the 3 things actors get wrong with marketing
So you know that to compete in today’s modern entertainment industry as an actor, you need to be actively marketing yourself through social media, your website, networking online, and creating your own content. But it can be seriously overwhelming if you haven’t been trained on how to navigate the marketing world successfully.
For Beyond Acting’s first ever chat on the Clubhouse app, I decided to share the three biggest mistakes I see actors making when marketing themselves and provided actionable examples and tips to help them improve right away. (I’m all about saving you time and stress!). Read on for a breakdown of that conversation, or you can listen to the podcast recording of the live session instead of read! Click here to listen to Episode 73 of the It’s a Slate of Mind Podcast to hear the chat.
MISTAKE 1: not knowing what “marketing for actors” really means
The biggest thing that I noticed that people get wrong with marketing is that they don't know what marketing really is for actors. There's a number of reasons why this happens. Part of it is that in many people’s minds, marketing is shrouded in mystery. Even beyond the acting world, a lot of people just don't really know what we do back in our offices. All they know is we get to work and then POOF! we just make the magic happen.
I think there's also been a lack of qualified education, for actors regarding marketing. I haven't been seeing a lot of people who actually work in marketing, teach marketing for actors. So a lot of things get lost in the mix there.
A lot of actors believe that marketing stops at their headshot, resume, reels, and casting sites. But that's just scratching the surface. We call those items your actors toolbox, the tools that you have as an actor, and to me, those are just the crucial tools that every actor must have to be an actor. They are not the tools and actor must have to be great at marketing themselves as an actor. Realistically, the people you're sharing your headshot, resume, and reels with are casting and your agent, and your manager, or future representation. But those people only make up a small percentage of the people you are trying to market to. Marketing should include those people, but should also be about gaining a following and building connections that are going to help you down the road to get where you want to go.
I like to say that marketing comprises of the tools that we have at our disposal to make our own luck in this business. Simply because the business has changed. It's changed since I was a kid. It's changed since Alex started acting, and it's going to continue to change. And that comes with some pros and cons for all of us. And those of us who decide to swerve into the curve and leverage marketing have more opportunities and can create more opportunities for themselves. So to me, when I say “marketing”, I'm talking about everything else; your social media, your website, blogging, networking, content creation, and branding, and so on. To reiterate: your headshots and resumes and your reels and casting sites have crossover with all those marketing things. But they're not innately the same thing.
Actors who don’t understand this concept tend to fall into the trap of assuming that their typecasts equal their personal branding and marketing. And I disagree.
here’s an example…
A good example of this is actor, Jason Momoa. He plays a lot of scary characters in film and TV. He's terrifying on screen, but his brand is not terrifying, is it? Nope, his brand is being a big, lovable goofball. He's got high energy, and he's always down to party. Every time you see Jason Momoa in an interview or posting on social media, those are the qualities that come to mind. And that's part of why he's become so successful. He's creating more opportunities for himself because he leans into his true essence, and his true personal brand. The way that he markets himself is based more on that than on just the type cast that he plays.
Your actor “tools” are not necessarily the the end-all-be-all of your personal brand and marketing.
If you got to the end of this first tip and realized you don’t even feel confident in your headshots, resume, reels, and so on - don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with The Actor’s Toolbox, a completely virtual online course that will help you get your package into shape.
MISTAKE 2: posting without a purpose
Another one of the biggest things I see actors getting wrong is that there’s a lack of purpose, and or strategy in the ways that they’re showing up online. Maybe they try to start to get out there either on social media or on a blog. It’s awesome that they're giving it a go! However, in reality they're leaping ahead a few steps and putting things out before actually thinking it all the way through. Which ends up wasting a bit of time that they could be better served with elsewhere. It’s important to get clear on your goals and why you're marketing before you actually start creating content and posting.
I say to my students all the time in Marketing for Creatives 101, “don't post without a purpose”. If you're in that course, or you're going to end up in that course, you will hear me say that a million times. Every post on social media, every blog post, every photoshoot…everything you do to market yourself needs to be tied back in some way to one of your goals. It doesn’t have to be a huge goal like getting booked in a dream role, but it could be something like growing your online following, or getting on the radar of some filmmakers you admire, or a new agent that you're trying to connect with. If you're posting and you have no direct purpose to link back to, it's kind of a waste of your time. While I don’t want that fact to discourage you from getting creative or experimenting with new types of content, I do want you to make the most of the precious time you have available!
here’s what to do instead…
So before you start going all in, take some time to sit with yourself and answer a few key questions:
Why am I doing what I'm doing?
