Project Notes
Jonathan Lockwood is a voice actor, friend and fellow expat living here in San Miguel de Allende. We moved to Mexico within a few weeks of each other and met when I answered Jon's post on a message board for someone to smoke cigars with. Funnily, someone on the board decided to weigh in with their opinion about how lame cigars were along with a plea to let everyone know where we would be so they could make sure NOT to be there. But that's a story for another time.
Jonathan had a web site when we met but it was not mobile friendly and it didn't allow him to create the kind of content he needed to promote and grow his business.
We spent a lot of time looking at other voice actor's sites and used the excellent Periodic Table of Content Marketing to create a content strategy.
Different Types of Content
Jonathan needs the ability to create several types of content beyond standard blog posts and pages. Most important are his voice demos. I created a custom backend that allows him to categorize and describe each demo he posts. He chooses an audio file to go with the demo and the site takes care of formatting and placing content.
The other type of special content we created are project profiles. These allow Jonathan to highlight projects he especially likes or is proud of. When appropriate, I encourage my clients to set up outposts on other sites to help funnel traffic to the main site. In Jonathan's case, we used his YouTube channel to host videos of the commercials and other projects that use his voiceovers. The videos are displayed on the project profile page along with Jonathan's commentary about the project.
Lastly, the site has a blogging function which allows Jonathan to develop his own content by writing about his life, interests and profession.
Social Media Sharing Focus
It was important that all the content on the site look perfect when shared on social media. We focused on Facebook and Twitter sharing and making sure we got the best looking posts possible.
This meant digging into the Open Graph protocol and creating specially sized images for each content type we share. The site's backend has form fields for each Open Graph tag, giving Jonathan granular control of how his content looks when shared.
Photography
I was hesitant to be responsible for the site's photography but it needed to be done so I gave it a shot. I'm really glad I did because once things got rolling, we captured Jonathan's personality and energy really well. I also took some 'studio texture' shots of microphones and other equipment. Once the serious work was done, we headed to the cigar bar for some casual shots.
