We listen closely to more than we’re aware. Our brains are constantly blocking sounds that our ears pick up from reaching our conscious thoughts because if we did actually listen to all the sounds around us all the time we’d go quite mad. I listened to a fascinating podcast the other week that described this in detail. I’ve provided a link because it was so well explained and you might enjoy the listen too.

Back to audio production’s ebb and flow, and how it’s related to this post. Audio gets recorded. It gets passed through the production department. We listen to it as it arrives, as we process, as we edit, and once we’re done we listen to it one more time to ensure accuracy.

The sound changes each time.

First, it’s raw and imperfect, full of little noises and the occasional false start or complete mistake.

As audio editors we act like the brain does for the ear/mind connection, we find such sounds and remove them. No one wants to hear clicks, pops, static, or distortion in speech when they need to understand the content. We remove all the ‘noise’ and leave only the best bits.

We tighten up the speech here, we add a needed pause there, and we finely craft the perfect voice prompts by whittling down the recording of one of our many professional voice talents into small, precisely named nuggets. Most are .wav files, some are .mp3, and others are formatted for increasingly rare IVR systems that play VOX files.

The playback of each edited audio file is optimized for the system on which it will be used. Some take a 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, mono PCM wav file. Other systems prefer an ITU G.711 encoded wav file. These sound radically different in my headphones on my PC, but in use, as they are designed to be used, they sound just perfect alongside the other digital prompts in the library.

Sometimes I’ll get to hear the same speech in as many as 32 different languages on a given day. This is a fairly rare occurrence, to be sure, but it sure is neat when it happens. Which languages you might wonder? Why so many all at once you may ask? If you really want the details I’m happy to share, just comment below and I’ll let you know. By the way, we’ve worked with over 80 different languages in the past and always enjoy learning to work with a new one.

The post The Ebb and Flow of Audio Production appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Learn Business Value of a Podcast

Podcasts are a direct-delivery system of information to potential clients, partners, and even to people who may not even be thinking about you or your industry but might come across your show. Because of this, podcasting creates significant business value by establishing credibility, building a brand, and generating revenue. What better way to showcase your extensive knowledge, your office culture, your specific brand and ideologies than through a format that can be shared anywhere, costs nothing to listen to, and can be listened to on virtually any smart device, be it a phone, a computer, a tablet, the list goes on and on!

Authentic, informal conversation will always register more strongly in the minds of consumers than bland, anonymous text on white screens. You may not believe you can expect a strong response to a podcast for business, but you would be surprised how much new engagement can be generated.

This applies to the most niche of industries. In researching podcasts, we discovered companies that developed podcasts about everything from fitness to the dairy industry. Through consistent, engaging content, these podcasts drew thousands of listeners and leveraged many of those listeners into active customers.

A Constantly Growing Industry

Maybe the most vital answer as to why a company should consider starting a podcast is that soon, you won’t be able to afford not to have one. Podcast listening continues to expand at an exponential rate, a trend that the recent pandemic only exacerbated.

In a study conducted in 2021, it was determined that people across the globe listened to 15 billion hours’ worth of podcasts that year alone. That’s three billion more than only two years prior. It is estimated that within the United States alone, by 2024 there will be 100 million podcast listeners. And most podcast listeners start listening to a show in the hope of learning new things.

Just within the financial world, we are seeing an outpouring of creativity. Banks and credit unions use their dedicated podcasts to imprint themselves within their community, to educate their listeners on the ins and outs of finance, to introduce employees and executive staff and create a sense of place and familiarity within the company, and to keep listeners updated on the latest trends and news from the financial sector.

There are so many ways to use a podcast to connect with your audience, and podcasts are increasingly the avenue customers want to utilize to make that connection.

Getting Started

Do you still have a lot of questions as to how to start a podcast? Does podcast production seem like way too complicated or time-consuming a process to even begin?

That’s exactly what ModPod is designed to help with. Call or email us today and we can start the conversation and help you learn the business value of a podcast. And in the meantime, check out the latest episode of the Voices Carry podcast, in which Jim and Janet discuss all the ins and outs of ModPod and the exciting world of podcast opportunities.