Who am I trying to connect with by doing this marketing work?
How is this linking back to my greater goals in my life and career?
Huge disclaimer here: This is not to say that everything you post has to be about acting 24/7. In fact, I highly discourage that. But I do think that you need to be really aware of the who, what, when, where and why of what you're doing before you start doing it if you want to save yourself some time and stress and possibly tears.
Here’s an example: A lot of actors have a lot of fun taking beautiful photos, and they look really gorgeous, or it's a really cool, funky, artsy photo, or video or something. But they have no substance beyond it. And there's no larger conversation happening, there's no story involved, there's no link back to a part of them that actually speaks to their brand, it's just a nice photo.
The truth of the matter is, is that, unless you're already an established celebrity, or unless you're already established as a brand and have a large following, that's likely not going to do very much for you and your career. It's nice to have nice photos, I'm all about it. But you want to think of what you can do beyond just taking a nice photo, and how that's going to link back to your brand and your goals. AKA, don't post without a purpose. If you don't know why you're posting something, maybe take a step back, take a minute, and figure that out.
I'm all about quality over quantity. As an actor, we have so many things going on, we have so many different things on our to do list so if you're not doing something, well, I would rather you put that time back into something that you know is going to support your career, like acting class. Get clear on your vision, get clear on your goals, and get clear on your purpose, before you start creating a bunch of marketing content.
MISTAKE 3: following the wrong examples
One of the biggest time and energy wasters that many actors fall into is following the wrong marketing examples. Many actors are so set on following the examples of celebrities, or people who are already famous online. These actors are using those people as their models for their own marketing plan. While it’s absolutely awesome to get inspired by those types of people, we have to realize that they are in an entirely different category, a completely different level than most of us are currently at in our careers. The strategies that work for celebrities will not necessarily work for us, and vice versa. It’s exactly the same way that their day-to-day life and career looks different from famous actors. Their training, auditions, and bookings likely look very different than ours.
If you’re looking at Ariana Grande or the Kardashians and thinking, “Yeah, I need to do exactly what they're doing. That’s definitely going to pay off for me, in terms of my marketing!”. I’m going to tell you right now: you will be really disappointed.
Ariana Grande can post a picture of her breakfast and get millions of likes on social media. The truth of the matter is that a lot of these people didn't have to work hard to build a following online. They joined a social media platform and overnight, they can get hundreds of thousands of followers without even making a single post. All of those people are already established with an existing fanbase. So you have to realize that celebrities are in a different ballgame. They are playing at a different level from the rest of us. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it's really important that you're not getting sidetracked by copying, and following an example of someone who's further down the road from where we are now.
here’s what to do instead…
I would highly suggest that you find other actors or performers who are not so far away from you, maybe just a few rungs in the ladder above you who seem like they are really actively investing in their marketing strategy. Those are the folks you should research and get inspired by. Disclaimer here: there's a lot of actors who are a few rungs on the ladder ahead of you who are doing great in their careers, but might not be doing great with their marketing. So be sure to do your research to find some better role models and examples of people to follow, who are actually going to give you good ideas for marketing.
While I'm all about finding inspiration from others, I don't want you to copy people. Even if you do find someone to inspire you, and encourage you, and give you ideas, do not copy everything that they're doing. That's not going to work out well for you. At the end of the day, if you're building a strategic personal brand, it's got to be your personal brand. It has the word personal in it for a reason. That means that your brand can't be my brand, and my brand can't be so-and-so’s brand. Simply because it's just not gonna work, it's not going to feel authentic, and it's not going to flow. It won’t help you achieve YOUR personal career goals.
You want to be focusing on finding the right audience who are really going to dig you and what you have to offer, and be so enthralled by that, that they want to follow your journey until the day you die. And you cannot achieve that if you are using someone else's rulebook. I guarantee even if it takes a few trial and error process, I'd rather you be going down that process as your true authentic self.
It's the same thing that we say about auditioning: you want to come into the room and bring your full, authentic self. And that's always going to serve you better than trying to play to what you think casting wants. The same concept applies when it comes to marketing. Bring your unique ideas and opinions and sense of style to your marketing.
Listen to the full conversation with Alex and Alison on Episode 73 of the It’s a Slate of Mind Podcast!
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