I recently responded to a casting call for a local training video shoot that was looking for actors to portray employees and customers. The initial reply that I received thanked me for my submission, and then asked if I had any video that I could send along. It was explained that video demos were being used as a key casting tool because some actors would portray salespeople in the store, and needed to demonstrate “clear speaking ability.”
I replied with a link to a recent piece I’d shot that (in my opinion) demonstrated my on-camera “sales” presence most effectively. Following the link, I said, “I also do voiceover work,” and commented that because VO work naturally requires clear speaking, I was confident that I could deliver what they needed on-set.
That’s it. “I also do voiceover work.”
There was no “Please hire me as the voice talent for your project” sales pitch. None. Everything else about the message — including the commentary following those five words — was about selling myself as an actor.
Well, I just got the final word on the casting call, which included the following:
I think I will pass on you as an actor, solely because I think I want to use you for voice work. The project has a lot of voiceover work needed and you were one of the few people that had a decent VO reel.
Wait…what just happened?
I barely made mention of my VO work, and suddenly it switches from a potential acting gig to a potential VO gig!
After that realization, I quickly ran through what must have happened on the casting director’s side of the Interwebz, and it hit me that while I originally didn’t think that I did very much to promote myself to him as a voice talent, I’d actually done quite a bit.
Working backwards from the end, what ultimately got the casting director’s attention was my voiceover demo. If I hadn’t invested the time and money to create professional demo material, I might not have made such a favorable impression.
The demos wouldn’t have been heard if I hadn’t posted them on my voiceover web site. While the site is self-designed (and is in the process of being redesigned), I made sure to keep things simple and clear, making it as easy as possible for people to find my work. This recent experience is just one of several that seems to indicate that I succeeded in that regard.
How did he find my web site? My email signature contains a link to it.
And how did he even know to go looking for that link? I said a simple five-word phrase: “I also do voiceover work.”
This last link in the chain of events mystifies me the most in terms of its impact on this whole situation, and is what prompted the title for this post. I often think of “marketing” as a large and complex machine, something that involves detailed plans and mission statements and projections and so forth. When I casually toss out a phrase like, “I also do voiceover work,” it doesn’t feel like marketing. Consequently, when such a casual comment actually leads to a result that I would normally expect from a more conscious and elaborate marketing effort, it’s very gratifying, but I’m still hesitant to call it “marketing” because I wasn’t trying to “market.”
Then again, perhaps that’s the very reason that it worked so well.
It’s like that old philosophical question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In my case, the question is, “If you get the attention of a potential client when you weren’t consciously trying to do so, is it actually marketing?”
Have you experienced similar not-really-marketing success? I’d love to hear about it!