SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, um, lovely to meet you. I'm absolutely thrilled to be sharing another session with the VO boardroom, and uh I'm really excited to get going. So I'm going to stop waffling at the start, share my screen, and then we can crack on. So today we are talking about branding and about how versatile voice actors can actually build unbreakable brands. It's a common phrase that's often thrown around in the VO world, but it's also one that causes a lot of confusion, and you are not alone in that. But first off, before I introduce who I am and what we're talking about, I'm going to ask you a very quick question. To be a voice actor, you simply need a nice sounding voice. Yes or no? Just make a mental note. Okay. So I'm going to introduce myself, tell you a bit about who I am and uh what I do for a living. So my name is Helen B. I am half of BWE, and together with my husband Rob, we help voiceovers to be seen and heard. I am the scene half of B double, so my expertise is with branding and websites. I make you look as good as you sound. Um my background has been working with um marketing agencies, advertising agencies, doing web design since the late 90s, early 2000s, um, when I started my career, and uh I've been working with voiceovers now for around about 11 years. Um eight years ago, Rob and I joined forces together to create BE. So he is the audio half, he's the heard half of BWE. He is an audio producer, sound engineer, all around studio tech, specializing in home studio setup and everything that you need in the world of being heard. So anything to do with how your studio sounds, how your production sounds, demo production, all that kind of stuff. Um, that's robbed it. Together, we have been running BWE, as I say, for about eight years now. We are four-time winner, which I'm absolutely over the moon to tell, to say, um, four-time winner of the best voiceover service provider of the year at the UK All Voice Awards. Still makes me a little bit giddy when I say that. Um, and I'm also really, really proud of the fact that I've also now become a Sovas winner in 2026. In January, I won the outstanding website design as well for a website, which um, yeah, again, great honour to be among those uh very, very deserving winners. Um, alongside BWE, Rob and I also host and own the Voiceover Social. So that is a network of um in-person meets that are around the UK and Europe. There are 18 social gatherings around the place at the moment. We also have a big annual party, and we have a podcast as well, the VoiceOver Social Podcast, where we talk about things to do with voiceover, unsurprisingly. So, a little bit about what we are covering today. So, some way to take notes is useful. Um, pen, paper, iPad, whatever it is, however it is that you do that. Um, it will be quite useful to be able to scribble some notes and feel free to screenshot this as well as we go through because we will be going at uh a fair pace so that I can keep to the time limits. And there's a little bit where I've cheated at the end with the time thing, but don't tell. Be fine. Anyway, so we're going to be talking about what branding is really, why branding is important, the different types of branding, why feelings matter, and there's a bonus for you at the end as well. So the one of the questions that I want to start with is talking about how you feel when I say the word branding. It's often something that brings up a lot of emotion in people, and it's usually a gut instinct as to either they really love the idea of branding themselves or they really, really hate it. Um, it is often something that really confuses people. Some people have never really thought about it, they just kind of get into voiceover, they do their thing, they carry on, and it's all good. They don't really kind of give it much forethought. Some people have heard the word branding and kind of done a bit of work in it, maybe read a book or two or a couple of posts about it, um, but they're not entirely sure what it is, and they're certainly not sure how to make their own branding feel like them. Um other people think it's a very expensive waste of time and money, and sometimes it can be. Um, and maybe that might be a surprise thing to hear someone who literally does it for a living uh talking about. But yes, sometimes it can be a very expensive process if it's done badly. Um, I think there's a real um huge amount of misconception around what branding is, what it's there for, what it should be doing, why you need it. And so what I would like to start with is some of the bases. Let's get some of this stuff, get the jargony words kind of defined, and so that we can all be talking about the same thing. So, actually, what is branding? So, often people talk about branding and they will talk about things like their logos or their colours or the typography that they use. Um, often it's a tagline or some sort of um kind of phrase or terminology that gets associated with them and their business. Um, it could be something to do with your website or the photography that you use on it. I often see people talking about how your voice is your brand as well. Um, and uh actually, while I don't disagree on all of these, help people kind of associate you, your business with