Reach out to someone - it just might bring you extra work.
Sometimes it pays to reach out to clients to let them know you're around and able to provide voice overs to them quickly if needed.
A good example of this is like a few days ago, I reached out to one of my clients to let them know I was on hand if they needed anything urgent and voila! Sure enough, I was sent a script for a radio advertisement. I got it done and sent the audio file back - sweet!
The following day, I received an email with two more scripts attached. The client had liked the ad so much, they wanted two other variations of the read to run on different days ... how cool is that! :-)
So, just from my one short email, I received three jobs. Good going hey!
If you listen to Anthony Pica's podcast 'A VO's Journey', you'll know that he constantly talks about marketing ourselves. As time-consuming as it is, he's absolutely right that we have to market ourselves to be in the running for voice over work.
Marketing can take many forms, from these short emails like I mentioned above to full on email marketing campaigns (I have never done one of these) or paid advertising on Facebook and other platforms. Of course, you can also spend gazillions to advertise on google.
I have recently done a one month stint of Facebook advertising. I chose to spend AUD$2 each day for one month. I figured that's not a lot of money if it gets me seen and heard ... but I really don't know how effective it's been. I have received 'likes' on my image and I did have one person contact me from my website contact form but they wanted a free voice over (haha, of course they did!). I can see all the stats from my ads - how many people from different countries have seen the ad and how many have clicked on it but I don't really know whether it's worth the money or not. If I leave it running and get no income from it, it's still wasted money but do I stop it now or let it keep running for another few weeks? I really don't know and because I'm only learning, I'm at a bit of a loss on what the best approach is.
If you have any advice or real world experience on this subject, I'd love to hear your comments.