Any business has to figure out a way to advertise their business eventually, it's just part of maintaining your business getting the word out, right? The pay to play websites, the keeping your stuff up online. That's all part of your advertising, certainly, but there's some other things that you can do to keep advertising yourself and your business beyond the networking. One of the first and most effective things that I believe helps with with advertising and this is from trial and error is mailings. And I'm not talking about emails, yes, emails, lists, whatever, but I feel like that stuff's starting to clutter up. And a lot of people just file all of the mailing lists that they're on into the promotional section of their email and they never even really look over at that tab anyway anymore.

Snail mail may sound like an ancient form of communication, but it's also very personal. And I have found it to be so much more effective than I ever thought it could be. So number one, snail. mailings, we'll call it. Now. Like I said, this is trial and error where there were years that I didn't do the snail mail mailings.

It was amazing how much less business I got that year, just amazing. So every year before Christmas, or before the holidays, rather, I prepare a holiday mailing. I try to focus it on the New Year, coming about and starting a new and starting fresh and looking ahead to the success we're going to have in the year to come and looking back and acknowledging All of the accomplishments that we had in the year past. So I put a lot of effort into these mailings. I get started in October, and I create it into a big sort of art project. I like to use tiny prints and a few other different, you know, websites that will make your mailings.

I always have my mailing include a really inspirational quote about starting the New Year, whether it's about you know, some one year I quoted Mark Twain, one year I quoted Steven Spielberg, but I feel like they're all quotes that get me stoked about the new year and so hopefully, they get the people that I'm sending it out to stoked as well. So I take my whole client list, every single person that I've worked with over the last year, and I get all of their mailing addresses. It's great to reach out to those people. It's a fun little message that you get to send to get their mailing address. So here's an example of that. The subject line is mailing address.

For your holiday card. Hello, how are you? Great, I hope. Listen, I know it's old fashioned, but I'd like to send you something in the mail. I like to get creative with my holiday mailing and send them out to clients that excite me the most. If you wouldn't mind replying with your street or PO Box address, then I can pop this puppy in the mail before Wednesday, just a figure of speech.

I'm not sending any puppies promise. Thanks. And Happy Holidays, Naomi Mercer, the vo gal and then my website. And then I include a little postcard that has a list of highlights of the year for me so they get to see all of the things that I did in 2015 or 2014. Or whatever year it may be. Then I enclosed that with the printout card that I made the holiday card, and then I write a little personal note on the back of every single one and I hand address every single one.

And it may sound like a lot of work but because I turned it into like this artistic crafty project. I really kind of enjoy And I'll tell you one thing. In 2014 I was moving and trying to set up a new office space and just, I was planning my wedding, there was just so much going on that year that I was like, You know what, I'm not doing that snail mail stuff this year. It's just is is is too much of my time yet. And so instead, I did spend some time on it. I designed a holiday mailing, and then I emailed it out to all of my clients.

And in the first quarter of that year, so January through March, right after those holidays, it was the slowest quarter I've ever had in 12 years. I almost died, or at least financially, I almost did. And then this year, I turned around and said this year, I'm going to do it again and see what happens. And I worked almost every day of the first quarter of this year. So I'm telling you, these things make a huge difference. I actually see the jobs come in from clients saying hey, Thanks for that mailing.

It was so cool. Anyway, I've got a job for you interested, I get so many of those messages following those mailings. There's other reasons to send out a mailing another one, when I moved, I had a new office, a new studio setup, I was moving from Los Angeles to Seattle. So it was a big move, and it was worth it to make an announcement. It's a way to reach out to your clients to remind them that you exist and to show them what you're up to. It's personal, it makes you a person and not just like another button on the screen that they're choosing from.

So I sent out an announcement saying I've moved I've moved new cool studio, I'm in Seattle now I just love the Northwest blah, blah, blah, all kinds of reasons to send out snail mailings. Get creative with it, trust me, they create results. Next, press releases. There's a lot of websites that will offer these I know that voices calm does It depends on your level of membership with them. But they will hire like a publicist or a writer or something and you get two press releases a year with them. So you pick like a noteworthy job that's worth talking about.

