Namaste Bosses! Get nice and comfy (in Lotus Position) for today’s show. Clear your mind, take a deep breath in…and take in all the frequency you can. Hold for a moment… and exhale all the repetition. Very good!
Repeat this mantra as needed while the Bosses explore all the benefits of Frequency and Repetition and how this simple principle can positively impact your voiceover career!
This is something both our boss ladies are VERY passionate about and even offer a Boss Blast service to talent like you. For more info, go to our marketing page on our website.
Takeaways
Quick Concepts from Today’s Episode:
When you’re fed up with something in your brand – your followers are JUST starting to recognize it.
There’s not an exact science for email marketing – but you have to find a balance.
Most voice talent fail to commit to a consistent campaign due to fear of annoyance.
What one person finds annoying, another will not.
Know your audience – don’t waste time and money on irrelevant clients.
Many people give up way too easily.
Make sure your message is authentic and serving the client.
Make sure you’re spam compliant!
If you need help, the Bosses are here!
Referenced in this Episode
Direct links to things we brought up ++
Subscribe to VO BOSS on YouTube!
Our podcast is recorded entirely using ipDTL. Get better than ISDN quality with: ipDTL!
Transcript
Announcer: Today’s voice over talent is more than just a pretty voice. Today’s voiceover talent has to be a boss, a VO BOSS. Set yourself up with business owner strategies and success with you host Anne Ganguzza along with some of the strongest voices in our industry. Rock your business like a boss, a VO BOSS.
Anne: So, Gabby, we got a great testimonial from Susan Glow from the Glow Girls Kid Voiceover.
Gabby: I love them.
Anne: She writes, “in this current voiceover climate, opportunities and auditions don’t come as easily anymore. You have to actively seek out opportunities and get in front of decision-makers. Easier said than done. Our two main obstacles, number one, having the time to cultivate an appropriate target list to meet our goals, and number two, having the time to put together a polished marketing campaign. Enter in the creative VO BOSS team. We discussed Glow Girls Kid Voiceover marketing goals during a focused consultation, the result of which was a vast, cultivated list of producers, creative directors and ad agencies. Within weeks of enacting a strategic VO BOSS Blast, Glow Girls Kid Voiceover more than doubled our ROI. Bottom line, the VO BOSS Blast saved us time and made us money.”
Gabby: Wow.
Anne: That’s pretty awesome.
Gabby: The Glow girls [laughs] if you guys don’t know, these two sisters are going to end up like taking over the, the voiceover world one day, I’m sure.
Anne: For sure.
Gabby: It’s only a matter of time before really, Anne, they replace us. They are going to be the VO BOSSes.
[both laugh]
Anne: Exactly.
Gabby: But in the meantime, they are the little BOSSes. The campaign we created for them has been really successful. As you can see, there is mom’s glowing review, no pun intended.
Anne: Good one, Gabby. [laughs]
Gabby: Thank you, thank you. I’m, yeah, see how quick I am? Sharp, sharp wit right there. We want you guys too to see what we are doing with BOSS Blasts and the Book-Out Builders and um join the party.
Anne: Yeah, check us out on the VO BOSS webpage under the marketing and branding tab. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I’m your host, Anne Ganguzza, along with my beautiful bosstie, Gabby Nistico. Hey, Gabby.
Gabby: Hi, hi!
Anne: You know, I think we need to talk [laughs] to our listeners about a practice that works well for my marketing, and I know it works well for your marketing. Frequency and repetition.
Gabby: The mantra. I have been known many a times to sit in the lotus position.
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: And just, and just frequency in —
Anne: repetition.
Gabby: And repetition out.
Anne: Frequency in —
Gabby: in… and repetition out.
Anne: Repetition out.
[both laugh]
Anne: So, Gabby, I think it’s important to note, number one, that when we say frequency and repetition, we don’t mean annoying. [laughs]
Gabby: Nooo.
Anne: No, no, no, no, no. We do not mean annoying. So Gabby, let’s talk a little bit about why this is so important for your marketing campaign.
Gabby: This idea of frequency and repetition. It was, it was coined by either J. Walter Thompson, who is of course the owner of the famed advertising agency that was around for a million years in New York, and it still is, but it has now evolved. It was either him or it was Dale Carnegie. I cannot remember which.
