstudio.com
Drafting Your Vocal Description
Is an important part of your personal
branding, it is the way you describe your voice and your service. Your clients
want to learn about you in as few words as possible. So to keep clients
interested keep your description of your service around 15 words. Especially
when you're trying to promote yourself at a voiceover marketplace or in
advertisements.
First, create your vocal description
and when you've completed that turn your attention to creating a phrase that
best describes your voiceover services. Next, create a slogan, a powerful
slogan is a memorable device that will serve you well if properly crafted and
placed.
A necessary step in the branding
process is writing your vocal description. Be sure to feature your strengths
when you're writing your description, specialties, and unique characteristics.
Be sure not to exceed the standard practice of having your description only two
or three sentences long.
Selecting a Name
When you're selecting
your online name make sure that your name reflects you as a professional
voiceover talent. For example, maybe your name could be Mr. Bill voiceovers,
Mr. Bill voiceover service, or Mr. Bill voices. If you followed my earlier
instructions you made sure that your domain name was available online already.
Also, you would have already selected a name that was unique and easily
understood and recognized.
Picking Colors
Let's move on to
choosing the correct colors to represent your voiceover services online and in
the real world. Visually speaking, it's important to select complimentary
colors, in other words, colors that look good together. Once you've selected
the colors that you will use to help brand yourself on your website and in the
real world, use those colors in your logo to help further brand your voice
visually.
Creating a Logo
Your logo is the most
easily recognized part of your voiceover brand. Your logo will accompany press
releases and for advertising purposes online. It can also be used as a link to
your site. It can give your audience a glimpse into what your brand is all
about even before they hear your voice over demo.
Your logo is very
important to everything you do when it comes to branding yourself. When you
have your logo design just remember one thing, it's often the first impression
of your voice over business that people will see.
Keeping this in mind, your logo should
be sized appropriately and be friendly to all age groups viewing. And do
yourself a favor make sure it doesn't take up any more room than an average logo
you would see in your marketplace. Use the colors that you've chosen earlier to
further enhance and unify your visual branding.
I suggest you outsource your logo
design to an expert, your logo is much too important to not project! Nothing
screams amateur worse than a poorly designed logo.
Slogans and Tags
Spend about 30 minutes or so to think
about your slogan and tagline for your voiceover service. The tagline you come
up with can be used to instill, validate and confirm your brand. You can use
your slogan on your website, business cards, and in your demo.