Depending on the structure of your video, you may find that the “special something” it needs is a strong voice-over narration. A voice-over narration can be effective for a number of different video types, including marketing, product releases, and promotional events.
It’s common that companies will look to selecting an internal employee to “handle the voice-over” (i.e. they pick the person in the office with the smoothest sounding voice), and think that is a viable replacement for hiring a professional.
Now, that can work. We’ve seen a few video collaborations come together where an internal employee happened to be very naturally talented and could pull off a strong voice-over performance. But we are also going to tell you that it’s rare. Voice-over artists are professionally trained actors who have a particular expertise in how to compliment your video in all the right ways with narration.
They Can Capture the Right Tone of Voice
It may be appealing to enlist the help of Sarah in Accounting with the great voice to dive into your video’s voice-over narration. After all, you already have the script written, you have the timing, so it’s really just someone reading the script, right?
Not exactly. Voice-over artists know how to tell a story, and they know how to do it with the right tone of voice to speak to your exact target audience. If you’re a trucking company speaking primarily to long haul truck drivers, they know how to capture the voice that will speak to them. If you’re a daycare center and you’re looking to speak to an audience of primarily young parents, a strong voice-over artist will vary their tone, language, pace, and any other aspect of narration they need to in order to serve that audience.
Professional Setup
Professional voice-over artists will have a professional and efficient system setup that allow them to provide you a clean, buttoned-up, and professional narration. A recording from a professional voice-over artists will already have had any unwanted background noises removed, have the audio filtered and edited so that it matches perfectly with your video, and will be ready to execute with your video immediately.
In most cases, voice-over artists will often do several takes of your narration (at your request!) with small tweaks here and there so that you can select the option that fits strongest with your video’s final product.
Valuable Input
While if you had a professional scriptwriter working on your video, any edits needed to your script regarding things like language and timing should be minimal. But sometimes voice-over artists with extensive experience can offer a “last round” of final suggestions regarding wording in your video’s narration and timing. Sometimes these tweaks are suggested so that their voice fits your video as perfectly as possible. Know one knows their voice better than them!
If you’re developing a video that requires voice-over narration, we strongly suggest you work with your video production company to find a professional that is the best fit for your video and brand. Much like a competent production team, a good scriptwriter, and a fitting location, a strong voice-over artist is essential to the final product of your video being the visual and audio experience you want it to be.
