How to give direction for your On Hold & Auto Attendant Greetings
If you’re investing in professional voice over services for your messages on hold or telephone system prompts, you want to make sure it turns out right. It can be difficult to communicate exactly how you want the voice over to sound. You have a good message, but with the wrong direction, or no direction at all, for the voice over artist, it might not come out how you hoped.
On Air works with a large, talented pool of voice over professionals. We can help you choose the right voice for your recording project, but sometimes we will need your help directing the talent. Here’s how you can help us out:
Know your target audience.
- Think about who will be listening to the recording.
- What is their demographic?
- How would you direct the voice over artist reach that specific demographic?
Give us good descriptive words.
- First, think of how you want the voice over to sound. Then think of words to instruct the person doing the voice over.
- Good descriptive words include words like youthful, engaging, energetic, welcoming, compassionate or authoritative.
- The more detailed the description the better.
Think about an example of how you want them to sound.
- Sometimes it’s easier to describe a ‘character’ than using descriptive words.
- “I would like the voice over to sound like a…. concerned mother, stadium announcer, bored student, a story-teller, etc.”
Provide examples of a voice over you like.
- If there’s a segment of one of Our Voice Talent’s demo’s that you like, make reference to the specific time where it occurs. Example, “Pete’s demo at the 0:43 second mark”.
- If you’ve heard a message on hold, phone prompt, commercial or other voice over you like, share it with us by sending a link to the source.
- Example: “I like the voice over in the latest Squeezy Cheesy commercial.” Then the voice talent can do their best to produce a similar voice over recording.
Spell things out exactly how you want them to sound.
- On your script, make sure you spell things out and use proper pronunciations.
- Example: “1803 67th St”. Should it be “Eighteen oh three, sixty seventh street” or “One Eight Zero Three, sixty seventh street.”
- Example: “Mr. Baranowski” or “Mister Bar-ra-NAWF-ski”.
Let’s get started!
Are you ready to record your message on hold or automated phone system prompts? Get in touch with us. We can help you give proper direction to your chosen voice over artist so your finished recording sounds how you imagined it would.