The voice talent you choose will quite literally become the voice of your brand. The right voice can create a genuine and lasting emotional connection between your brand and your customer. The wrong voice could alienate your prospective customer, fostering negative emotions towards your product or services. Here are some pointers to help you through the process of finding the right voice for your next on-hold message or corporate video.
Make a list of emotions that describe your brand
Make a list of the emotions you believe best characterise your brand. For example, if you provide financial services, you could want to link your brand with stability and security. If you’re selling cleaning supplies, friendliness, efficiency, and cheerfulness may be more appropriate. Find a voice over artist whose voice best represents those emotions.
Ask for Recommendations
Given the wide variety of voice overs available, it might seem overwhelming to know where to begin when making your selection. This is why working with a professional audio production company makes sense. They will have a list of real human voiceover artists on their books that they have previously worked with and know are dependable. They may also assist in screening them in order to match a voice over artist to your specific needs.
Male vs. Female Voice Talent
One of the most often asked questions by clients is whether a male or female voice over artist is better. Studies on the effectiveness of a male vs female audience have been inconclusive. In a poll of 2,200 US adults by Adweek and Harris Interactive it was found that 46% believed that a female voice was more soothing, whereas 48% found a male voice to be more authoritative. Obviously, this hardly provides conclusive evidence that one is better than other. So does this mean that it really doesn’t matter whether you choose a male or female voice?
Turning your Book into an Audiobook
Review Previous Work Examples
Professional voice talent should be capable of providing you with a variety of past work examples. Evaluate the sort of work they’ve done and see whether it matches to the same buying demographic as your own product or service. It’s also a good idea to determine whether they can manage a variety of vocal work. This encompasses anything from storytelling in which they must use a lot of expression in their voice to conventional reads like infomercials and on hold messages.
Match your Target Demographic
There is no one “correct” voice that will work with all types of audio production and your listeners. If your demographic is aimed at youngsters, you might want to use a more expressive and enthusiastic voice. If you are speaking to a senior audience, you might want to use a calmer, deeper, and more empathetic tone of voice. The wrong type of voice talent for a particular audience can cause them to feeling alienated. Representation is important.
Select the Appropriate Accent
In today’s worldwide modern marketplace, selecting which accent to use for your audio project might seem challenging. If you want to appeal to an international audience, you should definitely go with a middle-of-the-road American or British accent. A regional accent may be more suited if you want to appeal to a certain audience. Remember that if you’re targeting an international audience, English may be a second language, so you’ll want a distinct accent that the majority of your audience will understand.
Audio Branding versus Sonic Branding
Consider longevity
Think beyond the current audio project when selecting a voice talent and consider how effectively they will represent your business in the long term. People can develop an emotional relationship to a voice and associate it inextricably with a brand.
You don’t want to shatter the trust that can develop if you choose the correct voice. This underlines the importance of selecting the correct voice and ensuring that they reflect your brand values. You should also ensure that the voice will be accessible in the future so that you may keep using them.
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About us and this blog
Onhold Studio has been developing custom on hold audio messages for almost two decades! We specialise in audio marketing for both VoIP and conventional telephone systems. Our team can handle every step of the process for you, whether you need music or on hold messaging, call menu options, or out-of-hours audio messages.