Anne: Yes.
Gabby: But either way, two incredibly brilliant minds, and audiences need to hear a message frequently and repetitively before the message sinks in, before it’s memorable, before they will take action —
Anne: Right.
Gabby: — upon the message. Like when I worked in radio, it was a constant reminder, because when you work internally in radio or television, you’re being bombarded to marketing messages, to certain types of music, all day long, all day long, all day long. And our, our upper management was always reminding us, “guys, when you’re fed up and sick and tired of hearing something, the listeners are just waking up to it.”
Anne: Yeah. And I, well, you know, I think it’s important to remember, think of your own process of, let’s say, reading emails, right? I check my email frequently during the day. And it’s at different times. And I have, Gabby, you know because you laugh at me all the time.
Gabby: Your email scares me.
Anne: I have never deleted and email because I have Gmail. It is a search engine, so I stand by that. So I do have quite a few unread messages, probably 643,948, to be exact, unread messages. So what does that say to you, right? Well, first of all, —
Gabby: Terrifying woman.
Anne: [laughs] should explain. I should explain that I have had Gmail since the beginning. So I don’t ever delete emails. So that 648,000 shouldn’t scare people. It just means that I search —
Gabby: Oh, OK.
Anne: It just means that I search for a message. But it also tells you that I have a whole lot of unread emails. Now when we are talking about frequency and repetition, think about who you are marketing to and think about who markets to you on a daily basis, and how often are you opening up those emails? Probably what you’re doing is you’re scanning your inbox. And I think this is really important to note, that you scan that inbox on a daily basis multiple times per day. You’re going to see different from’s and different subject lines, and you may or may not ever open an email. When you scan your own email, those names and those subjects are registering, and you are split second decision whether or not you want to open that. And that’s depending on if that email is going to serve you.
Gabby: It seems like every single big box company out there, and some even boutique services, why they’re emailing you once, sometimes even twice daily because they understand this concept. They know that it takes so many views, so much exposure before a buyer is likely to take action.
Anne: Are they ready? Are they ready at that precise moment or not? And that’s really key, right?
Gabby: There’s not an exact science to this yet when it comes to email. In some of the more traditional forms of advertising, there are. But we have to find a balance. So I feel like there are a lot of voice actors who’ve kind of gotten the hand of the frequency thing. Maybe they understand the importance. They know that it needs to be regular. It needs to be dependable, right? You know, nobody’s just kind of getting up on a random Tuesday and going, “oh, I need to send an email today.” No.
Anne: Well, you know, my —
Gabby: Planning a little more.
Anne: I get that. I think that there’s a lot of talent who are scared. You know, they send one email, and then that’s it. They are like, “well, I don’t want to, I don’t want to spam, and I don’t want to intrude.” So therefore they never sent another.
Gabby: Yes. Fear’s definitely a part of things with this. So what happens? One, they send one. Nothing happens. No return or very little return. And then there’s paranoia and there’s fear. The reality there is if we look at direct email statistics from print, we know that there’s like a 1% return on most direct mail campaigns. Yet people still do them.
Anne: Oh gosh, yes.
Gabby: In droves.
Anne: They do.
Gabby: Because they are effective. That 1% return can actually be massive if it leads to recurring business.
Anne: Absolutely. I always say, you just need one good client.
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: Now I think what most talent are afraid of, Gabby, is when they send that email, that they’ve offended not just that one person.
Gabby: Yes.
Anne: But they’ve offended the company. That is where I think most voice talents fail. Where they fail on um committing to a consistent advertising and marketing strategy for a particular client.
Gabby: All right, you and I are used to it. We have done this so many times.
Anne: I’m used to people disregarding my mail. [laughs]
Gabby: In a weird way, we are. So we’re not, we’re out of the personal mindset. Right? We don’t take it personally.
Anne: I am Teflon. [laughs] Nothing sticks.
Gabby: If you send 1000 emails, and 50 people unsubscribe, that’s nothing. That is so not a big deal. But for some reason it really bothers me.