They make that press release. And you know, it goes up on the internet and it's searchable forever and ever and ever. So then when a new client is looking at potentially hiring you, and they do a search, and they see these press releases come up about you. It helps it does it it doesn't, it's not as big as the snail mail thing and some other stuff. So I'm going to name but it's worthy of being on the list anyways, so whether you write a press release about yourself, or you're a member of a website, where they provide that service for you, definitely take advantage of it. Next, your own website.

I was surprised at the amount of work that ended up coming from mine. I did put a lot of effort into mine. It was a fun project again for me to do myself and to learn all of the things that come into making a website. I bought a template on WordPress for like $40 or $45. And then any question that I had, I could write to the makers of the template. And then I made and built my website myself.

And it's looked really pro for like two or three years now, four years. I feel like it's starting to look dated, but I still get messages. Hey, I found you just done a Google search. Great website. We're really interested in working with you. And I was so shocked.

I figured all of my stuff. If they did a search, they would find me on all of the pay to play sites, and then contact me directly from that. But no, a lot of them just find my website and contact me directly for work. So your advert part of your advertising push should be with a personal website. Yes, you might be up on all of those pay to play websites and have a presence online and have a Facebook page and blah, blah, blah, blah, and your website doesn't have to be huge. And if you're just starting out You don't need a website yet.

But if you've been working for a while, it's something you should add to your repertoire. In my opinion, you can really personalize the way that you show your portfolio of work. You can once again make yourself appear as a human, a person with personality and show off that because otherwise, in this business, it's really easy to just look like a button on a screen, and there isn't any face behind it. Once you do that connection, that's what advertising is, you know, the key to advertising is repetition. And if people see your face or get an idea of who you are from as many of these things as possible, that stuff starts to add up, and then people start to remember you. The truth is, people don't remember you.

It's not their fault. It's just like a thing that humans do by nature. And it's your job with your advertising to remind them who you are with repetition as often as possible. So the last one is just spending the time to connect with people who have the capability of hiring you. Do you know anyone that works at a company that hires voiceover work most likely you do if you're trying to be a voiceover actor, so maybe ask that person if they want to go to lunch connect with people. You can write it off on your expenses, you can get FaceTime with that person.

Sometimes it takes years to nurture a relationship with a person where they'll be willing to put their name on the line to get you hired real quick. Another thing that you can do with your advertising is just to try and keep up in your mind, an email a week of reaching out. I reach out to people all the time, all the time, just an email, like, Hey, I noticed that you're a producer on this project that I audition for, and you and I used to work together on this weird little thing that we did 10 years ago. How are you doing and by the way, thank you can put together word for me. The truth is, we have to ask and be scrappy, like that all the time and not feel bad about it for a second, if those people that are in a place of power, don't want to that's crappy of them, because I believe it's their duty to send the elevator back down once they've made it to a place of power like that.

Second of all, it's your duty to ask, the worst thing that could happen is that they can say no, and then you'll know that the answer was no and you can move on. But if you never asked, you don't even know if the answer would have been yes or no, that is your duty. So try and keep it just kind of up in your mind to do like a reach out email a week, ask for favors. People might say no, and that's fine. But they also might say yes, and those can create leaps and bounds in your career. So an email a week reaching out, maybe to agencies, maybe to people who can hire you, maybe to someone who'd be willing to take you under their wing and be your mentor.

Very important, an email a week. So those are the main bullet point. points that you can do to keep your advertising going to keep getting yourself and your voice in front of people who can hire you. And remember, the key to advertising is repetition. That's good for everybody like big, giant advertising agencies know this. That's why they'll sometimes have a commercial air back to back.

It's really annoying for you. But at the end of the day, you start to remember the product, right? So you may feel guilty getting out there in people's face, but the person who does the most advertising pushes is the person who everyone remembers the most. So don't feel bad. Don't be bashful and keep advertising within your workflow. It is a really important part of maintaining your business.