Lesser Known Skills that Pay Off in Voice Over

What’s the #1 skill you need to have to be a successful voice actor? Your voice, of course! But your voice alone isn’t going to be enough to get you the kind of success you want. Instead, you need a wide range of skills, some of which you’re probably aware of already, and others which you’ve never even thought of. Some of these, such as the ability to create a great website, can be easily outsourced to more knowledgeable people, but others are all on you. Here are some of the lesser known skills you need to have to become a successful voice over artist.

●     Copywriting.  You may be thinking, “I’m not going to be writing scripts or anything!”, so why do I need to be good at copywriting? The answer is simple. Because you WILL be writing. True,  you’re probably not going to be penning masterpiece scripts or anything like that, but you’ll still be writing on a near daily basis. Emails to clients, content on your website, social media posts, blogs - these are just some of the areas where good writing skills will come in handy. You may also be making some small corrections to scripts. Especially, if your client, the copywriter speaks a foreign language i.e. English is not their mother tongue.

●     Organization. As a VO actor, you’re not just working for the same client. If you’re lucky, you’ve got clients coming out the you-know-what, and you’ve got to have a good organizational system to keep track of everything. Clients aren’t the only area where solid organizational skills pay off, either. Scripts, business-related files and paperwork, billing and invoices all will benefit from superior organization. This is always my greatest challenge.

●     Marketing. Selling yourself and your VO brand is one of the most important aspects of success in this industry. If you’re not a good salesperson, how are you going to land clients? You must be able to effectively market yourself and your abilities - and through a variety of platforms - to get the clients you want.