Published In Blog, Has Vid, Technology, Video Marketing - - September 5, 2023
There’s no denying it–we’ve entered the age of AI.
We see it in the movies with “deep-fake” technologies.
The usage of virtual voice assistants is widespread.
Then, let’s not forget how, by 2035, we’re expected to have fully self-driving cars.
This might shock you, but we’ve been using AI–in some shape or form–since the late 1950s.
However, there’s been a paradigm shift in its prevalence over the past few years.
It’s becoming increasingly ubiquitous, making us more productive, efficient, and advanced as a society.
No more are the above notions reflected than in the advent of AI voices.
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Upload AI voice overs directly into your projects in seconds and transform your content marketing strategy.
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AI voice-overs are a shining example of how and why related technologies are making substantial waves.
Like other forms of artificial intelligence, AI voices have evolved over time.
Text-to-speech technology tools, for instance, have been helpful since their earliest iterations.
However, the most advanced versions of text-to-speech technology (and speech-to-text) have become more effective at mimicking human speech, sounding more natural than ever.
Thus, companies are beginning to bolster their content marketing with AI voice-overs and voice cloning, finding such tools more viable, streamlined, and cost-effective than hiring professional voice actors.
Generally speaking, voice-overs can bolster marketing materials because of the emotions they convey and the trust they establish, far eclipsing the power of the written word alone.
Case in point, an explainer video using voice-overs can increase revenues by up to 80%.
Now, on the surface, this all sounds great.
Why wouldn’t any business use voice-overs for a wide variety of content marketing purposes?
For one, when it comes to marketing your brand, being ultra detail-oriented is absolutely crucial.
Everything counts, and the slightest discrepancy or misstep can impact how people view your brand.
Doing voice-overs isn’t a simple matter of reading or spitting out words.
It’s a practiced skill.
Actors hone their abilities to deliver messages in an impactful, engaging manner.
A brand employing a narrator who can’t tell their story in the most captivating way sells themselves short.
In fact, under-delivering or executing poorly in this avenue could damage such a brand’s image.
The ends won’t justify the means.
Hiring a voice actor until recently has been the only option for many brands looking to add voice-overs to their content marketing.
While such actors can add panache and overall sticking power to your content, it’s not a viable or accessible option for many companies.
Organizations trying to grow at scale–without all the resources in the world–don’t necessarily have the upfront funds to justify such an investment.
Speechify points out how it’s reasonable to expect to pay between $1,000 and $2,000 to hire voice actor for a 60-minute audiobook narration.
If the above example was a one-time fee, that would be fine for many companies–even those trying to keep things lean.
However, you’d likely need to hire someone repeatedly.
Those costs add up and chip away at the return on your investment.
Today’s AI voice generator technology is bridging the gap for businesses growing at scale.
While similar tools from previous generations couldn’t match the inflections and nuances of human voice actors, deep learning models and technologies have changed the game.
Moreover, many bigger businesses–legitimate heavyweights–with plenty of resources to spare- find that AI voices make more sense than hiring voice actors.
Say you want to DIY your voice-overs.
You want to read your content marketing by yourself to take your content narration to the next level.
Think about how much time you’d spend getting the narrations/recordings right.
Every nuance counts, and you’d likely agonize trying to add emphasis in the right places, pausing at the correct times, and speaking with a good rhythm.
You know the old saying about time being money?
All that time you spend on voice-overs won’t be spent on more big-picture purposes to drive growth and boost your bottom line.
Your core business functionalities require your attention–not the finer points of narration.
Let’s briefly return to the notion of hiring actors to do the narration.
Consider how long it’ll take to audition and coordinate recording times.
You suddenly find yourself in the entertainment business on top of your other responsibilities.
You’re not getting paid Disney CEO Bob Iger’s salary, so you shouldn’t have to do his job.
In fairness, if the end product delivers, the above choices can be adequate…if there wasn’t a vastly more efficient way to do the work.
Using AI voice overs mean businesses like yours don’t have to settle for “adequate.”
Instead, an AI voice generator allows you to optimize efficiency.
You can have an end product of an equal (or even better) quality to human-narrated content in a fraction of the time.
Incorporating voice-overs won’t take days, weeks, or even months.
Endless streams of content can be narrated with natural-sounding voices nearly instantaneously.
AI voice technology enables you to broaden your target audience because it can generate voice-overs in multiple languages.
Making your brand more accessible (and understandable) to a global audience enables you to expand your reach.
You’re being more inclusive without needing to hire interpreters or actors.
This approach supports at-scale growth.
You’re spending less but doing more with your content, maximizing every ounce of its value.
AI voices sound progressively more human-like than ever in today’s landscape.
The process that’s developed this AI-derived natural-sounding speech is multi-pronged and complex.
Developing human-like speech and natural-sounding voices with AI necessitates training AI models with an immense amount of human speech data.
This training occurs in numerous accents, speech patterns, and languages.
The model gets exposed to many contexts and voice sounds, better learning to mimic human-like voices.
Advanced neural networks and deep learning algorithms and techniques help analyze human speech subtleties (e.g., pace, emotion, and intonation).
Natural language processing is another crucial component utilized by developers to bolster the speech flow of AI-generated voices.
The processes detailed in the above paragraph help generate synthetic voices that are less robotic and more conversational.
