Adding Voice Talent to Advertising is a Big Plus

Every business looks for an edge in the marketplace and one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to make your business stand out is using voice talent to sell your product or service. Whether you are a major, multi-national corporation or a home-officed entrepreneur just starting out, giving your company a voice makes it consistent, exciting and professional. How do you hire voice talent and what is the most value-for-money way to use that talent? Here are a few suggestions:

Pre-recorded phone system:

In addition to a message listing your company directory of personnel or departments, many businesses use a phone loop system that promotes their business while customers are on hold. Why not use that time as advertising?

Interactive web page:

Not only does a voice on your website make it stand out from others, it allows you to infuse the information with emotion to drive it toward a particular demographic. For example, if your target market is teenage girls, you'll want to use a young voice and up-tempo music in most cases, while selling to more mature business professionals might demand more subtle music underneath the message and an authoritarian voice. Your product itself might require its own voice and a voice actor can create a character or cartoon voice for any inanimate object.

Audio for Power Point presentations:

Hiring a professional voice actor to record the audio for a company presentation gives it a polished, professional edge that will set your company above the competition.

Radio and Television commercials:

In the advertising world, using your own voice on a radio commercial, or yourself as the on-camera talent for a television commercial, is known as a "vanity spot". While it is true that no one knows your business as well as you do, you may not be the product's target market and therefore, not the best spokesperson for the product after all. Matching the voice to the product is exactly what a voice actor does, and you will have a wide range of talent, ages, gender and cost to consider. Having someone else voice your commercial also allows you to be more objective about the quality and effect of the advertising.

How do you find a voice actor to record your message? If you live in a large metropolitan area, it may be as simple as opening the Yellow Pages to "advertising agency" or asking business people in your area what agency they have used n the past. However, hiring an advertising agency is analogous to hiring an interior decorator when all you really want to do is buy a new chair; it can be expensive and, in some cases, overkill. On the upside, an agency takes responsibility for concept, writing, buying time on radio and television, hiring and directing the voice talent. Agencies also receive a professional discount on market buys in most cases. If you are a small business owner or have experience with marketing, you may want to handle the process yourself. If you are a larger enterprise and are planning a multi-million dollar, annual television campaign, you'll probably want to hire an agency.

If you feel confident (and frugal) about creating the written copy yourself, you may simply want to contact one of several talent pools on line. Voices.com, voice123.com, and StudioCenter.com, among others, give their clients thousands of voice talents to choose from in a wide price range. When you, as a client, contact the site and let them know what type of project you have in mind, they will post your project for all voice actors who meet the overall characteristics you are looking for. The voice talent will send an audition demo to you so you can compare their talents and the quality of their work. Through the site, the talents you are interested in contacting make a proposal to you giving you an idea of what their fee for completing the project would be. You can make a counter offer or accept the terms offered by the talent you have chosen.

One advantage to using a site like Voices.com is that the client (you) pays for the project through a secure payment system, such as PayPal or SurePay, and the site verifies with the client that the project is acceptable and has been completed before the funds are released to the talent, making for easy and professional transactions.

Prices for these services vary from $100 for a local radio commercial to several thousands for national television commercials or larger projects, such as films or books on tape. You will also be able to negotiate, as mentioned, some rates with the talents themselves.

For an example of a voice talent website, you can visit Sandre.voices.com and for more information about what to expect when hiring a voice talent, visit the client portals at Voices.com, voice123.com or StudioCenter.com.

Give your business a voice and the consumer will listen.