Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

Marketing

5 keys to confident cold calling

A couple of recent newspaper headlines from different cities gleefully state that you can make lots of easy of money as a professional voice talent after taking only a 2-hour introductory group class. According to these articles, a particular group of voice-over teachers seems to be traveling through the country and conducting these “if you can talk, you can break into voiceover and make fabulous money” seminars at community colleges.

I thought about writing a blog entry warning people about the false hopes generated by the headlines and the teaching company, but I decided against it. I don’t want to insist that someone considering a voice-over career must follow a certain path. Besides, who am I to predict the outcome of such a class? I suppose it could happen that someone is blessed with the most distinct voice, the most amazing cold-reading skills, the most transparent and authentic interpretation, and the most exciting contacts who are looking for a shining new star to voice their national TV commercial/e-learning project/PBS documentary/trade show video/major animated movie. A 2-hour class is certainly sufficient for this kind of person to be able to hang out the sign as a professional voice talent and have clients with unlimited checking accounts flocking to them with no effort.

For the rest of us, though, gaining work as a voice talent requires much more — more confidence, more training, more marketing and more relationships, which all require more time, money and effort on the part of the voice actor.

I started writing this entry on Friday, 16 January. When I got up that morning, the Atlanta temperature was a frigid 14 degrees. A good use of time on such a bitterly cold day — or any day when you have free time — is to work on your marketing plan, particularly making cold calls. (You knew there was a tie-in with the weather somewhere!)

When I decided to become a voice-over actor in the late 90s, I was perpetually excited during the process of making my demo. I then hit a brick wall when it came to marketing it. What good does a fab demo do me if I can’t make myself call people who not only might be interested in hearing it but actually willing and able to hire me?

The thing that propelled me to make the first call was the following passage that I read in Rick Crandall’s book 1001 Ways to Market Your Services…Even If You Hate to Sell:

Overcoming Your Cold-Calling Fears 

Cold calling scares all of us sometime. Ram Yellen deals with his fears by asking himself these questions:

1) What’s the worst thing that can happen if I make this call or proposal, or ask for a referral? (They can say no, no, a thousand times no! –or is that from a Victorian soap opera?)

2) What’s the best thing that could happen? (You could make a new, lifelong friend.)

3) What would I do if I knew that this person needed my services tomorrow?

— Pin up a picture of someone successful in your business and ask yourself what he or she would do in this situation. (If it’s a competitor, you can do it just to show them up!)

— Acknowledge the fear and do it anyway.

The bit about the Victorian soap opera cracked me up. Even now, I still have times when I feel fear or anxiety about making calls to pursue my voice-over career. I think about the “1000 times no” line, and it gives me courage (after I stop laughing!) to make the call.

I admit, though, that I still prefer to initiate conversations in writing or in person. The recipient of your calls could think that you don’t have any work. They may hold the perception that voice talent who are in high demand don’t have time to make prospecting calls.

Still, phone calls are sometimes necessary. For the times you choose to include phone calls in your marketing mix, here are 5 tips that will boost your confidence and courage:

1) Research the organization before deciding to call them.

Google is my friend. I can search for the type of organization and then find company web sites, on-line profiles on social networking sites and possibly news stories related to the target company. Many times, you can see portfolios of past work and get contact information. I can’t tell you how many phone calls and e-mails I have received from people who want to work for me as a voice talent. In those cases, I always know that the person has not done their research to identify the nature of my business. Good research will also move the phone call away from the “iceberg right ahead” category of cold call disaster.

2) With your research completed, identify some reason for the call.<

Repeat after me: “it’s not what they can do for me; it’s what I can do for them.” You may say you were updating your database, had a referral, saw they are members of a mutual professional group, etc. However, you don’t want to call and offer unsolicited advice about improving the business.

3) Write and rehearse a script that you will use when the other party comes on the line.

We voice talent always read from scripts, yet many people ignore this step when deciding to call potential clients. You want to state how you found them and be ready with a list of questions and/or a desired outcome for the call. A recent post in the Marketing Mix blog should give you fantastic ideas for a boilerplate script. Just like any voice-over script, you will want to practice it and possibly record it so that you can deliver it fluidly and easily.

4) Write another script for leaving a message.

You don’t want to be caught off-guard and leave a rambling message on voice mail. You also want to motivate the person to return the call. Saying something like “I have some information that may allow you to create an e-learning module at lower cost” is much more intriguing to the prospect than “I’m wondering if you ever need to use voice talent.” The second sentence is especially ineffective since it immediately indicates that you haven’t done your research.

