Corporate VO Part II: How to make yourself more interesting.

NOTE: This is the second post in a two-part article about Corporate VO. To read part one, click here.

Last week, we began listing some tips for voicing corporate videos. Most of them were functional. This week’s tip is a bit more subtle, but just as important:

Don’t bore the viewer!

Use emotion.

Yes, even in Corporate projects, this is incredibly important. This genre is a challenging mix of documentary narration on the one hand, and e-learning or commercials on the other. That is, a person might assume that the viewer has chosen to watch a TV program about sea turtles, and in a sea turtle documentary the video provides drama. So the narrator should be relatively subdued and refrain from over-acting. In contrast, who knows if a student wants to watch an e-learning video about economics? Hopefully the e-learning program has been well designed to capture the student’s interest, and its narrator can work with that. And at the low-interest extreme, there are most commercials — we all know how disinterested people are in most of them. So sometimes in a commercial you’re even supposed to go over the top!

So use emotion, however subtly. After all, you are expressing meaningful thoughts, and each thought is different from all the others. So the emotion to be expressed with each thought will change from sentence to sentence. It may not be easily discerned by the casual listener — that might mean you are overacting. But it will be heard as “variety,” one of key factors in maintaining interest. If you think in terms of emotional progression, it actually becomes difficult to boringly read every sentence the same way.

Perhaps you’re concerned this may interfere with that oh-s0-common “authentic, conversational, natural” tone that is highly sought after these days. Au contraire – emotions are one of nature’s great marvels, especially in human beings! We have conversations in many states of emotion, and getting at the heart of your client’s intent will make you all the more relatable. Don’t be afraid to ask questions in order to best pin down the proper emotion (see also “tone”) for their project.

A smile often helps, as well. As our coach Joshua says, “Smiles are audible.” And that’s not just a corny, Disney way of thinking. After all, your face is physically altered when you smile, brightening and spreading your tone. Science has even proven that simply by smiling, wide and without abandon, you can improve your own mood! So when appropriate, especially in Brand Anthem videos or many kinds of training videos, boost both your mood and your listeners’.

Another reason to smile is that there is often more where that came from. Once you’ve established a relationship with your client, there are often additional videos, or revisions to be made, over time. As with many voice over genres, the secret to success isn’t about landing spotlight work at spectacular pay, it’s in building a stable of clients who give you profitable steady work.

Your next door neighbor may never hear you at your job. But once a company has heard the difference that you can make, you — having done an excellent job and already having learned about the company and their needs — will be the one they call.

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To learn more about the Corporate genre or to schedule with one of our voice over coaches, call our studio at 888-321-3343 or email training@edgestudio.com.