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MARKETING
VO-Alytics: How To Determine The Best Online
Ways You're Getting New Voice-Over Clients

May 1, 2018

By Andrew Reyes
Voice Actor & Online Marketing/Content Writer

Before we get started, I know what you're thinking… Unless you come from a technical or analyst background, you probably have little or at the very least, a vague idea of what Analytics really is or means.

Let's have Oxford Dictionary set down a great basic definition to start with:
Analytics: Information resulting from the systematic analysis of data or statistics.
So, Analytics is basically information you get from a collection of data, allowing you to make better decisions based on facts.

Analytics is something used by just about every single type of business, in one way or another. You might not notice this going about your daily life, but everything you do on the internet serves a purpose, even if that might not be obvious to you. For example:
  • You are scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and see an ad that peaks your interest.
  • You click on that ad, and you're taken to a website or product page.
  • You browse for a few minutes, and then back out to Facebook and continue to scroll through your friends post with cats, foodporn, and of course political rants that have 65k in comments.
Anyway… did you catch all that data you just gave away for free? No?

Here is a rundown of what just happened:
  • The ad you click on gained CTR (Click Through Rate) – this is basically a number that measures how many times people clicked on the ad, and could help a business adjust their marketing strategy depending on how much interaction the ad gets.
  • Your normal registered information (Age, Gender and Location) are indexed, allowing the company to see what their potential demographic looks like, and thereby determine where it should spend its advertising dollars.
  • If you happened to buy or sign up for something, you would add to that ad's Conversion Rate, meaning the rate at which it successfully goes from just an ad, to a definitive interaction i.e. sale, sign up, etc.
Crazy right?! Did you have any idea how much information a potential business can get just from a single click?

WHAT WORKS FOR YOU?

NOW, I know what you must be saying at this point: "What the Hell does that have to do with me and my voice-over business?!"

The answer is: EVERYTHING.

Analytics are a powerful tool for any business to be able to track, scale and steer their business. Without solid data, you are basically making educated decisions and hoping for the best.

Why not use VO-Alytics to track real data, and see exactly what is working for you and what is not?

TOOLS TO USE ...

There are a few tools you can use right now that will help you do just that, depending on your goal, and of course what you want to track.

1. Website Data: Is your website really up to snuff?

Google Analytics (see graph) is a great and free way to track some key data sets from your voice-over website to see how it's being interacted with.

Find the answers to these questions:
  • Is my site being found "Organically? These are people searching for voice-over, or similar services, who find it on a search engine and then click on to your site.
  • Where are people finding my website link now? Perhaps you've shared your site a million times on your social media pages, and that is the ONLY traffic you are getting.
  • How long are people staying on my site? Are they looking around, playing your demos, or just "Bounce" from the page?
2. Demo Data: Are your demos performing well?

There are a bunch of free and paid ways to check this out. Something as simple as a Download Monitor, or as fancy and sophisticated as Bob Merkel's Voicezam (see sample graph) for example. You will learn:
  • Are people listening to my demo? This is THE MOST BASIC data you absolutely must have. How many plays do you get? How long do people listen for? All very good indicators on how your website and demos are performing. 
  • Which demos are being downloaded? This is also great to know, as it can steer your marketing efforts. Is your Commercial Demo getting massive downloads, but nothing on your Narration Demo? Then it allows you to ask further questions:
    • Is my demo actually good? 
    • Am I marketing to the right people? 
    • AM I MARKETING AT ALL?!
  • Are People Listening to my entire Demo? This is something I really like about Voicezam, as it allows me to shift and position my most listened to demos right at the top, to make the best impression for first-time site visitors based on fact.
3. Email Data: Are you being heard (read)?

Email marketing is a key function of this business. Reaching out and constantly keeping your name out there and looking for new opportunities. But ...
  • Are you keeping track of the responses you get?
  • Do you know which of the messages that you've sent works better? 
Specifically, here is what to learn:
  • Are people reading my emails? Getting people to read your emails is the basic goal of your marketing efforts. If you consistently send out the same email over and over, with the same subject line, how can you find out it might not be working, or if it may be time to change tactics?
  • Who reads my emails? This information is so key in turning cold leads into a warm follow-up. When You KNOW they read your email, and can schedule a follow-up to touch base on your original email (should you be so inclined to).
  • Who did I send a specific email to? Sending the same email to the same recipient twice is SUPER embarrassing, especially when they were one of the contacts that read your email.
Tracking this data is VERY IMPORTANT for building your business connections.

THE BOTTOM LINE ...

There are tons of data points to help you make better-than-good decisions on how to steer your voice-over business.

There is no shortage of free and paid options to do all of the things mentioned here, in whole or in part. What I've covered is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg in terms of data points available to us as voice-over talents.

And now you see these services to not only steer our businesses, but to scale and grow them based on cold, hard facts. How are your VO-Alytics?
-------------------------
ABOUT ANDREW
Andrew Reyes is a voice-over talent with more than 15 years of performance and practical experience as an actor, singer and musician. In addition to voice-over, he specializes in Online Marketing and Content Writing.


Email: andrew@andrewreyesvoiceover.com
Web: andrewreyesvoiceover.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/andrewreyesvoiceover


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Comments (1)
Sam Bogart
5/4/2018 at 4:18 PM
Hi Andrew:
Whata ya think of StatCounter for data information?
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