Furthermore, voice cloning tech bolsters AI-generated voices by enabling them to produce custom voices with more realistic, human-like traits.
Professional human narrators do have their advantages.
We don’t live in a black-and-white world.
We can’t honestly sit here and act like there aren’t things humans bring to the equation for which AI voices must bridge the gap.
One such area is the imperfection of the human voice.
Such discrepancies and flaws are ideal for an animated movie (or live-action movie with narration).
However, branded content narration doesn’t mirror the requirements of a dramatic film or television show.
Often, companies seek consistency and unwavering reliability from a voice representing their identity.
Your audience wants to see polish and perfection.
They expect a level of professionalism that can be easily conveyed with AI voices.
Today’s fine-tuned synthetic voices enhance consistency, presenting a “crisp” image to your target audience.
Let’s briefly explore where you’ll notice AI voices as you research the best product for your brand:
AI voice technology has become prominent in the world of podcast voice-overs.
You’ll also notice such tools incorporated into TikTok or YouTube videos (or other social media platforms).
Apple and Amazon have embraced AI voice integration for voice assistants Alexa and Siri.
These examples should show you what such tools are capable of for your content marketing narration–they’ve become increasingly more human-like over the years.
Another possibility with an AI voice is real-time transcription services–these could prove vital to those in your audience who are hearing impaired.
Voice cloning tools can also mirror (or clone) professional-sounding speech or even the exact way you sound.
Companies like Elevenlabs, Speechify, and Murf AI have made these advanced tools highly accessible and affordable to companies like yours.
You can now incorporate custom voices into your content creation campaigns without the steep costs of hiring a human narrator.
Below, we’ll get more specific with use cases and how AI voice-overs and cloning are often incorporated into content marketing:
Social media platforms are ideal for interactive posts and explainer videos.
The dynamic nature and custom voices offered by AI can make your social media campaigns more impacting, helping increase user engagement.
Content marketing gurus have begun to lean into video and aural advertising with the surge of podcasts, aural streaming video services, and other aural platforms.
Since today’s AI voices can mimic human emotions and inflections, content marketing experts can intricately personalize the user experience.
The clear, concise narration offered by AI voice-over tech is ideal for explaining product benefits and features professionally and authoritatively.
Multiple versions of narrations for the same demo can be generated nearly instantaneously in several languages.
AI voice-overs and cloning custom voice avatars can successfully help market webinars, trade shows, and product launches.
Content marketers often use AI voices to provide event-based instructions, promotional materials, and after-event content.
Brands must be consistent, and their identities must be unique to stand out amongst a competitive pack.
Today’s AI voiceovers offer your business and brand the ability to establish a specific voice that people can immediately associate with your company when they hear it.
You can apply a consistent AI voice across all marketing channels, making it synonymous with your brand and fostering loyalty and awareness.
Not all voices were created equal.
Compare the average person’s narration capabilities to those of Morgan Freeman, and you can’t really refute our point.
AI voices are much the same.
It’s not necessarily about what’s generally “better.”
After all, “better” has different meanings to different people.
Instead, you want to find the most suitable voice-generating AI technology for your company.
Below are some criteria to help you reach your decision:
An AI Voice tool should have various features that suit your content narration needs.
Here are some questions you should ask of prospective products:
Can the voice-over AI technology in question perform multiple accents and languages to make your brand more accessible to a broader audience?
Does the tool in question convincingly mimic human emotions and inflections?
Can the voice generator’s tone, speed, and pitch be controlled?
Does the tool have speech-to-text and text-to-speech technology or integrations?
The user interface will drastically impact your overall experience with an AI voice-over tool.
Prioritize controls and guides that you can use easily to simplify voice-over editing and creation.
Another consideration should be script importing and exporting capabilities when the AI voice-over is finished.
Cost efficiency isn’t one-size-fits-all.
One company’s bargain is another’s financial fleecing.
The right product and suitable price all depend on your budget, scale, and scope of your needs.
It’s essential to not get stuck on finding the most frugal option.
Yes, finding a good deal and spending within your business means makes perfect sense.
That said, the least expensive option isn’t necessarily the best option.
After all, cheap and low-quality run hand in hand.
Your brand identity is on the line.
Bottom-tier AI voices sound as such, hampering your content marketing execution.
Your route to the right tool offering AI voices and cloning tech involves balancing cost with the features provided.
What is the pricing structure?
Is it subscription-based or pay-per-use?
What will be the benefits of paying more?
Better quality, more advanced features, and reliable customer support might justify what you pay upfront.
What is your projected return on investment?
A more expensive–but advanced–artificial intelligence voice-over tool could provide the extra oomph that pushes your campaigns over the top and skyrockets your ROI and bottom line.
None of this is to say you should dump your entire budget into such a tool.
Rather, it’s important not to short-change your business by investing in inferior options.
Mixing audio and visuals is the ultimate way to define and establish your organization to your target base and foster loyalty and recognition.
Combining Pictory’s visual AI capabilities with the AI voices discussed in the article will take your content marketing campaigns to soaring new heights.
Alongside turning your text into engaging and professional video in minutes, we can add voice-over in multiple ways.
Upload recordings, record your own voice straight into scenes, or take advantage of our library of different AI voices.
In seconds your captions come to life in a cost effective and accessible voice over.
Sign up with Pictory today for a free trial to see what our tech can do for your brand!
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