People love watching videos online. YouTube has more than one billion users (almost a third of all internet users) and registers no less than six billion hours watched monthly. But 80 percent of YouTube users come from outside the US. That means that most people who crave for videos don’t speak English. Professional voice-overs are increasingly in demand.
To conquer foreign audiences, you need to customize your videos and make them understandable in various languages. Just as you’ve invested your best resources into the original video – with skilled copywriters and professional voice-overs, the same is true in other languages. You need to spend similar resources when sending your messages across borders.
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Use Professional Voice-Overs to Localize Your Content
Entering the global market means going beyond website localization, to a localized marketing strategy. This includes translating and adapting all your content – texts, images, audio and video.
Whether you use videos for entertaining your audiences or for webinars, you need to localize them to pass the language barrier and reach larger audiences. The same applies for commercials, audiobooks and podcasts.
But audio and video localization is far more difficult than just translating a script. You need to adapt your content to keep your meaning intact, with the text no longer or shorter than the original.
Then you need the right voice and the right accent, who has the ability to conquer audiences. Add to that a wide range of technical details – recording and audio-editing – and it can be a serious challenge. This is where it pays to use professional voice-overs.
Perfect Audio or Video Content Needs Great Sound
The importance of a clear voice in audio or visual content is obvious. The sound must be excellent if you want to reach large audiences and keep your viewers (or listeners) engaged.
Animated films count on the voices of the biggest names in the film industry. And once they are launched in new countries, local famous actors lend their voices to animated characters.
Commercials that use popular voices sell better and audiobooks with famous narrators are more successful. But despite what you may think, it’s not the actors’ reputation that sell. Their technique and the effort they put in learning how to deliver professional voice-overs it what counts.
If you’re a small business, with no budget for known actors, don’t panic. You don’t have to sign a celebrity to impress your audience. But you’ll increase your popularity online if you work with professional voice-overs to deliver great audio and video content.
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Professional Voice-Overs Sound Natural
Put a normal person in front of a microphone and give him/her a text to read. Anyone listening to the recording will hear exactly what you’ve offered! A person reading a text, probably badly, with no inflections and too many pauses.
No passion, no dynamic, just loud breathing between words and sentences and a lack of consistency in your message. No one talks like that in real life. But for some reason, most of us are frightened by public speaking and a microphone in front of us changes our tone and rhythm!
Professional voice-overs know how to control breath and rhythm, so that the audience doesn’t hear any disturbing pauses while listening. Don’t lie to yourself. No matter how friendly a voice may seem, once put in front of a script, the difference is easily noticed.
Amateurs usually have problems with letters “P” and “S.” They tend to lose their energy as they go on reading, making the speech sound unnatural.
Professional voice-overs, on the other hand, train their voices for years and know how to make any communication interesting and easy to follow. Plus, they enjoy their jobs and smile! This happiness can easily be heard in the tone of their voice and makes audio or video content more appealing.
You Avoid Regional Accents
Each language has its own regional variations. Think about English and the myriad of pronunciations among native speakers coming from different parts of the world.
Professional voice-overs learn to control their accents and speak a more neutral language. Amateurs usually don’t realize how they speak, so they don’t work on improving their skills.
But listeners catch up regional accents within seconds and differences can be disturbing, depending on the country. You can’t just record your voice-over in Madrid and run it all over South America, for example. Just as you can’t have a British voice-over selling your American trucks.
The voice behind your audio and video content represents you and your business. Not just any native speaker can be you brand’s voice.
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Professional Voice-Overs Keep Viewer’s Attention
Video is the type of content with the best ROI, according to 52 percent of marketers. It’s such a powerful tool that simply using the word “video” in an email subject line can increase your open rate by 19 percent.
Now, imagine how videos can help you boost your conversion rate — when you use professional voice-overs. What happens, for example, if viewers get bored by your content and click the X button in the right corner before your CTA?
It’s not just about your commercial videos. Webinars, presentations, interviews, everything can be ruined by using the wrong voices. Or, even worse, viewers move their attention from your message to the voice behind it, as a result of wrong pronunciation or a weird accent.
Getting and keeping your viewers’ attention is why you need professional voice-overs. They’re persuasive and manage to give the right rhythm to your script.
Professionals take time to study your text. They read it in a loud voice several times before recording, until they understand the exact context of your communication and its purpose.
They’re able to play the mom, the teacher, or even the dog in your latest commercial. They know how to say things right. Professional voice-overs have extensive knowledge about tempo, pitch and tone. When to change rhythm and when to insert pauses, to keep audiences hanging on every word they say until the last second.
You Deliver Quality Content in an Elegant Package
As many as one in four consumers lose interest in a company that doesn’t use video. But nothing kills a great text like a bad narrator who stumbles over words and hesitates in front of long words and technical jargon. No matter how good your video is, if the voice-over is flat, no one will keep watching.
Professional voice-overs follow the right approach, depending on the script. They know how to make every word audible, thanks to his or her voice quality.
Recording an entertaining video is pretty different from a business phone message or corporate video, for example. An amateur usually has one voice for all occasions. Professional voice-overs have something different for each job, making any experience unique for your followers.
It takes dedication, skills, and time to train for professional voice-overs. But professionals know how to transmit a message and make people feel something positive.
Good Videos Increase Visibility Online
High-quality videos generate 1,200 percent more shares than text and images together. But to achieve such engagement, you need to create unique visual stories through great text and pleasant sounds – music and voice.
Boring videos, with bad sound and unclear messages won’t spread the news about your business. You need professional voice-overs to win over your audiences and convert simple viewers into customers.
Someone who does this for a living knows how to encourage engagement and send the right message. People can easily follow a balanced voice, that places the right weight on the message. They will understand easier and are more likely to share what they’ve just seen or heard.
Related Post: Doing Business Abroad? How to Overcome the Language Barrier
You Reduce Costs and Production Time
Working with professional voice-overs may seem expensive and too much for your small business. But when all’s said and done, you’ll see greatly increased ROI when working with a pro.
Professional voice-overs know how to do the job, so you’ll save yourself days of trial and error. Your copywriters won’t make changes in the script to give your speaker easier words to pronounce, and you won’t listen again and again the same flat and uninspiring tone.
On top of that, pros have their own studios and all the sound recording equipment they need. By simply not investing in microphones and in audio-editing software you reduce your initial costs by half.
Professional voice-overs can deliver the project on time, in the media file type and format you need, to be used immediately. They will check voice and recording quality and make all the edits you ask for. No ambient noise and no need for post production.
Professional Voice-Overs Communicate Emotions
One of the most important advantages of working with pros in this field is the emotion behind each line. This is something only professionals can achieve, with years of study and experience. The ability to deliver the right dose of emotion in each communication, depending on the message you wish to send is vital.
Professional voice-overs develop actual acting skills and their animated voices give personality to each character, making any video or audio content a success. They guide your audience through the text and towards the intended destination.
They stress specific words and phrases to draw attention to the right angles, underlining the key points you want to deliver. Your audience can focus on the message, instead of raising eyebrows every time they don’t understand what they hear.
Your presentations, commercials and even phone messages say a lot about your company and the way you do business. And people tend to associate the quality of your content with the quality of your products or services. That’s why you need professional voice-overs for all your key materials.