you, um, and they are absolutely recognizable marks of things that kind of point people to, okay, so I can see this, this is their branding, it looks like them, it feels like them, it sounds like them. But actually, at the core of things, none of those things are actually branding. So I'm gonna clarify a few terminology and a bit a bit of the jargon around it. So, first off, let's talk about logos. So, logos, really basically, really stripped back, really simply, are simply a mark or a symbol that people associate with the business. They're just a quick and simple visual way of somebody recognizing the company that is selling the thing. These things are really useful on their websites, they're particularly useful on things like packaging, um, leaflets and that kind of thing. If you're advertising, it would be kind of weird to see adverts without a mark of some sort, a brand logo of some sort, so that you can tell which brand it is that you're kind of being sold to by or what products it is that they're selling. Um, so there's some really big ones on screen that I am no doubt sure you will recognize. So things like Mitsubishi, Nike, Microsoft. We've got the kind of Instagram and Shell, Apple, Starbucks, all of those big, big global brands. But actually, the symbol themselves, the logo, is not the brand. So what is it? So maybe it's more to do with everything together. So it's not just the logo, but it's your colours, your fonts, photography, maybe, the patterns that you use, the kind of shapes of icons or the style of type that you use on your website. But actually, again, while that becomes instantly recognizable with some companies, but like the McDonald's gold and red, golden arches and red, people know that that combination, the Starbucks green is really well known. Um, Apple, even though it's black and white, is often associated with Apple as a business. But actually, again, it's while it may be something that um helps people visually recognize a company, it's not actually the brand itself. Marketing is another one where people often get confused, and there are some really blurred lines here, so it's perfectly normal to be feeling like this as well. I should have said that right at the beginning, but yeah, all of these things, it's perfectly normal to kind of think and presume because it's often what we're taught. So marketing really boiled down in its simplest terms, is how people find out about what you do. So it's how you promote yourself, it's how you tell people what you do, what your services are, what you're good at, and it's about relationship building. So things like um social media are some of the more obvious ones alongside websites, um, but some of the less obvious things like the relationship that you have with your agent, if you've got an agent or a representative, the kind of relationships that you have with other colleagues can be marketing as well because they recommend you to people. So it's not always the obvious things, but it anything to do with how you tell people what you do, that is marketing. So I'm gonna come back to this one again. To be a voice actor, you simply need a nice sounding voice. Now I'm going to hope that most of you said no to this one. Screaming it, no, there's more to it than that. And we see it all the time. There's so much more to being a voiceover than just simply speaking out loud. You know it, I know it, we all wish more people knew it. You have this ability to make people believe and emotionally connect with the words that you're saying, and that is some superpower skill. You get people excited about the idea of going to a live event. You can make the most ridiculously complicated, long, unpronounceable words seem easy and effortless. You can get people so involved into stories, audiobooks, audio drama, and gaming that they lose track of time and place completely. They become engulfed in this other world. And it's just so utterly brilliant how you can use your voice with years of training and skills and and this chameleon-like ability to be multiple characters or put yourselves into these multiple styles of reading. And this is why it really frustrates me when people say your branding is your voice, because your voice is not that simple. So stop branding your voice. It's a big one for me. Do not brand how your voice sounds. Branding has got nothing to do with how your voice sounds. And there's a few reasons why it shouldn't be. Um, one of them is because if you voice multiple characters and say you've got the amazing ability to do age ranges and gender ranges from, say, a five-year-old boy to an 80-year-old granny, and all the other animals and creatures and wonderful things in between, then if you branded how you sound based on one of those things, whichever one you're not doing, it's gonna sound at odds with what your brand is. So if you brand it around the small, kind of playful five-year-old child, everything becomes quite young and and kind of preschool. But then if you're voicing a commercial or an e-learning read, it's gonna sound uh it's gonna feel out of place. So we're gonna talk about what this is and what branding actually is. So remember, branding is not your logo, branding is not your colours, it is not your photography, it is not your website, it is not your voice, and I'm