Marketers often look at voice overs as simply a method of relaying an existing message, but the reality is that voice over artists play a significant role in brand communications.
Marketing is all about perception, so it’s critical to do everything you can to cultivate a positive brand image.
In this article, we’ll take a close look at the concept of vocal variety and why it’s important in a marketing context.
Our team of voice actors is fully vetted, so you can depend on us for a professional performance every time.
Vocal variety is a well-known concept in the world of voice acting, but professionals in other fields may fail to recognize its relevance.
In general, vocal variety refers to an actor’s ability to vary their style from moment to moment in order to match the tone of the script they’re reading.
Even an engaging script will sound generic and uninteresting without sufficient vocal variety.
On the other hand, a voice actor who has experience in your niche or who matches your brand’s ideal tone will give you a significant competitive advantage when recording a voice over for marketing campaigns.
Most consumers already see more ads than they can pay attention to, so the top priority for marketers is simply giving them a reason to pay attention.
Standing out from the competition will improve your brand recognition and get more and more customers interested in your product or service.
When you’re looking for a voice actor, it’s critical to target someone who matches your brand’s existing image or the image you’re interested in building.
Of course, this isn’t limited to voice over work. Customers should be able to expect the same brand tone in video ads, on your website, in email marketing, and more.
Helping your brand appear less commercial is another crucial aspect of developing a better brand image.
Companies of all sizes—from mom and pop stores to McDonald’s and Coca Cola—understand the danger of looking too “corporate.”
A voice artist with strong vocal variety can make an ad seem more approachable to your audience.
Furthermore, this speaks to the importance of a holistic mission that permeates all levels of your company.
A brand image isn’t simply something imposed on your marketing materials to drive sales—contemporary consumers want to engage with businesses that speak to their values.
Your company’s voice is vital to long-term engagement and brand recognition, but individual ads are typically designed to induce a specific behavior.
For example, you might want customers to buy a certain product or visit your website.
Again, audiences are generally dubious of these injunctions, especially given our cynical view of marketing in general.
This is another area where actors with outstanding vocal variety truly shine above the rest.
Just as voice actors represent your brand along with delivering a message, they can also use their rhetorical skills to guide behavior.
In one famous example of this dynamic, Malcolm Gladwell posited that copilots from countries which favor non-confrontational styles of speaking may be more likely to fail when alerting the pilot to a potential threat.
This is just a single case, but it clearly demonstrates the fact that people respond to the same idea differently depending on how it’s presented.
Infomercials that rely on “but wait, there’s more!” and other tired tropes simply aren’t as resonant in 2020, even if the product really is a great value.
A skilled voice actor sounds less like a salesperson and more like someone audiences can relate to.
They can also change their approach depending on the field and the specifics of the ad. Overall, they’ll be much more effective when it comes to convincing listeners that they don’t want to miss out.
You might not think that brands can have personalities, but developing a unique personality will actually go a long way toward building better relationships with your customers.
Of course, brand personalities are generally crafted by marketing departments in collaboration with other teams, but they also act as the face of your company.
Personality has always been a crucial aspect of marketing, but it has become even more important as consumers continue to look for brands that they can relate to.
For example, many companies now run Twitter accounts primarily to engage with customers outside of traditional marketing contexts.
An effective organizational voice typically has something to do with the brand’s products or values.
If you’re selling products for parents of young children, you could look for an actor who speaks calmly with a soothing or comforting voice.
On the other hand, a fashion company might hire an actor whose personality is more likely to connect with a younger audience.
With that in mind, the right personality for your brand depends on your buyer personae.
Buyer personae are essentially profiles of an “average” customer who is likely to be interested in your products.
A deep understanding of who you’re selling to is key to developing effective sales tactics, especially in today’s competitive landscape.
Consumers are generally looking for brands based on three conditions.
They want to like and trust the companies they buy from, and of course that can only happen when they become familiar with a brand.
Outreach is the best way to measure how many people might know about your brand.
From there, only a small percentage of viewers and listeners will continue to remember you.
An even smaller percentage will like and trust your messaging, leading them to come back for future interactions.
Finding ways to build a more likeable and trustworthy image is therefore critical for virtually every brand.
With the right vocal variety, you’ll be able to build more engaging customer relationships and get better results on the same marketing budget.
As mentioned earlier, one of the most important aspects of a successful marketing campaign is simply that viewers or listeners remember the key points.
Slogans, jingles, and simple repetition are common ways for marketers to turn a benefit or talking point into a concise statement.
Just as good writing makes a phrase easier to remember when written, vocal variety and other techniques perform the same task in speech.
Skilled voice actors can make the recording sound like more than the sum of its parts and perfectly complement your brand’s message.
Working with professional voice actors will help you catch your audience’s attention and fix your ads in their memory.
In other words, their speech techniques will make your marketing materials stand out from any other ads the viewer or listener has recently experienced.
This dynamic becomes even more clear when brands pay well-known actors or celebrities to appear in commercials, either physically or through a voice over.
They aren’t necessarily more talented than a qualified voice actor, for example, but their voice may be more likely to attract attention from a particular audience.
Voice actors try to produce a similar impression through speaking techniques rather than audience recognition.
In the video below, John Krasinski—Jim from The Office—provides voice over work for an Esurance commercial.
In addition to being a well-known celebrity, he also provides an approachable, personable tone that perfectly matches the brand’s image.
Just as Jim acted as the link between the show and the audience, here he acts as an ideal liaison between an emerging company and a target audience that isn’t familiar with its benefits.
His existing rapport with people who watched The Office gives him a unique authority during the ad, even though viewers consciously recognize that he’s being paid to appear.
In this case, Krasinski gives Esurance a better chance of being recognized while also making the brand appear more engaging.
Of course, you don’t need to be a celebrity to contribute excellent voice over work—anyone who can grab an audience’s attention can be extremely effective in an ad that matches their style.
You might think that customers respond to the best prices or the biggest sales, and those factors can definitely help you generate more sales.
That said, marketing is more about emotions than it is about logic, and an experienced voice actor can help you trigger the right emotions at the right times through their effective use of vocal variety.
It goes without saying that each item on this list is interconnected. An engaging speaker is likely to be more persuasive, and they’ll also do more to separate your business from other brands in your niche.
A cohesive marketing strategy gives customers the same experience regardless of how they’re engaging with your brand.
Vocal variety is a critical aspect of voice acting, both in marketing and in other projects.
Putting a better spin on your message will make you more recognizable, likeable, and trustworthy to a wider audience.
Our team of professionally vetted voice actors can help you craft more engaging ads and develop a more positive brand image through vocal variety.
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