Voice-overs convey how you want to communicate with your audience, and can serve as another form of branding for your marketing strategy. The voice you use to tell your story can have as much of an impact as the script, animations, sound effects, or any other part of your video.
If you read, speak well, and have the right software and skills, you can certainly create a voiceover on your own. You’ll be able to create quality voiceovers for almost any production you want, and lower your budget in the process. But if you don’t have all these elements, you might be better off leaving your video to a professional and experienced voice actor instead.
In the article below, we’ll dive deeper and offer five tips on how to create a great voiceover for your video production, and find just the right voice for you and your company.
1. Choose the Proper Voice
Choosing the right voice is a challenging task. You should always look for a voice talent who will keep your video interesting and your message memorable and engaging. Before getting started and selecting a voice artist, you should ask yourself the following questions:
• Do you want the voice to be male or female?
• Would a casual and conversational tone be best, or would something more informative and straightforward be a better fit?
• What is the overall mood you want to get across to your viewers?
• Are you looking for a spokesperson or something different for your business needs?
Aside from those questions, choosing an accent familiar to your target audience is also important. People like familiarity, and selecting a voice-over talent native to that of your audience makes more of a difference than you might think. If two or more countries have the same native language, the accent might be the differentiating factor to help build just the right connection with your audience. If you are creating a video in different languages, be sure to choose a voice-over artist that has the ability to speak the specific language to resonate with your global audience.
There are no set rules for selecting a voice-over talent, but you should always select one that fits both the audience and the subject. For example, a sophisticated audience might prefer an elegant voice, whereas children might prefer a more playful one. Make sure that your narrator can provide a voice that fits the style and mood your video requires. The best voice-over professionals are the ones that are able to adapt to a wide range of styles of narration.
2. Keep it Short
There is limited time to attract and keep your viewers’ attention. In order to be most effective – web videos should ideally be limited to 90 seconds or less. Voice-over in a video captures viewers’ attention and keeps the audience engaged. The voice-over artist should be effective, simple, and easy to understand. Plan around 150 words per minute of voiceover time for your script.
Just keep in mind that it can be easy to lose your audience’s interest if your video runs too long. Condense your video to the parts that matter, and remove the parts where nothing is really happening. It’s better to have an engaging, straightforward video that lasts two minutes than one that’s five minutes long and filled with parts that aren’t completely relevant to the point you’re trying to get across.
3. Explore the Use of Whiteboards
Whiteboard animation videos are a great resource for explaining complex concepts or ideas that are otherwise difficult to communicate to your audience. Whiteboards offer a great opportunity to share your thoughts and tell a story, with basic visual imagery such as diagrams or flowcharts to support your story and streamline the process.
Because whiteboard animations are generally short, they let you get to the heart of what you want to tell rather quickly. The voice narration for your whiteboard should help educate and persuade your audience in a straightforward, succinct way – and be clear enough to help your audience understand the concept being presented. Professional voice artists should also be able to process your voice-over without breathing or other background noise. If there are any distractions, your conversion rates will suffer.
4. Tone of Voice Matters
The way you communicate your video’s content is a key component of your video. The tone of voice your narrator uses delivers an underlying meaning for your video. For example, if your company wants to present a business-like approach, you will want a narration that is serious and corporate; whereas for a vacation-themed video, you might want to go with a more fun and casual approach.
Whichever tone you choose, always ensure you listen to the narrator’s voice closely to the pitch or tone. The tone of the narration can greatly affect the emotion it evokes from the audience. Presenting your viewers with an engaging trustworthy tone of voice will make your audience want to believe in you, whereas the wrong tone of voice (such as an unfriendly or aggressive tone) might actually turn an audience against your message. In the end you want to let your voiceover artist know what tone of voice you want them to use to fit your profile, and how exactly you’d like them to speak.
Do Your Research
You should also put your script out there in front of as many voice-over artists as possible. This lets you choose from multiple options to make sure your production is done just right. Be aware, however, of accepting the first one that comes your way.
You should also trust your instincts as far as who you feel will deliver the tone, pace, and engagement you want. Whichever way you decide to go, be thorough and clear about all of your requirements for your video, so that you get what you need from the artist you hire. Ultimately, the more you know about your candidates before you start, the more likely you are to find the right person for the job.
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