How much information do you make available?

Do you market your voice or do you market your voice AND yourself? Does a voice cloaked in mystery sell better than a voice with a personality to go with it? This has been under a little bit of discussion recently at the vo-bb. Some advocate a minimalist web site, with no photo, no blog, no information at all other than the demos, the contact information, and “the brand” (e.g., a logo or a phrase that can be associated with the voice artist, or even just the VO’s name). Then there are people like me, who have a bio page, a blog and, shudder, that #1 voice-over no-no, a photograph on my website.

I believe that for some people, who are pursuing a VO career in a certain way, the minimalist approach can work well. If you train with the best of the best, can dependably deliver a flawless performance in a short period of time, and have a super agent who will do all your marketing for you, then this may work extremely well for you. Or, if you have one of those distinctive voices that sells itself, then perhaps you don’t need the extras. You may be among the 20% getting 80% of the work, or whatever those magic numbers are. Me, on the other hand – I can’t afford to be a cold and lonely world apart. Nor do I really want to be the Garbo of voiceover. Besides, it’s too late for that, since I’ve recently joined my local Chamber of Commerce and Ad Club and have been to so many networking parties in the last two weeks that when I see my friends and family my knee jerk reflex is to stick my hand out, introduce myself and flash a dazzling smile and a business card (those business cards, by the way, continue to get rave reviews – thank-you again Vaskevich Studios!). Blogs are a good tool for me. They provide a little more information, which might help somebody decide whether I’m the right person, not just the right voice, for their project. It might give a client a bit more confidence in hiring me if he or she knows that I have three degrees in biology and years as a museum curator under my belt. Also, the blog is hosted on my web server and its content is seen by search engines, which makes it easier for my website to be located when potential clients are looking for somebody to do a medical narration, a museum narration or a character voice. The blog also satisfies part of my urge to write, and I plan to keep doing it until, well, until I don’t do it anymore.

Anyway, I hate rules. Sure, there are plenty of “rules” that are just common sense and credos of marketing that have been proven to work, and there’s stuff people do that will pretty much guarantee failure. But we all have different goals and agendas, we are all different, so there is more than one road to success. Some people say that picking up the phone and cold calling is the best way to get work. I’ll pick up the phone if it seems like the right thing to do at the moment, which happens often enough, but otherwise I’ll send an email. If I don’t like marketing by phone, then marketing by phone is a bad way for me to look for clients, although it’s the best way for plenty of other people to make contact.

As for whether the minimalist approach is confined to those 20% of voice artists getting the most work – that’s hard to say. Somehow I am not worrying very much about the possible negative effect of blogging and a smiling photo on Joe Cipriano’s career. I can’t see clients deciding not to hire him because they know that he smiles and is a super nice guy and plays tennis on weekends. Harlan Hogan has a lot of “extra” stuff at his website and his career seems to be flourishing. Don La Fontaine does on-camera stuff these days, which could be said to kill the mystery but I think he does manage to make it from one paycheck to the next. Nancy Cartright is kind of out there too, available for interviews, doing good works. It isn’t a scientific sample, of course. More research is needed. Anyway, for me, a career in voice-over is not just about doing the work and making money. It isn’t even just about the fun of the work itself. I also enjoy the people. The interesting people. The clients who drop me a note in between the jobs just because they feel like it, or who talk to me about martial arts because they know from my blog that that’s an interest of mine where I frequently find parallels with voice-over. If I cast a bit more bread upon the waters, then I seem to get it back many times over. That’s the way I like it, rules or no rules. I think I will keep doing things my way, which is to do things that seem to work for me, until they stop working. Then I'll find a different way.

Disclaimer #1: I do not advocate any of the above. It seems to work for me. It may not work for anybody else.
Advice (the only advice contained herein): If you can not write, do not blog.
Disclaimer #2: May not be true.