Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Strange...strange...strange....

First Ed McMahon, then Farrah Fawcett, and then Michael Jackson......

So when I received about 6 texts and 2 voicemails on Sunday, I knew something else had happened.

The news hit me hard and saddened me when I heard that legendary "pitchman" Billy Mays had passed away on Sunday. He was one of those TV personalities that I really enjoyed. Some people could not stand the way he screamed at them during his infomericials where he pitched products such as Oxiclean, OrangeGlo, Mighty Mendit, etc. But I on the other hand thought he was really entertaining and they always brought a smile to my face.

I had just landed a couple of gigs where I was impersonating Billy for various businesses. I had a lot of fun doing them and trying to emulate Billy. There's that old saying that "imitation is the best form of flattery"...I think they're right....

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A sweet deal!

So I'm always trying to find different ways and avenues to market myself. The number one thing is defining and identifying who you are trying to talk to. This is nothing new. If you didn't know this already, well then I suspect that you could be for a long haul trying to capture people's attention about you and your business. Find out where these people hang out, look at their bios on websites to determine their hobbies...anything to get closer to them and make them feel more comfortable with you.

Here's my tidbit for the day. I knew that our state's broadcaster association awards banquet was coming up. Me being someone who is trying to reach program directors at radio stations for imaging VO work, this is a perfect opportunity for me to talk to them.

So here's what I did...very simple. Although I would have liked to have been a sponsor of the event...my tiny ad budget for myself doesn't allow this to happen. So instead, I contacted the President of the broadcaster's association and asked if I could put out some business cards at their registration desk. He quickly responded with "no problem".

So I go to Zazzle and create some fine looking business cards with logo, contact info, etc. 200 quality cards for about $40. After I got the cards, went to Walgreens and picked up some mints. Stapled the mints to the cards with something cheesy like "call for a sweet deal" and that was that. Now I have my name, contact info, and I've given something (although very small) to the very decision makers I'm trying to reach.

Cost?? About $42.50 including the candy. Will it pay off?? Who knows. But if I sign one contract from it, the ROI would be around 85%...so definitely worth it. All it took was a little time and effort for potentially a huge payoff.