gonna shout that again. Branding is not your voice, and it's not your tagline. So what the hell is branding if I've just told you what it isn't for so long? So, branding really is about the experience, and this is something voice actors are so good at doing. You guys know how to make people feel things, and branding is the same. Branding is all about an emotional connection to a business and a company. Brands that work really well make you feel something, they connect with you really, really deeply. And there are some really big examples about this in the world, and we will go through some of those, but an immediate one is like if you love or hate a company, that's usually down to their branding. It's about how they sell themselves, how they present themselves, how they talk to you, but also they're purposefully putting off customers as well. And I think this is where the really powerful bit about branding comes in, is because you don't want to appeal to everything and everybody because you can't, and you just become grey and a bit vanilla and a bit meh, and nobody wants to be that. Everybody wants to be like have clients that feel really passionate about what you do, know that you're really brilliant at what you do. I can't put it better than Marty, so I'm not going to try.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

So uh a brand is not a logo, a brand is not a corporate identity system, it is a person's gut feeling about a product, a service, or a company. So, why is branding important?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Why do we need to look at it? Why should we care? Uh and it's a good question. So you may have been thinking, okay, and you may already be working as a voice accent for years and years and years, and I know plenty of voices that do this, um, and thinking, well, I've never really looked at my brand, so I don't really need it. Um, which is a common one. And actually, one of the things about that is that just because you've not spent time working out what your brand is, it doesn't mean that you don't have one. So remember, if you're a business, you're interacting with people. Um, and customers or potential customers will be interacting with you in some way, shape, or form, your agents and casting directors, all of those people will be interacting with you. And they will form an opinion about who you are, how you run your business, whether you like it or not. So you have a brand, it's just that you haven't defined what it is. And I think those experiences that people have working with you, that is your brand. So having one that's really clearly defined helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace. If people know that you do certain things, or be you can like resolve issues in a certain way, or your background means that you're really good at doing X, Y, and Z, then that reputation in a crowded marketplace that is what helps you stand out. It can help attract the right clients and repel the wrong ones. And I think this is so understated that you do not want to work with everybody. You certainly do not want to work with people who only want to pay you five pounds for 10 hours worth of work and then they're going to ask for an in-perpetuity license and turn it into an AI model. Nobody wants that kind of client, so don't become that kind of voice brand that attracts it. You want to increase your prices, you want to get people paying for what you do because they know that you make a difference to their clients as well. And I think this is the big bit is that really good branding builds customer loyalty. There are enough brands out there, and I'm going to mention Apple a few times today. So I apologize if you love or hate, but that's kind of the point. I've picked one where people love or hate them. People will buy Apple products just simply because they've launched it, not because they really need it, because they really want it. They will buy it because it's Apple. Equally, there are enough people in this world who would not use an iPhone if you gave it to them for free. And that is fine, and that is okay, and that is good. And that's how you want people to think about your branding, about your business. I'm gonna come back to this one again and again and again because I really, really think it's a misconception that gets touted around the internet far too often. Branding is not your voice, it has nothing to do with how your voice sounds. Your ability to do straight, clean reads, fun, exciting reads, character voices, different kinds of emotional reads for different genres of work is what makes you so, so good at being a voice actor. And if you brand any one of those individually, the others start feeling disjointed and feel out of place. And that is why you don't brand your voice. However, if you brand the experience of working with you, what it feels like when people work with you, then that doesn't change. You can voice an audiobook, you can voice a commercial read, you can voice an IVR, you can voice a game. It doesn't matter. The experience of working with you, that is what you focus on. That is the branding, because that is unique to you as well, and your voice is kind of given the chance to shine in all those magical, weird and wonderful ways that your voices can do, and