How To Find A Female Voice Over For Your Commercial
If you're looking for a female narrator to voice over your video, you've come to the right place. I am an experienced and professional female voiceover artist with a warm, friendly, and beautiful sound to create just the atmosphere you want for your project. I specialize in providing narration for business videos, TV commercials, Radio commercials, film trailers, documentaries, explainer videos, and more.
How do you find a female voiceover for your video?
Here are steps you can take to find female voices.
Determine your project needs.
Do you need a professional voiceover for an upcoming presentation, commercial, or video? If so, what is the purpose of it? What type of message do you want to convey about your business/product/service etc.? Who is the target audience that will be seeing it? What different demographics are you reaching? What kind of mood do you want from the female's voice? Does her voice make your video trustworthy? Do a deeper analysis of the tone and pace you're wanting. These are all things you should consider before hiring a voice over artist.
Determine your budget.
How much are you willing to pay for a female voiceover? There's no right or wrong answer here. It all depends on what you want from the finished product.
How is the voice over going to be used? Is it just an internal explainer video, or do you need a female narration for a long documentary project that will be seen by many people all over the world? It isn't easy to make a head-to-head comparison of one female voice actor rates to another.
Each person has their specific rates based on their time and talent. The GVAA Rate Guide is typically utilized when pricing voice over work. Voice actors use this tool to give quotes based on how the voice over will be used, how many people the voice over will reach, how long the voice over will be used or played, etc. I go more into depth about voice over pricing here.
Image by NORTHFOLK
You may find a fantastic female voice perfect for your animation or video, but do you have the money to afford her? If her rates are not in line with your budget, that might be a sign of where to look first – internal (are there other areas I can cut back?) or external (are there other voiceover artists who are willing to work with my budget?). Or, you might find that your project is of a higher priority and it's worth investing in. A top-rated seller got to that position for a reason. She's worth every penny.
Take your time in the search for the right female voice over talent for your videos.
There's no need to rush, but don't wait too long either! It can be challenging to find an excellent professional who is available and affordable on short notice without compromising the quality of your project.
Research shows that the female voice is more effective in selling a product than the male voice. But I suppose it depends on what you're selling ;)
Once you have found female voices or male voice overs that fit your project and budget, keep a shortlist in an excel spreadsheet or Evernote notebook so you can quickly reach out to them in the future. You'll discover that some voice actors are easier to work with than others. Keep the good ones :)
Be ready to collaborate with your female voice actor.
When you find the perfect professional female voice over artist, be sure to work closely with her to achieve precisely what you are looking for before moving forward with payment. You don't want to be stuck with a poor choice! It could even be a wise choice to ask for an audition before moving forward. If you don't choose the right voice, it could jeopardize your whole project.
A meeting over Zoom or a quick phone call is a great option to get a feel for their personality, hear their voice, and give them specific directions about how you want your message to come across.
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If you are able, share the videos and music from your explainer video or tell them more about the audience. Sharing audience information can help the voice actor envision a more attractive voice to that specific audience. If the actor is outstanding, she can make her voice more trustworthy and authentic. She can make it feel like she's talking directly to the audience instead of through the web.
Talk about how the process works; everyone has a different workflow. Some use dropbox to deliver .wav or .mp3 files to clients; others use WeTransfer or Google Drive. You may already have a dropbox or google drive folder setup, and the voice artist can upload their voice over into your specific folder.
It's always helpful to have the videos and audio assets on hand to share with the voice actors, but some clients require an NDA to be signed before sharing the videos. The client may have sensitive information or a revolutionary new product that they cannot share until the right timing.
Provide detailed and clear directions for your project needs.
Answer the who, what, where, when, how questions about your project. Who is the audience? What are you telling or selling? Where do they live? When do they need to take action? How will this product or service provide a solution to the audience? How will they benefit from this product or service?
Describe the tone of voice you are looking for in the video. Tone can make a big difference for the viewers. If you're hoping for an authentic voice style, the message should not be forceful but rather sound trustworthy. If you are targeting millennials, they should sound hip and casual. Businesses tend to have a more official or formal tone so that people take them seriously.
