5 tips for getting voice-over translation right

Getting the translation for your voice-over project right first time isn’t always a straight path. Which means the quality of the end product is not as good as it can be. And sometimes much worse than the source material.

When targeting foreign markets, your content needs to appeal to their culture and local lifestyle. You have to speak their language. Otherwise you risk embarrassing your brand and ruining your chance of making a good first impression. Especially if you’re aiming for a long-term market penetration.

With this in mind, we’ve compiled our top tips to translating your scripts and getting multilingual voice-over right:

1. Select the right style and tone

When entering a brand-new market, you need to find the artist, or artists, you wish to use. Depending on your advert or video content, you can go for a style that’s happy, positive and exciting, or perhaps you want to come across as an industry leader and evoke trust with a more professional voice.

Every country's audience has its own preference and would react differently to the voice reading your script. For example, the UK likes to be entertained with a bit of comedy while also appreciating the seriousness of the brand. This also applies to the US audience who also like enthusiasm. However, in Germany you might have more success if you go for a more serious tone.

2. Casting the right voice talent

Next, make sure you play an active role in casting because this will ensure you choose the right talent that can convey your message in the right way. It’s always a good idea to build up a profile of the sort of person you need to do the voice-over and then use this when listening to samples.

In almost every case we offer clients a free sample recording of a short snippet of their script, so that they can hear exactly how the artist will perform.

By doing this, you can shortlist the right voice-over artists in the languages of your choice.

3. Be flexible when translating the script

When translating your script from English, the professional translators and proof-reader working on your project will need ‘artistic license’ to be creative. That’s essential for a few reasons; If you ask for a straight translation from one language to another, you end up with phrases the audience might not relate to, this comes the knowledge of the local culture and language and means that emotional message isn’t lost.

That’s why we always work with native linguists. Another reason is the adaptation of the voice-over when need for a video - translating directly could result in a much longer voice-over audio file than the video is.

By allowing for some freedom with the script, the translators can change whole phrases while keeping the same core message. Furthermore, you ensure the audio and video will sync up which helps you to reduce costs and the time spent in post-production.

4. Communicate and feedback often

We always seek our clients’ feedback at every stage of the project. That way they are actively involved and can quickly rectify any minor mistakes.

When we get a translation project for a video and voice-over our team always asks questions regarding tone, pronunciation, and speed. The last two are particularly important when doing voice-over for more technical videos (e.g. medical, education, technology industries).

For pronunciation, this will be important for technical words and company names. When trying to come across as an industry expert, the last thing you need is a mispronunciation in your marketing campaign. With speed, a fast-paced script will promote excitement in the listener while a slower dialogue will have a relaxed and thoughtful feeling to it.

5. Receiving the final files

After we’ve recorded the audio, and it’s been through editing and post-production you’ll receive the final files. If you have any specific requirements in terms of file formats or need source files (single or multi-track audio), speak to our team.

We can deliver the files in any format no matter the size, as our cloud-based storage solution can almost instantaneously make the files available to you.

If you’re not technically-minded, your assigned project manager will always be there to help.

Are you ready?

Foreign acronyms, slang and cultural jargon are the tricky part when translating voice-over scripts. Potential mispronunciations and misunderstandings can easily occur. But if you follow the above tips, you should get it right more often than not! And you’ll reach your foreign audience a lot more effectively.