The post Discover ModPod and Learn the Business Value of Podcasting appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Remote Advantages

The professional voice recordings business is fortunate enough to be an industry where some remote working was already part of the design. We work with voiceover talent spread out all across the country, and the world, and nurturing that breadth of talent and languages is instrumental to having a robust network of available voices to handle whatever language, tone, style, and sound that a customer might be looking for.

Similarly, if your podcasting set-up is such that the only guests you can invite onto the show are those able and willing to come to your fixed studio location, that’s going to put a very real limit on the range and number of guests that you’re going to have available to you, not to mention force you into a rigid schedule versus being able to jump on a Zoom, Riverside, SquadCast, Teams, Skype, phone call and talk at your leisure.

And then there are the general advantages to working from home that apply to many industries, not just voiceover recordings. Hours are more flexible, parents have greater opportunities to be present for their children, and workers do not lose hours of their workday every single day in inescapable commutes. It’s incalculable how much employee spirit is improved by not having to slog through the same traffic jam every single day before getting down to business.

Company Voiceover Podcasting Social Culture

But how then is a company supposed to create a cohesive culture for employees who don’t share a workspace? How do you keep a bunch of disparate people feeling like they are one team with people that they don’t see every day?

It’s actually not so difficult, so long as you commit to making an effort to do so. Here at Marketing Messages, we have weekly team meetings and are always sure to dedicate time in that meeting for general discussion of our lives before getting into any work talk. We keep each other appraised of the major events of our families, and the result is that we remain bonded as a team even if we don’t share an office.

If the chemistry and sense of camaraderie is there between coworkers, they don’t have to be on top of each other in one space in order to work well together and feel united as a group to a shared purpose. Even working spread out all over the country, voiceover and podcasting social culture can exist, and strengthen the whole company.

Making Your Studio

Interested in creating your own podcast? Or are you a voiceover talent looking to set up your studio and get more professional work? Call or email us today and Marketing Messages would love to start a conversation with you.

The post How to Continue a Social Culture While Working from Home in Voiceover and Podcasting appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Why Podcasts?

Podcasts have been around for some time now, and they have become an integral part of people’s daily lives, whether as entertainment during a commute or as an important educational resource about specific subjects, fields, current events, or companies and products.

In this ever-expanding market, a business having its own dedicated branded podcast is an invaluable way to not only strengthen an organization’s brand identity, but to generate engagement and word-of-mouth across social media and other Internet avenues.

Podcasts not only serve as a means to attract new customers, they strengthen and enrich a company’s relationship with their existing customer base. Studies have found that people retain much more memory from audio learning than they do from just text, which makes podcasts an ideal format to not only reach out to customers, but to inform and engage them.

It’s such an exciting space, and such an exciting time to get involved. But what does involvement look like for a podcast production company?

A Full-Spectrum Podcasting Production Company

ModPod’s mission is to create compelling, content-rich podcasts that elevate and showcase our clients’ expertise using an approach called Knowledge-Based Podcasting. We work with our customers to help them develop the best show that suits their needs and vision, and then apply the audio and creative expertise we’ve accumulated throughout our 35-year history to make every episode of that show the best that it can possibly be.

To that end, Modpod offers a wide range of podcasting services. We can help you Get Clear on your podcast’s strategy and concept, helping to hone in on what sort of podcast makes sense for your company and client base.

Once the concept is determined, the next stage is to Get Ready for the demands of recording and distributing your podcast. You’ll need a studio space conducive to clean audio, a line-up of well-prepared episodes, and scheduled guests to get an audience excited.

And then it’s time to Get Going. We’ll assign a Project Manager who will work with you on editing, sound integration, artwork, title and show notes, audiograms, distribution, and more.

ModPod can also enable organizations to expand the audience for podcasts to include listeners speaking any language around the globe. Our Get Global services assist in localizing podcasts into Spanish, French, or any number of the 80+ other languages Marketing Messages support.

