Victoria DeAnda–Rich

In a seemingly endless sea of opportunities, some voiceover artists will never make it in the industry. While sometimes it can be bad luck, many of the times, it is because of the voiceover artist. Read these reasons to find out if you may be sabotaging your chances of becoming one of the many successful voiceover artists in the United States.

Expenses

Many voiceover artists are not prepared for the expenses that go into running a business. To be successful, you need high-quality equipment. You also need a location for recording.

Coaching and classes can take you to the next level. These can be expensive. Not being able to or willing to spend the money on your business could end up hurting your chances of success.

Personality

In addition to expenses, many voiceover artists fail because they simply do not have the personality for the part they are seeking. Having the right voice does not guarantee you will get the part. Others are not comfortable—and it shows! If you want to be successful, you cannot be afraid to make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. Relax.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Many voiceover artists do not make it because they never practice. Voiceover artists need to be quick on their feet and believable at the same time. Inject emotion into those lines and make the audience believe in your character! This is why it is important to practice. If you do not practice, then you are guaranteed to never make it in the entertainment industry.

Hire a personal coach or take acting classes at your local theater. Practice by reading scripts, books, and anything you can get your hands on. Practice every day. Listen to other voiceover demos by other actors. Get others to provide feedback. Artists who cannot take constructive criticism and are unwilling to adapt will fail.

Quality Delivery

Here’s another thing to consider: even if you practice—you can still be unsuccessful if the quality of your delivery isn’t natural. Many voiceover artists are unsuccessful because they never improve on their delivery. This is where receiving and applying critical feedback come into play. You need to interpret the text and deliver it in a manner that makes the audience or listener want to listen to it again.

Once you have done that, you are ready to record your demo. If an artist presents a poorly recorded demo, then most likely they will not land the part. Many individuals lose auditions because their demo does not have that professional touch.

Marketing

Another problem many artists run into is that they are not making the correct marketing decisions. They do not attend networking functions. They do not participate on social media platforms such as on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They do not jump in, ask questions, and become part of the conversation. They are not putting themselves out there to be seen and known among others in the industry. You have to be an active participant.

Another issue is that some are afraid to place cold calls to businesses or ask for testimonials and references. Most importantly of all, many people fail to write a business plan. They get lost focusing on developing their voice and forget that it is still a business. As fun as this business is once you start landing auditions, it is still a business that requires marketing. Marketing is essential in determining its success.

Consider these reasons voiceover artists do not succeed. If you fit into any of them, do not give up your business. Instead, do what you need to do to improve that part of your business so that you can succeed.

As a voice over artist, you probably get a lot of clients. These clients can start to add up to a point where you don’t know how to keep them all straight. You have one coming to you for one job, and then another one, and another one. While the repeat clients are easy to remember, it’s the new ones that can become a problem. This is why it’s a good idea to have an intake form.

Creating the Intake Form for a Voice Over Artist

When a new client comes to you requesting voice over work, you can pull out your intake form to start learning about what he would like from you. This intake form can be on your tablet, phone, computer, or even in a notebook. You can set it up wherever it’s most convenient for you.

The intake form should include questions that you need to start a project with the client. Some examples of what you should have on your intake form are:

Name:

Address:

Phone number:

Email address:

Website URL:

Project Topic:

Details of Project:

Delivery Date:

Resources:

Payment Information:

As you go through a simple intake form like this one, you may find that you need to add more questions. That is no problem at all because you should always keep your intake form flexible. Every client is different, and you want to be able to use your form for every one of them. The more information you take down during the initial conversation, the easier the work you do for the client will be down the road.

What to Do with the Intake Form

After you have all of the information you need for the intake form, you will probably want to keep it in a safe place. If you have a file cabinet, it’s wise to organize the forms in some way. You can use alphabetical order by last name, or you can use dates to organize your clients.

If you’re using a computer, tablet, or phone, you will probably want to keep the file on the cloud. This means using a service like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. This way you can access the file from any device whenever you have Wi-Fi.

The next time you speak to the client on the phone, be sure to pull out the file or bring it up on your device to add information to it. Some people like to log calls while others just jot down notes somewhere on it.

Now that you know how to create and use an intake form, start one today. Someday, you’ll see how great they are when trying to organize your clients’ work.