Anne: Well, I can say, you know, for many years of experience, VO Peeps and now VO BOSS, you know, people unsubscribe at a regular basis. It just is — remember, you’re just a part of people’s journey. And it could be a phase where they wanted to hear from you, now they no longer want to hear from you. It’s something that just happens. It’s natural, and it’s not something to take personally. I have people who unsubscribe on a daily basis, and it is just, OK, there you go. If it becomes more than a big percentage, though, then I need to worry that either I’m doing something wrong or I am spamming.
Gabby: I have this happen now sometimes. I have a client who will unsubscribe and will actually reach out to me and send me like a direct email, and they’ll go, “Gabby, here’s the thing. I have so much email. I know who you are. I love you. I know where you are. When I need you, I’m totally going to use you, but I don’t need to subscribe to your newsletter anymore.” [laughs] I’m like, “oh, OK. That’s cool.” [laughs]
Anne: Yeah, I mean, there are all personalities, you know? Like I am that person who has 648,000 unread emails in my inbox, and you know, like my husband, Gerry, forget it, he cleans it out every single day. That is like a task list for him. You know, once he gets through his email, he is done for the day. And that is, you know, it’s all types of people reading your email. And you know, we should also mention though, this is not just about email. This can be about frequency of advertising if you happen to advertise on social media. It really matters if you are doing something on a consistent basis. That’s kind of like our podcast, Gabby. Every Tuesday we have a podcast.
Gabby: Well, I got to tell you, I think it just indicates especially in your household who, who has the sane mind —
Anne: Oh please.
Gabby: And who is, who is, shall we say, oh I don’t know, the creative brain in the family? Maybe that’s a good way to look at it? I’m Team Gerry on this one, I’m sorry.
Anne: I’m testing Gmail to its, to its limits.
Gabby: Damn Skippy you are.
Anne: I have to buy more space. I am up to probably a terabyte of space.
Gabby: Like seriously, emails are so freaking tiny, and this woman needs a terabyte for email. I, I know —
Anne: I will tell you, having that emailed though allows me to study. Believe it or not, I sign up for — I have signed up for mailing lists for years, right, because I do marketing studies. And so my marketing studies are on frequency, on content, on subject line. You know, it’s all about what is the most effective. What is making me want to look at that email? What is making me want to open it up? And what are the things in it that are going to convince me to open up an email that is important, when my time is of the very, you know, essence of my day? I don’t have enough of it, so therefore the subject line, the from person has to be critical to my day, to helping me fulfill my job. And so I think that’s something that, you know, we should all remember, that, at any given time, we have needs in our day to day job. Right? And voiceover is one of those needs for your potential clients. And they may or may not need your voice at that particular time. Maybe they don’t have a campaign that’s calling for, you know, a female, you know, mom voice or whatever it is that you are offering. At that particular time, they do not need that. So therefore the consistency and the frequency happens to come into play there because maybe tomorrow they’re going to need that, or maybe in a month, they’re going to need that. And so I think that that frequency, without being annoying, is important.
Gabby: What one person finds annoying, another person will not. There’s a little bit of subjectivity there, right? We don’t exactly know. But what we do know, and this goes back to that consistency piece, sometimes it’s about consistency in the message. It’s consistency in the content. Voice actors, right, I mean we do a lot of things. We service a lot of industries. We like to see ourselves as versatile, but sometimes if our marketing is too broad, and we’re trying to reflect too many parts of our business, either at the same time, or it’s always changing, mmm it again creates the question for the buyer of “what am I getting?”
Anne: Exactly.
Gabby: One of the things that I really love in the VO BOSS brand and the marketing for this podcast is how incredibly consistent we have remained about the business message, the objectives of the show, the services that we offer, the things that we’re doing. It’s all in line.
Anne: And the targeted audience, I think that’s important too. So glad that you brought that up because so many times I see, I see talents out there marketing, you know, everything, to everyone. The more targeted that you can get to your audience, the better you’re going to be able to serve them. So I, I really think that you need to step back and take a look at who your audience is, who you’re marketing to, and how you’re delivering that on a consistent basis. And I, I love the fact that, you know, the VO BOSS podcast has challenged us to, to be that consistent. Like, we’re over a year now, right, consistently delivering to a specific targeted audience, and growing that audience, which I think is great.