Also, be sure to state your name and return number clearly at the beginning AND end of the call. How many messages have you heard where someone rushed through a message and then blurted out their name and phone number at the end of the call so fast that you had to rewind the message more than once to understand it? You don’t want to be one of those kind of people, do you?

5) Be prepared for follow-up actions.

Take careful notes during the conversation. You may have promised to send your demo or some information on the web, or you may hear some other action that you could take, like meeting them at an upcoming event. Track your needed actions with appointment entries on your calendar.

As you can see, even your preparation for your first prospecting call can require more time and energy than the 2 hours expended in an introductory voice-over class. Perhaps a more appropriate name for the traveling voice-over seminars would be:

“If you can talk, you can call people on the phone to discuss voice-over work with them, and you may even make some money as a professional voice talent if you have an outstanding demo and make enough calls to market it, being sure to do your research ahead of time.”

 

Karen Commins is my new brand name

What’s in a name?

That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
— William Shakespeare

True, but would Google and all of the other web search engines be able to find the rose if multiple names for it were used?

********************

This post marks my 100th entry in this blog, and this year marks my 10th year of my voice-over business. It’s time to make some changes. While I don’t plan to re-invent myself, I have decided to re-focus all of my efforts to create stronger brand identity with my name.

Aside from the 2 milestones I listed and the fact that we just started a new calendar year, other factors have propelled me to make this change. Earlier in the week, I wrote about Bonnie Gillespie’s current column in The Actors Voice: Social Networking and Acting in which she wrote a brilliant analysis of an actor’s effective use of social networking platforms in establishing and maintaining a professional brand. One piece of her advice has been percolating in my mind:

What’s your screen name on these sites? What’s the unique URL to your profile?
Nothing silly or casual, if you’re the smart actor user.
Instead, it’s your professional actor name!
It’s how we would look you up at IMDB or within the Breakdown Services’ system.
It’s how you’re branded.

As I read her words, I recalled the case study of the beer industry presented in the stellar marketing book The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries. The major players in the beer industry continue to introduce new brands, yet they do not increase their market share. Instead, buyers of the new brands tend to come from customers in the existing brands. In chapter 10, the Law of Extensions, the authors explain:

But people don’t think this way. In their minds, most people try to assign one brand name to each product. And they are not consistent in how they assign such names. They tend to use the name that best captures the essence of the product…..Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and are distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better…..

While extending the line might bring added sales in the short term, it runs counter to the notion of branding. If you want to build a powerful brand in the minds of consumers, you need to contract your brand, not expand it. In the long term, expanding your brand will diminish your power and weaken your image.

(As an aside, I didn’t provide the page number because I downloaded the book to my new and life-changing Amazon Kindle wireless reader. When you highlight a book, the Kindle saves the highlight in a text file called “My Clippings”, which you can edit on your computer. I copied the quoted passage from the Kindle file.)

For some time, I have had multiple domain names, both on-line and reserved. For years, my main web site was AVOICEAboveTheCrowd.com. In recent times, I changed it to KarenCommins.com. Lately, I had been switching it to KarenVoices.com but continuing to point it at the other domain. The shorter name is easier for people to type and fits better on smaller imprinted products. I also am using KarenBlogs.com for this blog and KarenTalks.com for my podcasts and volunteer voice-over productions. I had been thinking of promoting my specialty of narrations aimed at the information technology industry and had reserved 3 more domains for that purpose.

Whew! I’m tired just writing and looking at that list! As my e-mail signature lines grew longer, I intuitively knew that I was segmenting my search engine rankings by using multiple domains. I didn’t realize that my overall brand would be diminished in the process. I can clearly see that these domains are really line extensions.

Furthermore, if I only use my first name in my domain name, people don’t know which voice talent named Karen to associate with the work. I searched some on-line voice talent casting sites and found a minimum of 30 Karens listed on each site — and that’s just using my spelling of the name.

This is the year that I contract my brand to one name: Karen Commins. With my name as my brand, my on-line presence will be in total harmony with my off-line life. Some changes are easier to make, such as changing my Twitter username and LinkedIn profile. Other things like consolidating my sites under my name will take a bit more time, energy and money paid to my webmaster.

