How to choose the right Voice Over Artist for your brand video
So you’ve just finished shooting, animating, editing an amazing new brand video for your business and you’re ready to get it out there for the world to see. But wait, what about the voice over?
Ideally, you should consider your voice over before producing your video, because the voice over you choose can have a significant impact on the emotional tone of your video and ultimately, the audience who will engage with it.
So when considering hiring a voice over artist for your next video, make sure to consider the following 5 things…
1. Brand identity
Your brand should be the first thing to think about when choosing a voice over artist, paying particular attention to your tone of voice. If you haven’t already, make sure you have identified your brand’s tone of voice. Your brand’s tone of voice should outline the characteristics and attributes of your brand which is essential when you want your target audience to engage with you.
By reviewing your brand identity, you’ll be far better prepared to choose a voice that matches it.
2. Target audience
Of course a key part of your brand identity is identifying who it is you are trying to reach i.e. your target audience. Just like reviewing your brand identity, reviewing your target audience will also be incredibly helpful for choosing the right voice over artist.
Start by considering the basics like, how old is your target audience? Is your company targetted to a specific gender or other demographic? Answering these broad questions about your target audience will help you identify some broad characteristics you might want to look for in a voice over artist, such as how young they sound and whether you would like a more female, male, or gender neutral voice.
Next, try and get a bit more specific with your target audience, think about what interests your target audience might have, what music do they like? Answering these more specific questions will help you decide what pitch, rhythm, and personality your ideal voice might have.
3. Accents
Just because you are based in London doesn’t mean your voice over artist must have a London accent. Similarly with any other city, just because you are based in New York, doesn’t mean that your voice over artist needs to have a New York accent. More to the point, multicultural cities are made up by a huge variety of people with national and international accents and limiting the accent of your voice over artist geographically could make your brand appear less open and inclusive.
One thing that is important to consider when choosing a voice over artist is what general geographical market your video will be promoted in. While accents used can be wide and varied per market, we’d suggest considering how, for example, an English accent will represent your product in America and likewise how an American accent might present your product in the UK. You might want to consider picking multiple voice overs that you feel better represent your brand in each of these wider markets.
4. Storytelling
The most powerful brand videos and voice overs are the ones that are most successful at telling an engaging story. When choosing your voice over artist, try to imagine how well they might be able to tell your story. Authenticity of voice is essential to creating maximum engagement for your video.
5. Experience and examples of work
Start out by being very open to a variety of voice over artists, you never know when one might surprise you, but always listen to as much of their past projects as possible to get a real feel for their range and how you might be able to direct them for your project. Pay particular attention to their pronunciation, pacing, and clarity.
And that’s it! Make those 5 considerations when choosing your voice over talent and your video will be a winner. To find the perfection voice over artist for your next project, check out our wonderful voice over artists on PeoplePerHour. You can even use the country filter to find accents!