Let your voice artist know how fast or how slow you want her to read. You can hear a difference in pacing. A faster, rushed read will be perceived as more excited. A slower, more thoughtful read could be perceived as calming for the viewers. Again, the voice shouldn't sound forceful but instead natural.
Once you have answered these questions and provided the voice actor with all of your detailed instructions, be sure to give them a timeline. Give yourself enough time in advance so that you can communicate any changes if necessary.
Image by Peter Stumpf
Sharing video and music is helpful as you describe how you envision the final product. Voice actors love hearing samples of what you expect for your project! If you've heard a particular style of voice on YouTube or Vimeo, send the link!
Just as it's important to share what you want, it's also important to communicate what you don't want. "I want it to sound like this, but not this. I want it to sound authoritative but not mean. I want it to sound empathetic, but not negative."
The more you know what you want, the better the result will be.
However, there are many times that you don't know exactly what you want until you hear it. And this can cost you time and money. If you need to be sure, have the voice actor read a small part of the script to compare their performance to what is envisioned for the video.
Provide a script.
Some voice actors will want to see the script before agreeing to voice it. Some voice actors may turn down the script if the subject is too sensitive or too political or goes against their beliefs. Please respect their decision to turn down the script and quickly move to your next prospect.
Don't forget about pronunciation! If there are hard-to-read words, names, or places, provide a YouTube link of someone saying it correctly. Or record yourself into your computer or phone and send the audio file. To help with pronunciation, here are some great resources: YouGlish, Merriam-Webster How-To-Say, or type the word into Google search, and it will show how to say it. Read how Google will help you pronounce words here.
There are times when your voice artist will need to sign an NDA, also known as a Non-Disclosure Agreement.
Ask if the professional voice actor provides other services.
Your female voiceover artist may also offer other helpful services such as editing, proofreading, and music licensing. Whether you need these extra services or not, it's good to know they can provide them. You never know what you'll need in the future!
Where can I find a voiceover for my video?
There are many places where you can find female voices for your video. Here are some suggestions.
Search online for talented female voiceover artists.
Be sure to visit their websites and listen to previous work demos and what they offer (i.e. rates). It would help to read reviews that others have left about the talent's professionalism and quality of service/product provided. Look for top-rated seller status when searching different platforms like Cast Voices, Bodalgo, Voices.com, Mandy.com, Fiverr.com, V123.com, CastVoices.com, TheVoiceRealm on your computer or phone. Not all platforms are the same. You’ll find high-quality talent on Cast Voices and Bodalgo, or reach out directly to voiceover talent via their personal website. Going direct may give you a better experience! Some platforms will take huge cuts of your profit and also the voiceover talent’s earnings.
Join Facebook groups or pages
Discover groups where members share talents via direct messages or comments on posts. Consider posting your project in these groups so that you'll be able to find someone right for your specific needs.
Image by Adem AY
Search LinkedIn for voice talent.
Network with others in your industry so that you can find out if they have a female voiceover artist for hire or know someone who does.
Ask other male voices who they would recommend for a female voice.
The voice over industry is a small, tight-knit group of professional creatives that love to recommend their talented friends. Instead of only looking at female voices, find male voices that resonate with you, reach out to them, and ask who they would recommend.
Here's a quick recap of what we've talked about in this article:
How do you find a female voiceover for your video?
Determine your project needs
Determine your budget
Take your time searching
Be ready to collaborate
Provide detailed and clear directions for your project needs
Provide a script
Ask if the professional voice actor provides other services.
Where can I find a voiceover for my video?
Search online for talented female voiceover artists
Join Facebook groups or pages
Search LinkedIn for voice talent
Ask other male voices who they would recommend for a female voice
Conclusion
Don't forget to research. Determine your project needs and budget so that you can find the best fit for what you need. If it seems like there are no options close by, take time searching online until you find someone talented and has a style of narration that aligns with what you have in mind.
Be ready to collaborate as well - if they offer additional services such as recording audio from an interview or creating sound effects, this will be beneficial when working on video projects together! Provide detailed instructions specifically outlining what type of work the professional voice actor will be doing along with any script requirements- this should help ensure smoother communication between the two.
If you still haven't found what you need after reading this blog post, or if you’re looking for a luxury voice for your brand (see sample here), please feel free to contact me at any time via email or phone call with any questions about my services. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this article!
