The Investment of a Pro Voiceover

What's the benefit to casting a professional voice actor for a project, instead of just doing it yourself? Maybe you have a naturally smooth and pleasant voice that lends itself well to something like narration, so you plan to narrate your project instead of hire someone. Sure, that could save you some money in the short term, but what does it cost you in the long term?

As we discussed previously, a professional voice actor is more than just a nice voice. They have training and experience, and understand how to interpret scripts and deliver performances—including narration. It's the difference between someone just reading something into a microphone, and someone actually narrating. Someone could naturally have a very lovely voice, but if they don't know how to translate that the proper way with voice acting then the delivery will come across as awkward.

Have you ever had to endure a training course at work where it was obvious they cut corners by just getting an employee to voice it? The pacing might have been all wrong, or the delivery lacked emotion. Maybe the emphasis was made in the wrong places, making the sentences sound clunky and weird. You then find yourself getting distracted by the bad delivery, instead of focusing on the information in the training course.

Or maybe you've watched a video promoting something, but were so turned off by the bad voiceover narrating it, that you just closed the window and moved on.

And that brings us to the long term costs of cutting corners like that. If it's for a product you're trying to promote—like maybe it's a trailer for a Kickstarter, or an explainer video for your business—then it comes across as unprofessional, and people will lose confidence that your product will be good quality. In short, it hurts your brand's image and your profits. If it's for a training video, even one you're using internally instead of selling to other businesses, then the poor delivery could distract the viewers and make it difficult for them to retain the information. Hiring a quality voice actor for your needs is an investment, akin to any other used in your business. A shop with signs hand-drawn with markers on paper stuck in their windows looks less reputable than one with professionally-created signs, after all. Saving a few dollars today really isn't worth potentially losing more in the future. And with how services like FlyVoiceovers make it easy to find high-quality professional voice actors at affordable prices, there's really no excuse to skimp on this very important element.