Like I said, it’s time to make some changes. My re-branding efforts will remove the virtual thorns in my side and allow this rose to blossom in the sweetness of a more focused voice-over career.

 

25 reasons clients hire this voice talent

Most of my articles in this blog pertain to working and marketing oneself as a voice talent. Today, though, I want to write to my potential clients. Sometimes you may need to persuade others in your organization to hire a professional voice talent instead of creating a recording using internal personnel. Here’s a way for you to spell it out for them!


V

oice-over
is my life’s passion! I didn’t wake up one morning and decide to go into
voice-over because I thought I could earn some easy money. I can remember
being in 5th grade and knowing that voice-over is what I was meant
to do. I have been in voice-over since 1999, and I intend to be working in
voice-over for decades to come.

O

utstanding
ability to take and perform to your direction. If you want a word or line
with different emphasis or characterization, I attentively listen to your
instructions and carry them out on the next take.

I

ntegrity.
 I don’t agree to voice every project that is offered me. I believe in the
power of the word, especially the spoken word. If I don’t like the words that
would be coming out of my mouth, I won’t say them. You can feel assured my
voice would not tarnish the image of your business by being associated with
some other project that you might consider questionable.

C

haracter
reads are a specialty. Two of my audiobooks required me to give a
distinct and unique voice to over 50 characters! I also have provided the voice for several characters in 2 videogames.

E

ducation.
I continuously invest in my education to maintain and improve my skills in
copy interpretation, script analysis, microphone technique, character
development and audio editing. I have studied voice-over with Nancy Wolfson, Jeff Freeman, Susan Berkley, Pat Fraley, Rich Jones, Judith Sullivan and Paul Armbruster. I also have taken a class on Pro Tools audio editing at the Art Institute of Atlanta. I’m currently studying Spanish at Berlitz so that I can perform your copy in another language.

O

ption
for assistance with script revision. I have superior writing skills, as
evidenced by my BA in broadcast journalism and the publication of several
articles in national magazines.

V

ersatile
and pleasing vocal range and pitch. My normal voice is a lower, resonant
pitch that is perfect for narrations in corporate America, but I can go up and down the scale and add characteristics to create
believable character voices.

E

veryone can talk, but not everyone can read aloud well, much less make themselves transparent in the process. As a professional voice actor, I can perform your script so that your audience concentrates on your content, not the manner in which it is performed.

R

ates
are attractive. Many voice talent belong to a union, which sets rates based
on the type of work performed and its usage. The rates shown are for the
voice talent only and do not include studio time. I have flexibility in
setting rates, which always include my voice talent and production time.

S

tunning SOUNDPROOF studio. My studio is custom-built for recording, incorporating special soundproofing construction techniques. The room has no windows, 2 layers of ceilings with added
insulation, 2 sets of doors at each entrance with barrier space and 2 layers
of 5/8″ drywall covering the 2×6 walls. I record in a WhisperRoom for enhanced sound quality. In my pristine recordings, you won’t hear kids, dogs,
lawnmowers, computer fans, airplanes, thunder, cars or even paperclips as
background noises.
 

 

B

usy people don’t have time to read. I convert your copy into communication.

Y

ou won’t need to go through the process again of finding competent, reliable voice talent.

 

 

K

eeps your audience listening and interested. Need I say more?

A

lways
on time. You won’t miss a deadline because you were waiting for me to finish your
recording.

R

esearch
is done prior to recording session. For audiobooks, I read the book at least
once prior to recording it. I spend time to look up and learn correct
pronunciations of proper names.

E

quipment
is industry standard. Instead of recording straight from a low-end microphone into the computer, I record on a Neumann TLM 103 mic connected to a
Voicemaster Platinum processor. I use Pro Tools LE with a Mbox on my Macbook
Pro computer. If necessary, I could exchange session files with any other
recording studio in the world.

N

umerous clients and credits, including: Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits, Pepsi Cola, ADP,
Verizon Wireless, Georgia Department of Transportation, Delta Airlines,
Multiple Sclerosis Association of America, BlueCielo ECM, Georgia Institute
of Technology, and Orkin.

 

 

C

redible
and creative actress who delivers sensitive and well-timed copy even during
cold reads.

O

ffers custom auditions of your script for FREE.

M

ember
of Audio Publishers Association. I maintain contact with audiobook publishers
and can direct you to resources that may assist you.

