testimonials Archives - Laura Schreiber Voice

In Good Company…

Sometimes you are blessed with knowing the right people, and knowing Joe Davis and Karin Barth is a blessing indeed! While I am fortunate to have worked with them for years on my website and SEO, I am doubly blessed to call them dear friends and amongst my favorite people in the world. When I have important decisions to make about my business, I trust them not just because of their superior expertise, but because they are truly mensch (someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character) in every sense of the word. I have shared holidays and dinners out with them, they have been to my home and know my family, I share personal details of my private life with them, so when I tell you that I trust their guidance for websites… I mean that I fully and completely trust what they have to offer.

So this past Friday, even with just returning from Dallas and the Jewish holidays to boot, Karin Barth made time to speak with me and Diana Birdsall on our weekly Clubhouse “Ask the VO Coaches” about all that we could jam in related to websites and SEO. We had some great participation and all were dazzled by Karin’s brilliant insights. In case you missed it, here is a brief recap of some highlights.

Why Websites Are So Important

Karin put it simply: You want to get your voice heard, your demos heard, and people to hire you. I always tell me coaching students your website is your virtual storefront. She did not use those words but that is how I think of it, and your business really does not exist if your website is not up and no one can find you. A regular to our Clubhouse room, Vijayan, offered that people know that you value yourself and your work once you have a website. He also said that prior to his website, he had an issue with transparency in his country. There was always a middle man. Once he had a website, he was able to interact with clients directly and could negotiate on his own. It was so refreshing to hear his reflections, as I had my own website before my business launched, and I had never considered this issue.

What Voice Actors Need to Start

Karin said in order to begin you need to have had some coaching and completed a professional demo. As a voice over coach and video demo producer, I cannot tell you how happy this made me to hear. She shared an anecdote about a woman who wanted to do a website and had no demos. This lady thought she could just record some stuff on her phone. Karin said in this scenario they advise folks new to voiceover to instead invest in coaching and then revisit a website down the road.

We then asked Karin if voice actors come to them with a Wix or Square space page if they can work that. The answer is yes, but there is an advantage to having a Word Press page. Since June, Google has changed its core web vitals. Word press makes it easier to comply.

Diana then asked Karin if we should be regularly changing our videos for our SEO. I was fascinated because while I typically add new videos, I tend not to delete old ones as I am really proud of the work I have done and get attached to my content. It never occurred to me to swap it out. I also like the idea, personally, of amassing a large body of work. Anyway, Karin explained that the idea is to train the google bots to come to the site. You want to continually add more relevant content so that your site continues to rank.

Features All Voice Actors Should Have

I of course found this interesting:

Demos: They should be downloadable, not just playable. Karin also mentioned you should be mindful of how you name them. For instance, don’t just label it “commercial demo” because a casting agent could be very confused if they download it and it does not have your name.
Bio: There are a few important details that Karin mentioned. First, be sure to have unique, original content and not to use the same bio on Linked In, your website, and other places! Next, while folks are often excited to share their backstory, Karin suggests starting with where you are now. What service do you provide? What are your selling points?
Contact Form: I will tell you I have changed mine over the years but they do an awesome job setting this up for you and Karin also sets up “recaptcha” so you don’t get spam.
Testimonials: This is so important to help build your trust factor
Client List or Client Logos: Again, this helps with your street cred.
Videos: We chatted about how people like to take in information in different ways, and offering video to people who do video production just makes a lot of sense!

Insights From Google Analytics

We also spent a little bit of time talking about Google Analytics and what you can learn from them. Your bounce rate is how long someone stays on your site, and Karin explains you can actually look to see the behavior flow and try to see if there are trends in where they drop off. This can give you an idea if you need to add a different call to action. Basically, the longer they are on the site the better. I found this fascinating.

Final Thoughts…

Those of us who work with Karin and Joe know we are lucky. They know their stuff and there is a reason so many of us turn to them.

On this Sunday morning, lets’s grapple with this question: if there’s a low barrier to entry in voice over, what defines a pro?

