The quality of your brief decides the quality of your shortlist. Spend ten minutes getting it right and you'll get the perfect voice faster, cheaper and with fewer re-records. Here's exactly what to put in it.
In this article
Every studio has had the same brief: “We need a professional voice for a video.” It is not enough to cast from, so a back-and-forth begins, days pass, and the shortlist still misses. A good brief solves that. It is not long — it just answers the questions a director would otherwise have to ask. Here is what to include.
1. Who is it for?
Name the audience. A voice for teenagers gaming is not the voice for hospital consultants or for a luxury car buyer. Audience shapes age, energy, accent and vocabulary, so it is the first thing a director wants to know.
2. What tone are you after?
This is where most briefs are too vague. “Professional” means almost nothing — nearly every read is professional. Give two or three specific adjectives instead: warm, reassuring, unhurried, or bright, punchy, confident. Better still, anchor it to a reference: “like the narrator on that insurance ad” or “the voice from our last campaign.” A reference does more work than a paragraph.
3. Language and accent
State the language and the specific accent or variety. “Spanish” is not one thing — Castilian and Latin American are different casts, and so are the national accents within them (see our Castilian vs Latin American Spanish guide). The same is true for UK vs US English. If you are unsure which fits your market, say so and we will advise.
4. Where will it run?
This is the detail buyers most often forget, and it matters twice over. It drives casting (a broadcast voice may differ from a corporate one) and it drives price, because usage rights are licensed by media, territory and term. An internal training video and a national TV campaign can share a script and still be priced an order of magnitude apart — see how much a voice over costs for why. Tell us the media, the territory and how long the audio will run.
5. Script, length and pronunciation
Include the script if you have it, or a word count and target duration if you do not. Add a pronunciation guide for anything a stranger might get wrong — product names, people, places, acronyms — written phonetically or with a quick audio note. This one step prevents most re-records.
6. Deadline and delivery
Give a real deadline, and say how you want the files: format, sample rate and whether you need a mix or stems. If you are not sure, tell us where the audio will run and we will deliver to the correct spec.
The copy-ready checklist
| Include | Example |
|---|---|
| Audience | First-time home buyers, 30–45 |
| Tone (2–3 words + reference) | Warm, reassuring — like a premium bank ad |
| Language & accent | UK English, neutral RP |
| Media, territory, term | Online + paid social, UK, 12 months |
| Script or word count | Attached — 220 words, target 60s |
| Pronunciations | Brand name = “NYE-o” |
| Deadline & format | Thursday; 48 kHz WAV + MP3 |
Send it and we'll do the rest
You do not need every box filled to get started — even a rough brief lets us begin casting and quoting. Explore our voice over services or send us your brief, and we will come back with a shortlist and an itemised quote, usually within a few hours.