Looking for a medical voice over talent? Maybe you work for one of the more than 6,000 hospitals in America. Maybe you aim for the future phenomenal success of your newest life-changing medical device, or a new pharmaceutical medication. And now you need the very best health or medical narration voice over talent you can find for a video that can help achieve your goals. You want a professional voice talent who’s done this before, many times, and for whom long or difficult words or terms aren’t a challenge.
Why not start—and end—your search with someone who “speaks medical” for the very specific audience that will consider your video? You may have heard a certain voice over artist’s medical narration demo. You like it, but you wonder about a few things, as you should.
Know Health and Medical Industry Categories
You need a strong, experienced, knowledgeable medical narration voice talent, whether you’re seeking it for a:
- Hospital or health system
- Pharmaceutical company
- Medical device developer and manufacturer
- Health insurance company
- Research laboratory
- Health or medical association or organization
Ask Questions of Your Medical Voice Over Talent
- How much experience do they have?
- Will the product they deliver to you sound as good as what’s on their demo?
- Can they read pages (and pages) of long-form copy, or are they better suited to commercial reads?
- Do they understand this audience? If you’re a hospital or health system, you’re targeting consumers, or maybe you’re producing a training video on safe handling of medical waste. If you’re a medical device company, you may be targeting investors, or buyers including hospitals and physicians’ practices.
- Does your talent have a quality, professional home studio, or will they need to go elsewhere to record—and you’ll foot the bill?
- Who will edit your medical voiceover?
Know Your Medical Voice Over Talent’s History
You want someone who shows up in the booth well prepared to do your job. Why not look at the list of clients your talent has shown on their website—they should have a website—and reach out to one of them. You can ask, “How was it to work with this talent?” or “Did they understand your directions well and follow through on them?” Or ask “How was their pricing—was it competitive?”
Consider their time in the voice over industry.
You’ll feel so much more confident with someone who’s been doing voice over—successfully—for a longer time. This is true if you’re giving them medical narration copy. It’s not for beginners. These types of projects can sometimes require updates or changes, several months or a few years from the time of original recording. You want to be sure the talent you work with today, will also be the talent you work with later. You need help now when you need something “right away.”
Pay attention to their preparation.
You don’t want someone who walks in and hasn’t taken time to evaluate and mark the copy. Medical narration is particularly challenging, with multisyllabic words, and often, longer sentences because, well, the terminology is just lengthier, often with repeated complex words in a row. That’s not copy that can easily be delivered perfectly in one take without preparation. Your medical narration voice talent will need to read through the copy several times and be sure of pronunciation and syntax. It’s better to learn the correct way to pronounce now, than to put everyone through frustrating repeated mistakes and edits. A professional medical voice talent won’t be embarrassed to ask about something they don’t know right off the bat.
Think about who’s going to be listening.
Does your audience expect a male or female, someone young, in-between, or mature? Do you want no accent at all, or would a local or regional accent help deliver a more effective read? Do you want a talent with a higher pitch, or someone with a deep, commanding timbre?
Meanwhile, a voice over artist known for comedic reads may not be the best delivery for an audience of MDs or PhDs, for example. Leave that casual style for commercials or animation.
Choose the Best Medical Voice Over Talent
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a seasoned medical voice over talent who also has years of writing for the nation’s top health and medical publications and websites, as well as for hospitals and health systems? Who’s written for pharmaceutical companies, medical device developers and manufacturers? And who’s crafted copy for health insurance companies, research laboratories, and health or medical associations and organizations?
Because she’s written so much about medical careers, as a result, Steph understands the structure of those organizations, who does what and why. Therefore, she understands the specific language that is so definitive of healthcare and medicine in the 21st century. She’s interviewed hundreds of doctors and patients. Steph’s written so many of those longer and complex words and terms. Those may intimidate a less-experienced medical voice over talent.
Find a Medical Script Writer
In addition, while we’re on the subject, if you seek added value with your medical voice over talent, ask Stephanie to write your script because she’s done many. She’s a seasoned writer with 20 years’ experience in this art form, too.
Above all, for her, there’s just something about taking one of your most challenging health or medical scripts, and “knocking it out of the park.” She’ll do it efficiently, correctly, and sounding great, in her next recording session with you.