Spending more time in Facebook Groups These Days

Like many in the voice over industry, I have been spending more time than ever on social media these days, especially on FaceBook. I long for human connection and to feel part of our beloved community, and frankly I enjoy the banter more than ever. Yesterday this post from highly esteemed coach and casting director MaryLynn Wissner caught my attention:

There’s a lot to this. We work in an industry where you don’t have to come from a career in theater or on camera work to get started, though many did study performing arts in school, pivoted for a first career, then returned to voiceover. I, myself, was a History teacher. Christian Lanz was an architect. Maria Pendolino worked in finance. Dana Hurley was a pharmacist. The list goes on and on, and there is nothing wrong with changing careers and bringing all of those skills with you into your business in VO. The question that is being asked here, is what is the difference between a guy who buys a plug in mic and a membership on a pay to play and calls himself a “professional” and then has the credit of having some good coaches, the benefit of being in good company, and an actual working professional? To me, if working with the best of the best in coaches is removed as a criteria in defining a pro, than we need to look to a voice over actor’s website, testimonials, bookings/credentials, and social media standing.

The Website

Put simply, the website is our storefront. More than our business card, our website is our calling card. It not only houses our demos, it is the voice actor’s place to showcase actual booked work. We can display our business philosophy. We can post testimonials. We can make it easy for clients to find us. This is how we create a sense of our brand. And a voiceover professional, unlike an amateur, has all of these things: sample of work across genres, a brand, comments from clients. Joe Davis and Karin Barth were recently interviewed on the “Middle-Class VO Podcast” talking about what sets voice over actor’s websites apart, in terms of what makes them professional and what makes them findable by google. The entire podcast can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-5r6SR33Kk

All About WEBSITES with Joe Davis & Karin Barth! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-5r6SR33Kk)

and Joe’s main words of wisdom are that the “website needs to work on whatever device….making sure that they are mobile compliant of mobile responsive….in today’s world more than half of web traffic is mobile.” A telltale sign of an unprofessional talent is one missing key information on their website, missing demos, with demos named improperly, or with a site that is not mobile responsive.

Testimonials:

A professional talent has an abundance of testimonials. Period. They should have them proudly displayed on their website, on LinkedIn, on whatever Pay to Plays they are on, and likely they share them on social media. Testimonials are not difficult to get. Happy clients who have just received pristine audio are typically delighted to provide them. My very first voice coach, Anne Ganguzza, told me how important it was to get testimonials! She asked for one from me about our work and gave me my very fist one. A voice actor without testimonials is likely not a professional voiceover actor.

Street Cred

Ok, I am talking about a solid client list with proof. What is proof? Samples of actual work that has aired. If a voiceover actor does not have samples of work in the genre or clients in a specific genre they have not likely worked in that genre even if they have a demo for it. The exception to this is likely eLearning as so much eLearning is proprietary content. Where can you find samples of work voice actors have done? Booked and finished work is typically prominently displayed in places like voice actor’s websites, YouTube pages, facebook, LinkedIn, ispot.tv, sometimes imdb, and more. So, a real, actual working professional has a body of produced work that they can easily share with anyone who wants to see it.

Social Media

Typically actual working professionals are active on social media as networking is really important. We typically post finished jobs, especially when these jobs have been done for large, recognizable brands. We love to share these clients on Facebook and Instagram. Often we have large social media connections and followings as well. YouTube is another sign of a voice over professional. Typically we post samples of work here. Many of us have videos about our professional philosophy, showing our studios, discussing our work, and more. A lack of a professional social media presence is a major red flag.

The Flip Side

While I think it is clear how to differentiate a professional voice talent from a wannabe, there is, of course, a flip side to all of this. As there is a low barrier of entry and many do not depend on agents or entry to the union for job sustainability, there is a chance that amongst the many with a plug in mic and a computer our bookings ratios will go down and our community demographics will shift. One of my favorite talents who I had the privilege of spending a day with at a VO Revolution conference in 2016, Dave Fennoy, speaks to exactly this issue as the final thought that I leave you with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPkn3sb6-X4

Dave Fennoy – You must change with the times (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPkn3sb6-X4)