M

arketing
expertise is FREE. I minored in marketing in college and am a perpetual
student of marketing books. I love marketing and am always happy to discuss
it!

I

nformation
technology narrations are a specialty. I earned a MS degree in computer
information systems and worked over 20 years in IT positions including
programmer and LAN/WAN/e-mail administrator. I can perform scripts geared to
a technical audience with complete authenticity and believability since I
actually understand the words that are coming out of my mouth! 🙂

N

ot
all things to all people. Would you hire a plumber to fix your air conditioner? Companies value those with expertise in an area, so why should the voice of your important presentation be left to someone who is not skilled in voice-over delivery? Even among voice-over projects, I am selective about those I will perform. For instance, if you want someone to record a movie trailer, I can refer you
to other talent. I specialize in audiobooks and narrations, including
podcasts, documentaries and corporate presentations. I also enjoy performing scripts
used in radio and TV commercials, as well as video games. I often voice the initial greetings and on-hold messages for phone systems, but I will not undertake telephony projects requiring hundreds of menu prompts or file conversions.

S

atisfaction
guaranteed! I require 50% payment up front when beginning a project. If you
are not delighted with your recording, I will not invoice you for the
remainder. I don’t know of another voice talent who dares to make this
promise!

You may have noticed that I only listed 24 reasons that I should be your voice talent. The last is that I’m FUN! I see the use of humor as a mission-critical element in my voice-over business. Everyone is under enough stress, so I want to use humor to help people feel at ease. Contact me now so we can get started on your next project!

 

Social networking in voice-over

In the attitude of silence,
the soul finds the path
in a clearer light,
and what is elusive and deceptive
resolves itself into crystal clearness.Mahatma Gandhi

I am and have always been a voice-over actor in my soul. I am passionate about my work and cannot imagine my life if I didn’t express myself creatively behind the microphone. However, even with my boundless enthusiasm for and commitment to my voice-over work and clients, my soul also needs quiet time for nourishment and relaxation.

I feed my soul in several ways, both large and small. Most recently, I took a large portion by allowing myself to totally be on vacation while on a cruise.

Whenever we travel for pleasure, I notify agents and clients that I will be unavailable for recording within a range of dates. I have thought many times about taking a portable voice-over studio when I travel. In reality, though, my desires to travel lightly and enjoy fun, uninterrupted time with Drew coupled with the airlines’ increasingly smaller allowances for checked luggage have deterred me from including a portable studio with my baggage.

As a business owner, I always have a laptop on these trips. I check my voice mail and e-mail throughout my vacation so that I can quickly respond to potential clients. Since I’m usually paying high per-minute charges for phone and computer access, it’s easy to limit the time spent in those activities while on vacation.

I must also feed my soul in small ways during my regular working days, so I choose to limit time for all on-line activities, especially for social networking. I have read messages from many voice talent who seem to feel that they must have a presence on every social networking site. Perhaps my thoughts on these sites will be helpful to others.

The whole purpose of networking — whether face-to-face or in a virtual community — is to build relationships.

The number of voice-over blogs and social networking sites is dizzying. If you feel overwhelmed by choices, consider your goal and time available for each site before signing up for it. Do you only want name recognition, or do you want to develop in-depth relationships? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Who do you want to reach, and where might those people hang out? Answering these questions will help you decide your approach to social networking.

Rather than merely having a presence on a site like MySpace, Facebook or any other site, I strive to be an active participant. I have discovered that once you join and connect to people on one site, they invariably want to connect with you on every other site for which they are a member.

I don’t see the value to connecting with the same people on every site. I also am not a person to collect “friends” or “contacts” simply for the sake of having a large number of names. Names on a screen lack meaningfulness to me unless I can get to know the person behind the name. Otherwise, it’s like collecting sea shells to pass the time while you’re on the beach and never looking at them again when you return home.

I was blessed with a fascinating and in-depth response to that entry from Evan Wright in which he compared voice-over work to the number of thriving Chinese restaurants in New York City. Evan pointed out a seemingly hidden benefit to subscribing to one or more of the casting sites:

“Your clientele will be attracted to you due to the “choices” on YOUR menu, in the sense that you have multiple methods in marketing your name and talent out there in the world.”

In other words, we shouldn’t dictate to our potential clients the manner in which they must find and communicate with us! By having multiple listings, we tap into the CLIENTS’ PREFERRED METHOD of communication and therefore stand a greater chance of conducting business with them.

