Branding is not the term of the 21st century or the digital era, it has been practiced for a long. Although not so commonly known to the populace until the last one or two decades. It was when the strategic, management, & marketing specialists condensed this topic after studying the global corporate giants thoroughly and deciphering their X-factors that made them what they are today. Well, to put it in simple words, it is and has always been about how you package yourself.
The professional voice-over services world is not so different from this. There are hundreds if not thousands of professional voices competing in every niche around you & adding to the competition is the online availability of voice-over services. So, now more options are available for both the parties – the clients & the voice talents. Now in such a scenario, it is imperative that you stand out and add distinctiveness to your identity. You need to establish yourself or put yourself out there to be specifically recognized for your specialty and characteristics that are your USPs. The modern world is very competitive and no explanation is needed to prove its fierceness, so there is no point in being another face in the crowd. Personal Voice-over Branding helps you create a strong and different identity when it comes to voice-overs. It builds your reputation and makes you more appealing to your target audience and clients. Now in addition to that creating a voice-over brand also establishes confidence in your name. It makes you look more credible and let clients associate with you with a feeling of certainty and reliability earning you a long-term relationship and success.
Voice-over branding has many aspects and before diving headfirst into it must consider a few things. Just like a political campaign or a sales pitch, while doing voice-over branding, one must focus on –
- What are promises? What’s your offer? What are you good at? What can you deliver?
- You must make a strategy that focuses on your key skills or USPs. For instance, if you have a unique talent in animation voice-overs, you must lead with it.
- What makes you stand out? This is a very common and very crucial element. You must highlight all those points where you can outshine others – be it cost, timeline, workflow, etc.
- Your promises are mere words without proper samples of them. You must provide high-quality work samples for all the promises you make.
Anyhow, voice-over branding is the need of the hour for a long and successful voice-over career. There are a few things however that are involved with voice-over branding. Now, these points can be all-encompassing and might try to sum up the whole voice-over branding thing in just a few words.
The Voice-over Branding Theory –
Basically, the voice-over branding constitutes creating a professional image or reputation to attract more work or potential employers. The branding in voice-overs at its essence is the creation of an audio image of oneself, like when a potential employer hears your name he/she must get an auditory image of your voice. If not that then at least upon hearing your samples one must get the picture of the voice project being narrated in your voice. However, the main focus of the voice-over branding is to associate your name with a specific genre, niche, or style so that when either the name or the style is mentioned one must automatically hear your voice in his/her head.
The Elements of Branding –
The most fundamental aspects of voice-over branding are selling interpretive skills and sound quality. While technique, craft, & range stand vital to the branding, things like people skills, professionalism, flexibility, collaborative spirit, consistency, adaptability, & reliability are crucial to set voice-over actors as a brand or say for personal branding. All these things together create your persona and influence how an employer or a client would see you as a professional.
Creating a Voice-over Brand –
For creating a successful brand in voice-over, you need to identify and highlight your key talents as an artist. It is imperative that all facets of your brand must be positive and therefore, you must constantly try to find work that suits your strengths the best and, in the meanwhile, you must work to expand your range and abilities. Certain aspects of your brand, like reputation among employers, depend completely on your interpersonal skills, therefore always build a healthy relationship with professional Voice-over agencies. Lastly, everything you promise must be able to deliver and nothing should sound like a superficial advertising lie.
An effective voice-over branding emphasizes the strengths & weaknesses, customer & market needs, and competitors’ analysis. It targets to devise the most fruitful strategy to compete in the market and excel in it. A great positioning strategy or personal branding allows you to steal the spotlight and highlights the ways in which you can outshine the competition and be the preferred choice.