mine certainly can't. Really good branding doesn't restrict you, it gives you flexibility, it allows for growth, and it makes marketing a lot easier. But there's a lot of terminology around branding, people talking about um corporate brands and personal brands and um product brands and all of these sort of things, where actually, if we kind of boil them all down to what they actually are, so a product brand is just is just an item that sits within uh a bigger kind of corporate brand. So Kit Kat is a product brand of Nestle, iPhones are a product brand of Apple. Personal brands tend to be more of the celebrities, and they tend to be more people that are selling things because they are who they are, and then people want the stuff that they do. So Taylor Swift, um, as much as she is a singer-songwriter and musician, she's also got other lines of stuff that she sells as well, and there's plenty of good examples of those. But actually, all of them are really about that relationship, they're all about that experience. You don't buy into Taylor Swift um just because it's Taylor Swift, you buy into Taylor Swift because of the way that she makes you feel and whether you love it or not. Same with Apple. Some you know, it's it's all about that emotional connection. So it doesn't really matter whether it's a personal brand or whatever all the other terminology about branding is, none of them really matter. So you can ignore those. Feel free to. This is your permission to ignore some of that terminology. So, why do feelings matter to so much? Why is it so important to work out how our co how how our clients, potential clients, feel about what we do? What what what why does it matter? So I want you to spend a little moment just thinking about the last time you bought something, or the last time you worked with a coach, um, or the last time you needed to maybe contact customer services for a company that you've bought something of. How did they make you feel? So a couple of quick stories from me. Um, one good and one not so good. So I have a hosting company called Fit4SP, they're based in the UK and they are great. They look after my websites, they look after all my clients' websites, uh, emails, domains, all the rest of it. They're great. Um, and they've been really responsive for their customer services, so good. Um, in the middle of COVID and lockdown, when we were in full lockdown, we couldn't leave the house uh lockdown. Um, a load of sites went down for a technical issue. They not only did they pick up the phone when I phoned them, um, they resolved things and they got stuff sorted and they got back in touch and they were really responsive, really communicative. So that relationship I know is there. I know that I can trust them in an emergency. It doesn't happen very often, and it's nice to know that I'm using an example that's a good five, six years out of date uh for that one. But yeah, as it's it's a really nice kind of example of how good their customer support is, and I will remember that and I will cherish that, and I know that I can trust them in a situation that where I'm stressed. Um, equally, I can remember to this day when I was in primary school, so many years ago, probably 40 plus years ago, actually. Yeah, probably. Um, and I had to go and take a load of books from my classroom to another teacher's classroom. My teacher asked me to go and deliver them, and I was so scared of this teacher uh because he used to shout a lot and he used to throw things around the room a lot. And uh I can still to this day remember the feeling of standing outside that teacher's room and how it made me feel. It has lived with me for 40 plus years. That's why feelings matter. Those coaches that you've worked with that have been brilliant and have unlocked stuff within you, you will recommend, you will shout about that experience, that positive experience. You will tell your friends about it. The marketing is done for them because they are so good at what they do and they make you feel brilliant, even if it's a tough thing that they're asking you and they push you to do more, they will ultimately get you some really good results, and that is what you remember. Equally, customer service that's atrocious. If you've ever tried to get a refund out of somewhere like Amazon, oh, sometimes it can be incredibly difficult. And I know there are some particularly well known airline companies that are even worse. Um, or you turn up somewhere and they say that you've they've done something and then they haven't, and it just turns into this. Absolute nightmare. You'll never use that company again, or you will do your best not to. I think that is why feelings matter. That is why reputation matters. People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. And this is the key to branding. This is the bit that everybody needs to get kind of into because if you make people feel a certain way, they will remember that long after they've kind of forgotten the nuances of whatever medical narration that you were working on. But they'll remember that you did it seamlessly, and they'll remember that you delivered on time, and they'll remember that you kind of, you know, sorted something out when their client made an error, but you helped them resolve it for them. They will