From that standpoint, Dave and my friend Bob Souer really get it. They have linked with dozens of voice talents and created memberships on multitudes of sites so that potential clients can find them using the prospect’s preferred method of communication. In fact, I only know both of these gentlemen due to their Internet marketing. Their voice work is excellent, and they are very nice people. I have them on my short list for referrals should a client request a male voice talent.

I admire Dave and Bob for their time commitment in creating and maintaining all of those relationships. I suspect they may be extroverts, or people who are energized by other people.

I, on the other hand, am most definitely an introvert. I’m not at all shy, especially when it comes to self-promotion of my voice-over business. Being an introvert means that I draw my energy from solitary pursuits. A fascinating article about introverts in Atlantic Monthly perfectly sums up the views of this 25% of the population:

For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping,
as nourishing as eating.

In addition, I am well aware that my words in cyberspace will live on into perpetuity, so I choose to add to conversations only when I can provide a thoughtful, substantive comment. I also don’t have hours each day available for professional reading. For these reasons, I limit my blog subscriptions and site memberships.

At the moment, you will find me only on a select few social networking sites: LinkedIn, Twitter, and Voiceover Universe. I decided to use Twitter as a microblog, and I invite you to follow me. If you have looked at the Twitter site, it may seem like a lot of inane chatter of self-absorbed people who document their every stomach growl. Andrew Hedges wrote an insightful blog entry about Twitter stemming from a lively discussion on LinkedIn which may persuade you of Twitter’s merits.

Since I am an introvert, I am proceeding cautiously in following others on Twitter. If I see that a person posts their every movement and thought or tweets (writes) more than a few messages in one day, I will stop following them. With so many thoughts constantly streaming from a single person, I am likely to miss something of great interest from someone less prolific.

As an aside, I truly believe that a lot of people who are excessively using Twitter and other social networking sites are or soon will be suffering from a case of Internet addiction. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same group of people has or will experience cubital tunnel problems from cell phone addiction.

By consciously removing myself from the busy distractions of the cyber world, I nourish my soul with the quiet, reflective time of a mental vacation. With daily mental vacations and occasional physical ones, I am rejuvenated and more creative. Even more importantly, I have the quiet time to perceive the guidance I need to reach my destiny.

 

For love…or money?

A while back, I wrote about offering unsolicited advice to anyone, especially potential or existing voice-over clients. Today, I have a story about solicited marketing advice that has made my day!

I have previously mentioned Henriette Klauser’s wonderful book Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It. The author provides a variety of writing method which can be emulated to reach your own success. I am a firm believer in the process and consequently find myself writing almost every day, most often in some sort of journal.

I have journals for my voice-over career, my harp practice, design of my dream house, books I’ve read, and, most importantly, my everyday life. Given that I like to write as much as I do, it should not surprise you to know that I enjoy writing with fine pens.

In the last couple of years, Drew and I have become passionate about fountain pens, and we have assembled a small collection. We were therefore were excited to go to our first pen show, which was held in Atlanta this past April.

My favorite color is purple, and I fell in love with this luscious fountain pen the moment I walked in the door.

PurpleTaccia.jpg

Taccia prototype fountain pen on display at Atlanta Pen Show

Part of my everyday journal entry for that day relates to this fountain pen and today’s marketing story:

Pen Show journal entry.jpg

Part of my journal entry from Saturday, 5 April 2008

As you can read, I found myself talking with the Taccia company president, who told me that the pen was a prototype for which a name had not been determined. She was asking for input on the names for the 4 pens in this new collection. On my way home, I thought of a name for the collection and for the individual pens, and I discussed them with her when I returned to the show the next day.

She was very appreciative of my ideas and insisted on giving me a Taccia leather pen case. Most people don’t value ideas unless they pay for them. She didn’t have to give me anything, so her gift of the pen case was generous and representative of good karma. (Stay tuned for an upcoming story about karma.)

I had forgotten this incident until I was reminded of that pen yesterday. When I looked at Taccia’s web site, I was thrilled to discover that most of my idea for these pens had been implemented!

The Taccia Nightlife Collection is available
in NYC Blue, Golden Gate Copper, Vegas Sage, and Paris Lilac.

The collection name is a little different, and the copper color changed to another city. Still, the concept and names of the other cities are true to the ideas I presented.

