If you want to be a voice over artist it’s not just about sitting in a booth reading copy. In this episode you’ll learn tips and tricks about how to best market yourself as a voice over and the importance of considering yourself as an entrepreneur. Rachael Naylor is an award winning voice over artist from London in the UK. Her voice has been described in many different ways, “friendly, down to earth, fresh, natural, young, upbeat, energetic, smooth, urban, sexy, engaging, London, versatile and fun”. The truth is Rachael is extremely versatile and a true professional and joy to work with.
How Did Rachael’s Voice Over Journey Begin?
Rachael was inspired by her grandfather who was a fantastic actor and news announcer she went on to study at drama school and started to work with a vocal coach who guided her into the direction of voice overs. In the podcast we learn how you really are an entrepreneur as a solo voice over talent – marketing, chasing clients, invoicing and accounting – you perhaps spend around 50% of your time on the business and only 50% of the time actually performing voice overs.
A Home Made Voice Over Booth
Rachael had been looking into many options when thinking about a professional voice over booth and finally settled on the idea of a bit of DIY. Her husband planned out and created a home voice over booth right in the house! You’ll hear more about that process in the podcast from choosing the right sound proof material to adding some pretty decorations for the outside of the booth. Rachael has also created an article with photos about her home voice over recording studio.
Marketing Yourself As A Voice Over
Business is an exciting part of Rachael’s day. She’ll often sit down with a pen and pad of paper and plot out some new ideas to market her voice overs – a new blog, email campaign, social media or even direct mail marketing.
Blogging
Starting a blog and creating content has been a great method of attracting visitors to Rachael’s own website she also guest blogs for other websites which is a great way of exposing yourself to a whole new audience online.
Google AdWords
It can seem pretty complex at first to use Google AdWords but once you’ve set up a budget you can choose different relevant keywords such as, “voice over”, “female voice over artist” and “voice over artist london”. It’s also important to set up negative keywords such as, “free” or “cheap” as this will prevent you paying for searches that may not convert into business.
More Marketing Tools
Other marketing tools mentioned in the podcast included Google Analytics, email marketing and direct mail marketing.
Voice Over Events & Meetups
Rachael is a member of Entrepreneur’s Circle and also runs a West London voice over artist meetup. They’ve had a few meetings so far and it is great to get out of the voice over booth, socialise and exchange ideas.
Voice Over Demos
It’s massively important to have a high quality voice over demo (or reel as they’re sometimes known as). You should spend time updating your demo often and ensure you get it professionally produced. Your voice over demo is everything when someone is making the decision to hire a voice over artist.
Informative and thought provoking interview! Having just picked “Helen” for my intro recording, I love hearing about her background and business.
Thanks!
Eileen
Thanks for the feedback Eileen. Glad you enjoyed the episode! 🙂
Yes, great episode. As a slightly newer artist, it’s lovely to hear what other voice artists value in terms of marketing tools.
Nicola
http://www.nicolaredman.com
Great to hear the content was valuable to you Nicola. I agree as a voice over artist you can never run out of suggestions for good marketing tools.
Thanks for listening! 🙂
Great episode all around.
First, it’s fantastic to hear Izabela Russell regularly on the show (Provides a nice talk show dynamic).
Indeed, Rachael has done a phenomenal job of turning voice-overs into an actual business. Moreover, I am not aware of any ‘VO Artist’ who has taken such an entrepreneurial approach in which she had described (Engaged marketing strategy of Social Media, Blogging, Sound Cloud, Adwords campaigns, Analytics, Meetups). Generally, VO Artists (Of a certain scale) tend to get an agent/agency work and join SAG (Screen Actors Guild) – very old school in comparison (19th Century:)
I have not been involved with freelance voice overs for some time, however after hearing Rachael’s advice and experience, I am feeling inspired to revisit the idea.
Thank you, Rachael, Izabela and Mike!
Thanks for the feedback Val and you’re absolutely right that Rachael does have an extremely modern and refreshing approach to voice over. It’s true that almost anyone can do it if they work hard and treat voice over as a business. Glad you were inspired by Rachael’s words – she was a great guest!
This is one of the best episodes yet. Excellent questions, informative answers, good flow and rapport. Some really useful information was imparted here; thank you!
Thanks so much Leslie – great to hear you enjoyed the show 🙂
hi mike
well if i could use one word to describe this podcast it would be amazing
izabela is sounding really relaxed behind the mic.Also Rachael known as Helen is the voice of my 80’s hour/
fantastic work guys
Thanks Liam. I always think it is great to reveal the personality of a voice over artist and enjoy doing these kind of podcast episodes. Would you like to hear more like this? Anyone you’d like to hear on the podcast in the future?
Thanks, as always, for listening!
yes i would love for you to interview the music singers. eg guy Gavin Lindsy and Kim