The 3 Biggest Voice Over Website Design Mistakes
Today, we're going to talk about the top three biggest voice actor website designers in the business, specifically the mistakes most voice actors make when building a voice actor website. We'll also show you some voice actor website best practices that you can use when you're either working with an experienced developer or DIY on your site so that you can avoid these common mistakes.
Stick around, because at the end I'll tell you how to get my Top Ten Voice Actor Website Design Strategies booklet for absolutely free.
As a solopreneur, voice actors are put in a no-win situation pretty much right out of the gate. You're tasked with either DIY-ing your own Web site or overseeing the design process with an experienced developer. That seems to be the best logical solution. Right?
But the problem is, most, even experienced, website designers and developers don't have an intricate knowledge of the voiceover business. And just because a website looks great, doesn't mean it's optimized for your business and will convert visitors into clients.
As a former website designer, developer, and strategist, I had a huge advantage coming into the business with my voice actor Web site. In 2020, my site, PaulSchmidtVoice.com was nominated for a SOVAS award for Best Voiceover Website: English or Spanish. Now, I didn't win because the competition was very good, but the nomination speaks to the fact that I know what I'm talking about, and my strategies are strong and solid.
That, and my site gets me a ton of business.
Whether you're working with a designer or whether you’re DIY-ing your own site, there are two solid principles that should be in place that ensure that your site is not only looking good but is converting and performing like it should.
The first main purpose of your website is to convince. To make the case that you're the person for the job, that you can solve the problem that the prospect has in mind, and that you can handle the work that they have in mind as well.
The second purpose is to convert, in other words, to facilitate contact and a conversation between that prospect or visitor and you.
So here we go….
The top three biggest voice actor website design mistakes
#3 Your contact information is hard to find
This is one of the most common strategic errors I see in voice actor websites. I can't easily find a way to get in touch with you. Don't make me hunt around for your email and phone. If you use your email and your phone and I suggest you do, put them on every single page.
Don't make your prospects hunt you down. Make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch. Also make your Contact form, if you use one, and again, I suggest you do, as short as possible. Name. Email. Comments. That's it. You may want to throw in CAPTCHA so that you don't get a lot of spam and bots filling out your contact form.
Remember, the longer the contact form, the less likely people are to complete it and the less likely they are to convert from a visitor to a client. Don't forget to put a link to your contact page on every single page. Put it in your navigation.
And by the way, don't get cute with naming the page. Call it Contact.
Don't call it book me. Don't call it hire me. Don't call it get in touch. The reason for that is Google looks specifically for a contact page on each website. To call it something else, creative as it may be, is suboptimal for search engine optimization. In other words, how high are you going to rank in Google's search results.
Mistake #2 You don't have an easy way to schedule meetings
Again, when a prospect a client wants to meet, that's almost always a very strong buying signal. The easier you make it to schedule meetings, the more meetings you will get and the more people you will convert from visitors to clients. So make it stupid-easy for people to book meetings with you on your website.
Use a calendar tool. I use HubSpot Sales Hub calendar tool because HubSpot is my CRM and I also use Acuity Scheduling because it integrates with Squarespace, which is my website platform. Acuity Scheduling also does a better job of scheduling recurring meetings, which HubSpot doesn't do. So I use both calendar tools. You can use either one of those, you can use Calendly, you can use SimplyBook. Do your own research, find your own tool.
It's not as important which one you use, but you should be using a calendar tool on your website. Choose one that integrates well with your email, whether you use Outlook or Gmail, and choose one that integrates with Zoom. That way, every time someone schedules a meeting with you on your website, it auto generates a Zoom link, easy for them, easy for you, friction-free.
And lastly, make sure there's a call to action button on every single page that says Schedule A Meeting, and that scheduling meeting button takes them to the meetings page or to the home page where they can schedule a meeting with you as easy as pie.
Again, just like a contact form, you're not going to get a ton of conversions, not a lot of volume of meetings scheduled through your website. But again, it's a huge buying signal. If somebody wants to schedule a meeting, they've got something firm they want to talk about. There's probably a project on the table and they're very interested in talking to you about it. Maybe they'll hand you the job outright, maybe they'll have your audition. But they've reached out to you personally through your meetings calendar and they want to talk to you about that project.
#1 your demos are too hard to find
And by too hard to find, I mean if I land on your home page and I don't immediately see them, they're too hard to find. Look, demo is short for demonstration. It is literally a demonstration of what you can do to solve that person's problem. This is how we convince people we can handle the work through our demos.
Therefore, your demos are the hub of all your marketing and they deserve the best real estate your website has to offer. Top of the home page. All right, that's it for location. Now, let's talk about demos from a business perspective. All your demos should have four common traits.
Clearly labeled by genre, commercial narration, e-learning, etc..
Playable in all major browsers.
In mp3 format, the most widely used audio format there is. Easy to listen to, easy to share.
And lastly, your demos, for God's sakes, should be downloadable and the file name should be your name, hyphen, genre name. In other words, PaulSchmidt-CommerciaDemo.mp3.
Why? Because months later, when that prospect is looking for the demo from the person whose name they can't quite recall, they'll find it in their demos file. They'll remember your name when they see it, and they'll go, "Oh, here's Paul Schmidt's commercial demo. I know who I'm listening to and what I'm about to listen to, and I know it's in mp3 format, so I'm not going to have any technical issues."
If your demo isn't downloadable, then it's not fileable. And if it's not fileable, you're not as bookable.
So those are my top three biggest voice actor website design mistakes. If you really want to level up your website design game for your voice actor website, you can get my top ten voice actor website design strategies booklet for absolutely free below.
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