If you’ve read this far, you may be wondering how this marketing story helped my voice-over career. Actually, I never thought that it would. I’m telling it for 3 reasons:

1) I’m proud and happy that a company chose to use some of my marketing ideas.
2) Everything I do isn’t about me or my voice-over career. I like to help others as good citizen of the world.
3) I love and am good at marketing but don’t need or want to make it my career.

I want to write for a minute about this last point. I have been told countless times in my life that I am good at marketing. People tell me that I should work for an ad agency. While I love marketing, I don’t want to make it my career. Just because you love something or are good at it doesn’t mean that you have to make it a career, or even do it for money. Our society gives the message that the only things worth doing are those which make money. However, it really is okay to do things just because you love doing them!

I believe that if you do something just because someone else thinks that you can make some money from it, you may find yourself feeling miserable much of the time. Almost every day, I hear from someone who wants to become a voice-over talent because they have been told they have a nice voice. They want to use their nice voice to make money.

To my ear, most people have nice-sounding voices. It’s what you can DO with your voice in transparently interpreting the client’s copy that can possibly earn money for you. Since it takes time, money and energy for classes and demo production, I always recommend that newcomers start with a book from my recommended reading list.

If you want to become a professional voice-over artist, you will be someone who runs a business and constantly markets yourself and that business. If you aren’t prepared or don’t want to operate as a business person, you still can use your very nice voice to volunteer to read/record for the blind, tell stories to children at libraries and hospitals, announce sporting events in your community, be a political activist, etc. In other words, use your voice and time in ways that you love and not just because someone else made you think that you can make some easy money as a voice-over talent.

To finish with the pen story, I already own 2 Taccia fountain pens, and you can be sure that I soon will own a third — the Paris Lilac that I named! 🙂

 

5 pieces of e-mail marketing advice

I received an e-mail tonight from a voice-over actor seeking work. I decided to post my answer with some additional thoughts here on my blog in the hope that it helps other voice talent better utilize e-mail as a marketing tool. I am a voice talent marketing myself.

The only help that I can offer your career at this point are 5 pieces of e-mail marketing advice:

1) It’s better to write customized e-mails which address the needs of the recipient instead of generic e-mails to a group. You need to research the person or company to whom you’re writing before you even think of sending them a message. When writing the e-mail body, it’s helpful to explain the reason which compelled you to make contact (referral, newspaper article, web search, etc.). When I contact people with whom I wish to work, I explain how I discovered them and the reasons that I am a good fit for their business. Those reasons would be things I uncovered in the research phase.

2) If you do send e-mail to a group, the addresses should not be listed on the TO: line. It’s a privacy violation to make e-mail addresses visible to a group. In fact, some people harvest the addresses for their own purposes, generating even more spam for the recipients. In addition, people often reply to all, which generates unnecessary email traffic for most of the people included in the message. Add your email to the TO: line and your recipients’ email addresses on the BCC: line for group messages.

3) The subject line of your e-mail should be a succinct statement that compels the recipient to open the message. The message I received had a subject line of TEST. I would have deleted that message without opening it if I had not been able to read the first line in the autopreview. I opened it only because I could tell it pertained to voice-over; I thought it was probably another newcomer who wanted my guidance.

4) Don’t send attachments to people whom you don’t know or who are not expecting them. I cannot overemphasize this point! So many people send unsolicited demos to me. I will NEVER open them, and I’m sure I’m not alone. In these days of rampant computer viruses, people are leery of unsolicited attachments. Besides, if everyone sent me a 3 Mb attachment, I would quickly run out of mailbox space. Let me say this one again: Don’t send attachments to people whom you don’t know or who are not expecting them.

5) Your message should be a clear call to action. What do you want people to do when they read your message? Saying you are “ready to cooperate” with me could mean to me that you will cooperate when I ask you to send me all of your money and the deed to your house. 🙂

Bonus round:

Correct grammar and spelling are worthy goals in all of your communications. I am constantly amazed to receive e-mails with spelling errors and incomplete or incoherent sentences. Remember, you are making an impression with every type of communication. E-mails that seem unprofessional are deleted by producers without a second thought. Furthermore, if I were a producer who hired voice talent, I would wonder how you could interpret my script if you can’t seem to express yourself.

E-mail is an essential component in the marketing toolbox for any professional voice talent. Hopefully, my observations will help you craft messages that help you convert prospects to clients. If you have other ideas on the topic of e-mail marketing, please share your comments here on the blog.