The Year of Personal Branding

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It’s never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won’t find anywhere else.
This week Voices.com is pleased to present Frank Frederick.
Frank Frederick: According to the Chinese zodiac, this is the year of the female earth cow. Each year, the Chinese horoscope is designated by one of 12 animals and one of the yin yang elements of metal, water, wood, fire and earth. If your lucky element is earth, then you will have a very good 2009 year. If earth represents your money, then your money luck will bring you a big fortune. When earth is related to your job, then you will have good career luck in 2009. This is Frank Frederick, The Voice. And what does this have to do with voiceover marketing? Nothing. But for those who are into the “year of” scenario, last year was the year of the brand. Have you crafted your love notes for your business? Copies of the book Love Notes: Branding and Marketing for Voiceover Artists are still available.
At 2009, brings you the year of personal marketing. This is the year for building personal relationships. As the economy is changing, voiceover clients want to make every purchase a safe one which means producers and other voiceover clients will rely on talent or brands they know and trust. Closing the sale will require attention to techniques which allow you to relate with your customers one on one. It has never been more important to model a set of effective marketing communication letters which may be customized for individual prospects. Writing a great letter takes a bit of time and skill. Whether you use it to follow up a lead, close a hot prospect or introduce your services, a well-crafted personal letter will be one of your most powerful marketing tools this year.
This is the formula to help you write letters which motivate your customers, clients and prospects. Here is now to begin. Convey an individual message. Have you ever received advertising junk mail from competing companies with extremely similar offers? Chances are you toss them out because you could not tell one company’s message from the other. Take a look at one of your old marketing or advertising letters. If you could simply replace your competition’s business name with yours on these advertising and marketing messages and the intent does not need to be changed, then it is time to redesign your method. The message, pricing and offers contained in the letter must be unique to your business and tie in to your brand. Have a strong, attention-grabber.
Immediately grab the reader’s interest with your marketing letter or it will be the discarded as junk mail. Depending on the type of voiceover business you desire and what you are marketing, your attention-grabber can be a special offer or a lead communicating a unique benefit. When your letter follows a phone call, highlight the benefits your prospect desires in the first paragraph. Set quantifiable goals. Every good letter should be composed to make something happen. Concentrate on the objective of the benefits you’ll receive before you begin writing and decide what information the letter must contain to produce the desired results. Make reading your letter worthwhile for your prospects and it will reward you by advancing the sales process. If you are sending letters to clients and customers just to provide more information about your business, you are wasting your postage and opportunity to move them to the next level.
Write about you, the customer. The marketing letter you design should focus on the benefits the customer will receive and not the services you promise to bestow. Spotlight the benefits you offer up front and center. Use the body of your letter to describe the features. Summarize the key benefit or benefits once again and close with a call to action which gives the prospect a reason to move to the next step in your sales process. Talk with, not to the customer. Imagine you were face to face with your prospect, reading your letter aloud, would you be comfortable or would you letter sound too proper or too stodgy. Your letter is a personal communication with a real person. Do not come on too strong or over-promise. Use simple, direct language, not flowery prose or an impressive vocabulary. Since you will not really be face to face with your prospect, the look of your letter alone must convey your professionalism so double check for errors and have a third party review the content. Make responding easy. No matter what type of voiceover marketing letter you are writing, close by providing a clear and decisive next step.
In some cases, the responsibility for that action such as sending a written proposal or contract will rest with you. When a special offer has been made, your letter should make it quick and easy for the prospect to take advantage of it via phone, e-mail or postal mail. The fewer hurdles your prospect must jump, the more likely you are to close the sale. Listen to a sample letter which might be sent to an auto dealership in your local market.
Dear, insert name here, auto dealer, you can increase the number of cars sold each month by building trust with your customers and by using a branded voiceover talent for your dealership. Customers buy from people they trust to deliver the best price or service. In other words, dealer ads need to build relationships with their customers. Trust makes customers come back time and time again and even better refer their friends. Obviously, building trust takes a lot more than good TV and radio ads. Good products and honest transactions cannot hurt but advertising which sells the dealership, not the deal are an important piece of the puzzle and a very professional voiceover will enrich a strong impression with your customers. Frank Frederick, The Voice delivers the comfortable trustworthy image with the urgency you desire and the sound your customers will soon hear as a friend. To find out how Frank Frederick can help fashion the brand of trust for your company, please call me at my telephone number or you may reach me by e-mail at my e-mail address. Together we can build the personal touch for your business this year. I will be calling within the next week to discuss any questions you might have regarding your audio brand. Sincerely, Frank Frederick, the Voice.
Sending a hard copy letter in today’s internet world may seem a little old school and I admit it is but as we continue down the path of internet communication, the personal touch in our business is disappearing. Writing and sending letters to prospects, customers and clients should be a big part of your personal marketing plan this year. Have you created your marketing plan for 2009? I have produced an e-book titles Marketing for Voiceover Made Easy with templates and suggestions for composing personal marketing plans. You will learn simple techniques to draft and implement your marketing goals, the same way the big corporations do with 90-day and one year goals and dreams and just for fun, I have included the Ten-sentence Tiger Marketing Plan. Oh, tiger is the Chinese zodiac sign for next year. So get prepared for a roaring year yet to come. The Ten-sentence Tiger Marketing Plan is a straightforward way to define your marketing goals and reach them in 2009. If you would like to purchase a copy for $14.95 each by PayPal, contact me personally at my e-mail address.
Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.
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