When a company decides to have an explainer video made, sometimes they try to save money in certain areas. They might choose a less costly form of animation or opt for only a minute when they were going to go with two minutes. One area that is common for people to try and save money when having an explainer video made is with the voiceover.

Is a professional voice actor necessary?

The answer to this question depends on the answer to another question: How professional do you want your video to be? Having a professional voice actor perform the voiceover work for your video will give it that extra sense of professionalism that will be lacking if you decide to do it yourself or you get one of your employees to do it (unless, of course, you are a professional voice actor yourself).

Going through the process of creating a professionally done animated explainer video and then doing the voiceover work yourself is kinda like making a delicious sundae and then topping it with an olive.  

Saving Money

While most business people don’t have the skills to write a script, draw up a storyboard and then turn that storyboard into an animated masterpiece, they are quite willing to pay to have that done. But, almost all business people do have a voice and that’s why some of them believe they’ll be able to handle the voiceover themselves or have Alice from accounting do it.

But, just like real acting, voice acting is an art and professional voice actors have honed their skills and knowledge to be able to do it well. That’s why their voice is the cherry and not the olive. It’s not as simple as just reading a script.

Saving Time

Sometimes it’s not money people are trying to save, but rather time. Pulling all the elements of a good explainer video together takes time and sometimes a voiceover artist is busy and people have to wait for them to become free. But, in their excitement, some business people don’t want to wait and decide to do it themselves.

This usually ends up wasting time anyway because most people will discover that if they do it themselves, it will need to be redone. It really doesn’t take that long to make an explainer video and people are better off just waiting the relatively short amount of time. If they are in a real hurry, they can pay a higher fee to have it expedited.

It’s easy anyway, right?

A lot of people believe doing a voiceover is as simple as hitting record, reading a script and then overlaying it onto the video. But, that’s not true. It’s a skill and the fact that there is such a thing as a professional voiceover artist should tell you that. The job wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t needed. The reason commercials, movie trailers and other videos sound so good is because the people doing the voiceover work are professionals. That’s the company you want your video to be in: The professionally done ones.

Let the robots do it.

Voiceover software is available, but the one thing that software is missing is the human element. People are going to know it’s software doing the voiceover. You can’t disguise that stilted robotic speaking (yet, anyway).

Your brand, your voice

You may feel that because it’s your brand and you know your audience best and you want to make a real connection with that audience that it should be your own voice representing your brand. However, as instrumental as you are in your brand’s success, that doesn’t mean you should speak for your brand if you don’t have the requisite skills.

You may think that you can just do it a whole bunch of times until you eventually get it right, but if you don’t have any experience or skills with doing voiceover work, getting it right will be extremely difficult. Wait until you make a live action brand video and then let your voice speak for your brand.

Just use a professional

An animated explainer video has many steps and one of those is the voiceover. It’s a crucial step in bringing the entire video together and giving it that polished, professional feel that will draw in potential customers and clients, introduce them to your brand and make them want to do business with you. Click here to use our price estimation calculator to see approximately how much it will cost to have an animated explainer video done for your business. (You don’t even need to talk to anyone!)