remember all of that experience. And that is why branding matters. That experience really matters. And people will talk about the good experiences like the coaches that we've had that we love, or the events that we've been to that have been great fun, or the meals that we've eaten that we've really enjoyed. We recommend those. We tell people to go to those restaurants, we tell people to go to those conferences, we tell people to work with those coaches because they made us feel good or because they got good results. That is the key to good branding. So, where do we start? How do we start looking at all of these things, building our own brand, working out how we want our clients to feel, making that it unique to us? I've got a little experiment, I've got a little task for you all, and it is going to require you to pause the screen a bit because otherwise I wouldn't have fit into the allotted time for the presentation. So uh slight um cheeky, sorry, Paul. I'm breaking the rules a little, just just as just just a tiny bit, but it'd be okay. So the next screen, what I want you to do is work out how you want your clients to feel. So I'm going to ask you to write down a list, and you can for this first list, just give yourself a timer, say maybe five minutes, and write down as many words as you can. And I'm going to give you the words as a start point, but feel free to add your own, obviously. Um, and try and write down as many as you can. Is that my brand is, and this is about how you want your clients to feel when they're working with you, and then my brand is not. And I think this is a really important bit because you want both sides of it. You want to make sure that you're working out exactly how you don't want clients to feel when they work with you, as well as what they do. So the words are going to be on the next slide. So get ready to screenshot, pause it, you can come back to this list. All right. Here are the words. Okay, so just to make sure that you've all got that list of words. So pause your screen, work out what the list is, and then come back to me.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Okay, so I'm hoping you all did as told.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

I feel very teachery at this point, which isn't normally how I do it. Um, normally we do this live and we'd have a bit of feedback about um what words everybody comes up with, because it is really lovely to see what words people come up with, and it's always really interesting to see the differences because nobody ever comes up with the same combination. It is your unique list, it is for you and you alone. So, what do we do with this? How do we put this into actual practical terms? So when you've got your list, my brand is, my brand is not, you can use that as a kind of reference point for everything that you do. So if you're writing copy on your website and one of your words is things should feel energetic and excited, but you're reading the copy on your website or that email to a potential client, and you're thinking, actually, this feels really dull, this doesn't feel like me, then that's where you can kind of tweak the wording of your copy a little bit, and that's where you can bring in that branding to your copy. Again, when you're talking about visual stuff, and I'm going to give you a quick sample here, and there are some additional resources on the last slide about how to represent things visually. So if you're bubbly, fun, and energetic, then you might be a spring brand. Um, seasons are a really good starting point. Obviously, there's lots of kind of bits like late spring or early spring that we can go into, and I'm just gonna get a little just copping a moment. Excuse me. Um, but yeah, so if you're wanting a really cozy, grounded, kind of hearty feel, then maybe autumn of the colours to go for. The really, really important thing to remember is it's all about feelings. It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it. It's the feelings, it's the way that you make people feel when they're working with you. That is the bit that sticks with people for a long time. So I know this has been a very quick and flash pan kind of version of uh what branding is and your branding journey. So I wanted to give you access to a few additional resources. So if you scan the QR code or if you go to b-double-e.co.uk forward slash your dash branding-journey, long URL, hence the QR code. Um, on there, there are links to uh a podcast where you can listen on the go where I go into branding a little bit more and it takes along some of the stuff that we've covered but goes into it a bit more detail. Um, I've written blogs about the visual side of branding um so that you can look at how to start building a colour palette and how to bring it uh in your visual identity. And there's some other resources in there as well, along with a cheeky bonus. Um, if you would like to join the community that Rob and I run and manage called Be Seen Be Heard, it is all about helping you, your voiceover business, get seen, get heard, get in front of the right clients. And there's a little cheeky bonus in there for you as well. I would love to know what you think. Come along, say hi, connect on Instagram and LinkedIn, and uh hopefully see you again soon. Take care.