Talk to ModPod Today

So if you are interested in exploring the world of podcasts, we’re happy to provide a free consultation, no matter where you are in your podcasting journey. We can’t wait to hear your ideas and help bring them to life, with the same dedication and expertise that we bring to all our Marketing Messages audio productions.

Podcasts may have been around for a while now, but it’s still a young field with boundless room to explore, expand, and experiment. It’s a frontier that we are excited to move into, and we hope that you’ll join us on the adventure.

If you have ideas, interests, or just general interest, contact us today!

GoModPod.com.

The post Announcing ModPod, A Full-Spectrum Podcast Production Company appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Voices Carry

As part of that ongoing, evolving conversation, Jim and Janet welcomed Denise, a voice talent with Marketing Messages, onto the Voices Carry podcast to discuss her experiences as an African-American voice talent in a field that has often been dominated by white voices.

“Denise explained her circuitous path to her current career, and how she has already seen the voiceover industry start to evolve to try and shepherd voice diversity, which beyond being the correct moral action also creates opportunities to speak to a broader audience.”

What Is Gained from New Voices

As Denise discusses in greater depth in the episode, the benefits that come from expanding voiceover talent diversity are frankly incalculable. Whether a customer is trying to navigate through a menu of auto attendant prompts or listening to onhold messages while waiting for service, having voices that reflect the communities and cultures in which businesses are situated makes every part of this experience better, for all parties concerned.

This is especially appreciable when it comes to call center voices, where we have seen in the last few years a major push towards making these recordings as personable as possible. People do not want cold, monotone voices reciting messages in a single robotic pace. No, instead there is a drive, backed by ever-improving technology , for call center recordings to simulate actual conversations, with all the energy and personality that that entails.

Making the conscious effort to be more inclusive and create the opportunities for greater voice diversity is a major factor in building those relationships between a company and its customers.

Creating a Space

While Denise is honest about the frustrations and pitfalls of the voiceover industry, she remains extremely optimistic about both the immediate and long-term future. The effort for greater DEI will only lead to more voice diversity in the voiceover industry as companies work to keep up with the expanding, diversifying global customer base.

Here at Marketing Messages, we have made this part of our mission as well. Over the last few months, we have made a major push to recruit more voice talents of color and lobbied, successfully, for their consideration to our new and regular clientele. We have demos of some of our diverse voice talents, available here.

These progressive steps can be done, but they require making an active choice to make the effort, and then the will to act on that choice.

Listen Up

For more thoughts on this topic, please join Jim and Janet on the latest episode of Voices Carry as they talk all this, and much more, with special guest Denise. And be sure to listen to all our previous episodes of Voices Carry, and stay tuned for future episodes.

The post Increased Voice Diversity in the Voiceover Industry Yields a More Positive Caller Experience appeared first on Marketing Messages.

But first, Andy and Jim need to address the somewhat unpronounceable town in Louisiana where Andy resides. Between Andy’s residence in “Notchitoches” and Jim’s expertise on some of the baffling names scattered all throughout Massachusetts, it’s a wonder the conversation is able to proceed to any other topics.

When they do, Andy illustrates the odd journey that led him to his current career. As a schoolteacher overwhelmed with side-hustles, he initially began doing voices just to amuse his wife. When she pointed out that his parodies of announcer-type voices were good enough to serve as the real announcer, Andy began to explore the field. Soon, being a voice talent went from one more side-hustle and became a full-time, independent business.

Longform Voice Narration

Andy’s specialty is longform voice narration. What does that entail? It could be anything from voice-over recordings to accompany a TV commercial, a company needing 3-4 minutes of narration for a video on their website, to an over 40-minute video sales letter accompanying a professional marketing pitch.

And then there is all the voice narration needed for everything from audiobooks to e-learning. One of Andy’s steadiest employers is a law school building a massive database of audio companions detailing the ins and outs of every minute legal system. Andy estimates that he has now done thousands of videos just for this one client and this project.

What Goes Into Good Narration?

