How to Build a VO Marketing Campaign That Actually Works

Tom Dheere
2 hours ago
4 min read

You Have a Great Demo. Now What?

I see it all the time.

A voice actor spends thousands on coaching and demos, bursts into the industry with a ton of passion, and then... throws marketing spaghetti at the wall, hoping something sticks.

They bust out 15 auditions on a P2P site, send a "Hey, I'm a voice actor!" email to a generic info@ address, and post their demo on LinkedIn with no context. Then they wait like, twenty minutes and become despondent because they haven't booked anything yet.

That's not a marketing plan. That's a lottery ticket.

Passion is fantastic, but it's not a business strategy. To get the clients you want, in the genres you want, you need to stop reacting and start building. You need a strategic marketing campaign.

To help you build one, here are some tips for building your first voice over marketing campaign.

a table with a piece of paper on it that says "Marketing Strategy". the paper is flanked by a plant, a book, some markers, and an iron.

What Is a Real VO Marketing Campaign, Anyway?

A real VO marketing campaign isn't just one tactic. It's a series of thoughtful, deliberate actions designed to achieve specific goals.

What goals?

Generate Leads
Develop Relationships
Get on Rosters
Get Auditions
Get Bookings
Get Regular Clients

Your campaign is the engine you build to create and nurture leads, communicate your Value Promise, and demonstrate your professional progress. Auditioning is part of that, but it's not the whole story.

Feed the Robots & Charm the Humans

Your marketing has two distinct jobs. If you only do one, you'll fail.

Feed the Robots: You must understand and feed the algorithms on search engines (your website SEO), online casting sites (your profile optimization), and social media platforms. We're even seeing "data scraping" where producers use bots to find VOs based on keyword search. If your website text doesn't say "Warm, deep, authentic male voice for corporate narration," how will a robot (or human) ever find you for that gig?
Charm the Humans: At the end of every algorithm, there's a human. This is where your brand, your humanity, and your authentic casting potential come in. Are you a real-life nurse? A veteran? An IT pro? That's not just a fun fact; it's a powerful marketing differentiator that casting directors are actively seeking.

My Marketing Results

I'm a data guy so I live for this stuff! I did an autopsy on my 2024 revenue, and here's how it broke down:

Representation: 9%
Free Online Casting Sites: 10.3%
Pay-to-Play Sites: 30.3%
Direct Marketing (Email, networking): 28.2%
Indirect Marketing (SEO, social media, blogging): 22.1%

Note: This is the result of 30+ years of building all kinds of marketing campaigns. If you're earlier in your journey, your pie chart will—and should—look very different. But it shows that a diversified marketing portfolio is what creates a resilient business.

Crawl, Walk, Run

"But Tom, I wanna start voicing anime characters RIGHT NOW!!! Why can't they just find me and give me the gigs of my dreams?"

I get it. The good news is, you don't do all of this at once. Think of it as a "Crawl, Walk, Run" approach:

Crawl (Years 0-2): Focus on your Product. Master the P2P sites. Get your workflow, tech, and performance skills down.
Walk (Years 2-5): Focus on your Platform. Expand your website and start one form of direct marketing, like a newsletter or an email campaign.
Run (Year 5+): Focus on Proliferation. Now you're ready to scale with multiple, targeted marketing campaigns and seek national representation.

You can't sprint to the "Run" phase. You have to build the foundation first.

Watch the Full Blueprint

This blog post is just the appetizer. My How-To video, "Building Your First Marketing Campaign" is the main course.

In the video, I break down the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to know if your campaigns are working, how to market your unique humanity, and a deep dive into the "Three Portals" (Representation, OCS, and Self-Marketing).

Stop guessing. Start building.

Click here to watch "Building Your First Marketing Campaign".

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