Personal Branding For Voice Actor

Personal branding is essential, and if successfully mastered, it can set you and your offerings apart. Your brand represents who you are and what you’re offering as a voice actor, which also includes your voice.

You can tell people your showcase online like through website or social media. You can use video marketing or content marketing tips to brand yourself.

Adding a photo or image

When establishing your brand, you want to include an image to show prospective clients who you are. Many voice actors add a traditional headshot as a graphical representation. Others commonly use a microphone, which is simple and to the point. Whatever you choose, make sure you’re original.

You can upload a picture of yourself or a graphic representing who you are as a voice artist and businessperson. Many voice actors opt not to reveal their visual identity. However, voice actors with an acting background or on-camera experience are more comfortable marketing their image to represent their corporate voice-over image.

You may not want to include a photo of yourself, which is fine. Voice actors expect to be cast based upon their voice, not how they look. Given that the medium is audio, this makes a great deal of sense and enables the customer to focus on their voice when listening to a performance.

No matter what type of image or picture you use, if you want your brand to stand out, we suggest using something besides just a headshot of yourself. A couple of suggestions include the following:

• Use online services: These services, such as Istockphotos or Gettyimages, offer royalty-free photographs, royalty-free illustrations, and digital artwork. For a few dollars (most images are only a couple of dollars), you can license an appearance to promote your business that’s likely not being used by anyone else. Using these types of sites can be very helpful in branding your business visually and cost-effectively.
• Hire a graphic designer: You can hire an artist to create an image (or logo; see the later section on having a logo). Make sure you own the image and its rights. A graphic designer is a professional who has the expertise and can come up with something unique.

For best results, upload a square image with equal dimensions because the website may resize your photo during the uploading process. You want the image to be able to scale appropriately and be displayed well.

1. Designing and creating a logo

A logo is the most readily available representative of your voice. Your logo can accompany press releases, be used as a link to your website and for advertising purposes. 

Logos are significant in branding because your logo is often the first impression of you and your voice. As a result, your logo should be friendly to all age groups and sized appropriately, making sure that it doesn’t take up more than the standard allotted dimensions for logos. The dimensions should be no less than 500 pixels wide and 500 pixels high. Ideally, it would help if you displayed a square, so your image is 500 pixels by 500 pixels. An idea that is crop correctly loads much faster, uses less bandwidth, and creates the positive first impression you’re aiming for. Stick with .gif or .jpg files because they display better on the Internet.

To create a logo, you have a couple of options:

• Hire a professional graphic designer. A freelance professional just like you with expertise in graphic design can create your logo. This individual can send you a web-ready image in the appropriate dimensions and format. Check with friends for referrals or go online and search for individuals who can help you create your logo. If you use a professional, make sure you own the image’s rights so you can do with it what you want.
• Design it yourself. If you have some experience, you may want to design your logo. If so, you can use Adobe Fireworks and Adobe PhotoShop to achieve your branding goals. Creating your stamp may be the best route if you don’t want to deal with licenses or other arrangements.

If you already have a logo, you can further brand your image by incorporating your business logo or designing a variation of your corporate logo to strengthen and reinforce your brand.

2. Picking colors

When choosing color themes to represent your voice-over services, make sure you select complementary colors, that is, colors that go well together. After you pick the colors that will brand your services, be consistent and use only those colors, including your website, in your logo, on your business card, and any other product you distribute. You want your brand to be consistent, and an easy way to do so is to use the same colors all the time.

Colors often have certain emotions or connotations associated with them. For instance, the color yellow is associate with the sun, cheerfulness, and innovation, whereas blue may be related to the sea, tranquility, and freedom.

To select colors that suit you and your voice-over abilities, consider

• Using colors that you like (it’s your brand, after all)
• Staying away from colors your competition is using
• Pairing colors that are complementary to each other
• Considering what those colors mean to you and how you can weave them into your brand

If your business already has an official color(s), you may wish to incorporate those same colors into your branding scheme for your website, logo, and business cards.

Understanding the branding process is essential to your business. It would be great if, as a voice actor, you can dubbing explainer videos. 

Author Bio

Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order). 

Twitter: @breadnbeyond
Email: andre@breadnbeyond.com
LinkedIn: Andre Oentoro