Gabby: I talked to a really, really lovely voice actress just last week. She said, “you know, I’m not getting traction. I’m not getting traction.” That was her real purpose in the phone call. When I started to inquire about her marketing, her efforts, her focus, what she said [laughs] actually shocked me. Because she put commercial, character, radio imaging, and audiobooks all in the same sentence. And I literally, I was like, “whoa, whoa,” I was like, “brakes. Hang, baby, pick a lane.”
Anne: What lane? [laughs]
Gabby: This is how I figured this out way back when when Gabby was literally a young pup in the woods, not knowing what the hell she was doing. Here I am sending like literally spraying my imaging demo to anyone and everyone, you know?
Anne: Right.
Gabby: And to talent agents and to ad agencies. And my, like, in my foolishness, because I had no idea they don’t know what that is.
Anne: mm-hmm.
Gabby: I wasted like an entire year of marketing, of marketing money and of, you know, back then, duplicating CD’s and all this stuff, postage because I didn’t realize it was the wrong audience.
Anne: I, I also think too though that people give up way too easily. Right?
Gabby: Oh yeah.
Anne: That whole consistency and frequency and length, the length of time that people give up after, “oh, I didn’t hear anything.” Well, OK, so you know, “how many times did you reach out?” “Like twice.” Twice is not, in my, in my years of experience in marketing, twice does not [laughs] does not get you a client. [laughs] not at all. [laughs]
Gabby: I went white water rafting twice. Does that make me an expert? [laughs]
Anne: But I don’t, we don’t, and I will get that, “I don’t, I don’t want to spam. I don’t want to get them upset.” You’re not going to have to worry. As long as your message is authentic and serving the client, right? So don’t make it about you. Make it about the client. That’s the other thing. Frequency, repetition about how you can help the client. Not about how you are the best voiceover artist, or you have the best character voice.
Gabby: You don’t have to believe us. You can test it.
Anne: Yeah, absolutely.
Gabby: You can literally test this theory. So Anne, what’s your big junk mail day, like legit in your mailbox? Not inbox, mailbox junk mail day?
Anne: Junk mail day.
Gabby: Mine’s Wednesday.
Anne: Oh, you get tons of junk mail on Wednesday?
Gabby: Oh my God, Wednesday is literally junk mail day. Like —
Anne: I want to say ours is Thursday.
Gabby: Here’s what happens every single Wednesday. I go to the mailbox, and I have like this bundle waiting for me. And when I open it up, it’s like flyers and circulars. It’s 90% of what it is. Every single week, there is the same pizza place, the same fast food burger joint, the same grocery store advertising over, and over, and over, and over with consistent messages.
Anne: Every once in a while, Gabby, I’ll look into those. And I’ll say, “what’s on sale this week? Where’s that coupon? I need a coupon.” So think about — that such a good point. Think about it, everyone. This is really what you’re, what you’re going to be doing. And every once in a while, right, people are going to look at it. They might throw that stack out. They might put it in the trash can, but every once in a while, they click it open when they need something. I don’t have a lot of time, so literally my split-second decision is opening up, seeing if there’s any pretty graphics of the item that I need, and if not, I close it and throw it away.
Gabby: Right.
Anne: If something catches my eye, right, and it directly can help me or serve me, that’s when I’m going to be interested. So think about your emails. Think about whatever it is that you are, that you are pushing towards your potential client. And make it directed at something that will help them, and make them want to open it up and say, “yes. I need this voice now, today.”
Gabby: And if it doesn’t happen, meaning you send an email, you plan a marketing campaign, you send a thing once, and there’s no response or immediacy from it, you do it again.
Anne: Yeah.
Gabby: Don’t give up. Frequency and repetition. Now not to toot our own horn here, right, so we obviously, this is something Anne and I are very passionate about. We have created product for this through VO BOSS.
Anne: We have.
Gabby: We have both the BOSS Builder and the Book-Out Blast. And because we have done this research. Like, you’re sitting there and your listening to this and you’re hearing it and you are like, “I get it, I know. Gabby, I know. I know this is what I’m supposed to do, I just don’t know how, or I’m struggling with the time, or I don’t know the metrics.” Well guess freaking what? We’ve been there. We’ve done it. We know the subject lines that are going to work. We know the preview text that is going to work. We have the lists.