As Andy describes it to Jim, voice narration is an incredibly involved and demanding process. He’s had numerous conversations with businesses that opted to record their own narration rather than utilizing a professional, to uniformly disastrous results. Voice narration requires not only the time and patience devoted to getting every part of a long script correct, but also physical stamina and at least some acting ability.

The post Voices Carry Podcast 5, Long Form Narration and Other Southern Fried Voiceovers: Chewing the Fat With Andy appeared first on Marketing Messages.

In the latest episode of the Voices Carry podcast, Jim and Janet welcome a very special guest to discuss voice talent recording and branding.

Joining the couple is esteemed voice talent Liz, a bilingual specialist who has recorded countless projects for Marketing Messages. In her time with the company, Liz has proven herself to be adept at every kind of voice message imaginable, able to handle everything from a professional greeting to an IVR recording.

In this episode, Liz breaks down the ins and outs of life as a voice talent. She explains to Jim and Janet the importance of using a professional versus trying to build and record a message on your own. As a bilingual talent, Liz also explores the process of recording in French, and how crucial it is to make sure that the voice translation is correct before bringing it to the voicing stage.

As someone with a wealth of experience to pull from, Liz is able to illuminate the tricks of the trade from the perspective of the person voicing the voice over recordings. Part of being a voice talent is knowing that you are the last step in an often very complex and elaborate process, and that you are there to fulfill a customer’s stated needs.

In conversation, Liz explains just what sort of qualities a customer might use as criteria for selecting the voice for their voice messages, as well as outlining the work that a voice talent such as herself puts into delivering on those qualities with total consistency.

There are other intricacies and important details that Liz explains – everything from script prep to her own in-studio process for delivering the best audio possible every time out – but we’ll let you discover these things with your own ears.

So, get nice and cozy, and then join us for another fun chat with Jim and Janet, as Voices Carry takes you inside the voice talent recording and branding process.

The post Voice Talent Recording and Branding Interview appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Being able to communicate authentically with a customer in their native language is a huge part of establishing trust, credibility, and, eventually, sales. It is important that your voice messages can connect with a wide audience and having professional voice recordings is a major part of this, whether you are creating IVR prompts or on-hold messages. Multi-language voiceover professionals, like those on our roster of talents, have perfected this art.

However, despite this importance, there are several common mistakes and challenges. In this episode, Jim outlines the four most common challenges encountered by companies trying to create multi-language voiceover messages.

So, get cozy and enjoy episode two of the Voices Carry Podcast, and let Jim and Janet explain some of the intricacies and details of the audio world. You might just find some handy information for the next time you need to build some new multi-language voiceover messages. You might also hear a funny tale about some quirky co-worker, an anecdote about a party or two, learn to predict the future of voiceover, and finally learn a really simple cocktail recipe. In the world of professionally recorded voice messaging for IVR, Auto-Attendant, on-hold messages, narration, explainer videos, telecom codecs, and industrious audio editors with an ear for perfection – sidestepping multi-language voiceover minefields is a walk in the park.

If you don’t face the challenge of multi-language recordings…if you don’t clear those minefields…you could lose trust, lose credibility, lose sales. Avoid this at all costs. You might be wondering how when the answer is so very simple and elegant, it’s staring you in the ear.

No one wants to lose sales. Listen to this episode now

The post 4 Multi-Language Voiceover Minefields and How to Sidestep Them appeared first on Marketing Messages.

In their premiere Voices Carry podcast episode, husband and wife hosts Jim Giebutowski and Janet Kraus interrupt their life of marital bliss to discuss the world of professional voiceover, and why cocktail parties are not the best place to find voice talents.

Jim, the CEO of Marketing Messages, is artfully cross-examined by Janet, a startup CEO and former professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School. They talk about how to employ professional voice talents within phone applications to create brand-enhancing caller experiences, and what they can do that your daughter/son/best friend/nephew…or your Aunt Mary… cannot – no matter how “great” their voice is!

Click the round play button above to listen to an insider navigate the world of professional voiceover.

The post World of Professional Voiceover – New Podcast appeared first on Marketing Messages.