A voice actor I met through VoiceOverSavvy.com, Todd Ellis, recommended a 6th century book by Sun Tzu, The Art of War, as a marketing resource. In term’s of military strategy, the book has a long-standing history, over a thousand years, in both Eastern and Western cultures. In marketing terms, the book has gained popularity as a guide to overcoming the competition, and it doesn’t have to be messy. In fact, Sun Tzu argued that “supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”

The book is in the public domain and available through Project Gutenberg, translated from Chinese to English by Lionel Giles in 1910. To see a side-by-side guide to applying Sun Tzu’s tactics in business, you might prefer The Art of War Plus the Art of Marketing, by Gary Gagliardi. The Art of War discusses, for example, method skills of moving and positioning — basically changing positions to take advantage of new opportunities.

With advances in technology creating both affordable home audio equipment and more robust Internet connectivity, the voiceover industry has seen huge changes over the last decade. Veteran voice actors who used to travel to commercial recording studios for auditions are now competing for jobs going to home-based, online competition. To overcome the competition, these voice actors have had to learn to self-direct and self-produce, and in very rudimentary terms re-position themselves online. Those veteran voice actors who have moved to adapt to the changes, and challenges, of the online voice market will be in the best position to take advantage of new opportunities in voiceover.