Yes, you can incorporate your own list. Um we are our own guinea pigs.
Anne: Oh my gosh.
Gabby: Like I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is true. Anne and I would rather take a risk with our own personal brands and have it fail than take the risk with yours.
Anne: I want to say every month I’m trying out something new, just to see if —
Gabby: Just to see.
Anne: — it will work better. And so we are constantly like tailoring, and cultivating, and trying new things. In this day and age with all of this digital chaos, it is a challenge to get people’s attention. This honestly is why we have come up with those, with those products. And it is a way to help you become consistent and frequent um with marketing help, because I know there’s so many of you are like, “I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to be spammy. Can I get help?” And it’s so specific to each individual talent that I think what’s really great is that Gabby and I are able to talk with you and find out your specific genres, your specific target regions that would work best for you, your brand, your message. We work with that. And we help you to devise a plan.
Gabby: I think we’re up to like a dozen or so BOSS Blast clientele. We’re starting to see really nice returns for those folks. The other thing is for so many of us, you know, the infrastructure, the technological piece to this, guys, it’s expensive. Go to Mail Chimp, or go to any of the distribution sites that help you deliver spam compliant mail.
Anne: And yes.
Gabby: And, and take a look.
Anne: See what they’re charging. See what they’re charging.
Gabby: Holy cow.
Anne: You said a key term there, spam compliant.
Gabby: So this concept, this thing we have created is almost like a co-op. It’s a way for all of us as voice actors to share in this service and not have it be super crazy, incredibly expensive.
Anne: Spam compliance is so important, especially after the GDPR. So if you are, right now, if you have lists that you’ve generated or you’ve purchased, and you’re sending emails out, 10, 20 — first of all, you can’t really send out more than, I want to say, Gmail doesn’t allow you to send out more than 50 at a time.
Gabby: Thank you. I was just about to say, that’s the other thing. If you’ve never done it, I mean, oh my God, I’m so going to sound like an idiot right now, but I will just say it. I did it.
Anne: I did it too. Oh my God, so not effective.
Gabby: I didn’t know, I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I was like, like literally, I was like, blink, blink, blink babe in the woods. Whaat? I was like, “what do you mean, you shut down my email?”
Anne: [laughs] “What do you mean you can’t send more than 50? I don’t understand.”
Gabby: I was using Outlook back then, and like my IP got flagged. My email account got suspended. I was like, “what have I done?” And then the tears. It’s not worth it.
Anne: To be compliant, guys, you really — if you’re going to do any kind of serious marketing, really, you need to be spam compliant. You need to allow your uh, the people that you’re sending email to opt out if they choose to. That is something that we have already got set up. We have the program, we have the servers. We have that all set up. Yeah.
Gabby: Even if it’s not us —
Anne: Yeah.
Gabby: You’re, at some point —
Anne: You’re going to have to think about that.
Gabby: All businesses today have to have a communication tool for managing their subscriber lists. It is literally our only option to have close, regular, frequency and repetition with our audience. And umm it’s, it’s essential. It’s only going to become more essential, which is why countries and uh things like the GDPR, it’s why those are happening because lawmakers are having to step in and go “man, we got to regulate this stuff.”
Anne: Exactly. Roll with those changes, guys. Frequency and repetition.
Gabby: Repetition.
Anne: It is your key. It is your key to direct marketing. I truly, truly believe that. It is —
Gabby: Totally.
Anne: And if there’s anything we can do to help, you guys know how to get in touch with us, thebosses@voboss.com. So I’d like to give a shoutout to our amazing sponsor, ipDTL.
Gabby: And for all things BOSS, be sure to check us out on every single freakin’, frackin’ social media there is. Because yes, we got all of them, and of course voboss.com.
Anne: Thanks, guys.
Gabby: Thanks, guys.
Anne: See you next week.
Gabby: Bye.
Announcer: Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your hosts Anne Ganguzza and Gabby Nistico. All rights reserved, Anne Ganguzza Voice Talent in association with Three Moon Media. Redistribution with permission. Coast-to-coast connectivity via ipDTL.