One of the secrets to the success of podcast, radio, and television commercials is a solid voiceover script. The approach used to create compelling and persuasive voiceover scripts is quite different from that used making print ads and small blurbs for online advertisements.

Professional voiceover artist, Peter Drew, who provides voiceovers via Internet and for several radio networks, emphasized the importance of ‘writing for the ear, not the eye.’ That is, you will want to write very short, concise and succinct messages that sound like a real conversation. You may have to make some changes to the way you write your ads, especially if you are used to writing advertising copy for print ads, so that you can create a persuading and realistic voiceover segment.

Here are some effective ways on how to modify marketing copy and recording strategies to assure you that the voiceover can be narrated as smoothly as possible and will deliver a high-impact message to your listening audience.

1. Make sure everything is in the active voice. To make it sound like a real conversation, the voiceover should sound like it is taking place at the present time. Writing the script in the active voice will help make the audience easily identify with the messages.

2. Use a windscreen to protect the mic. If your voiceover script contains a lot of words that begin with the letters ‘P’, ‘B’ and ‘T’, the talent may have difficulty reading the sentence without distorting it. A windscreen can help eliminate this problem and help them deliver a more smooth-sounding sentence.

3. Mark up the advetising copy for inflection. Help the voiceover artist get a clearer understanding of the gist of the message and deliver a higher quality piece by bolding certain words, highlighting or underlining parts of the copy. You can do this by reading the copy out loud so you can identify which parts should be emphasized, then marking the copy accordingly so the voiceover artist will understand what you need.

4. Write (or type) out any phone numbers. Remember that digits on paper are actually words when they are read out loud, so this may cause an imbalance in your copy. Read out loud the copy with the numbers in full form so that you may make any necessary adjustments for it to flow better.

5. Capture the audience by the first line. Use an attention-grabbing headline intro to your voiceover script. Ideally, this introduction is under 10 words in length and contains at least one unique statement or key point.

Since a narrator will be delivering the copy, the writer of the script will need to account for breathing and the overall tone and personality of the voiceover artists. Once you have selected your voice over talent for an upcoming promotion, you may need to tweak the script slightly so that it flows with the talent’s strongest skills and abilities. Use these guidelines to develop highly effective advertising and promotion script, and allow the voiceover talent enough time to practice so that you can modify the script as needed.