Hey there, fellow entrepreneurs, freelancers, and work-from-home folks! Do you find it extremely difficult to create high-quality voiceovers for videos that engage your audience? Are you ready to step up your video marketing game?
Well, look no further because I have some exciting news for you! Today, we will talk about AI-powered text-to-speech technology and how it can revolutionize your video marketing efforts.
What is Text-to-Speech?
Let's start with the basics. AI-powered text-to-speech technology is precisely what it sounds like – it's a tool that can convert written text into natural-sounding speech.
And the best part? You don't need to be a professional voice actor or spend a fortune on expensive equipment to create voiceovers for your videos. With AI-powered text-to-speech technology, anyone can create high-quality voiceovers in just a few minutes.
Text-to-speech is the process of computers digitally turning text into speech. In videos, we can use a text-to-speech generator to create voiceovers. Besides its use in videos, TTS mainly assists those with impaired vision or reading difficulties. The voices of voiceovers are made using speech synthesis, which has been around for decades, at least in some form.
You might be thinking, "But why should I bother with voiceovers in my videos? Isn't it enough to have music and text?" While music and text can enhance your videos, adding a voiceover can take your content to the next level. Not only does it make your videos more engaging, but it also helps you connect with your audience on a more personal level.
So, which businesses and industries can benefit from using AI-powered text-to-speech technology for their videos? Well, the possibilities are endless! Let's take a look at a few examples:
E-learning platforms: If you're creating online courses and training materials, adding voiceovers to your videos can significantly enhance the learning experience for your students. Plus, with AI-powered text-to-speech technology, you can create voiceovers in multiple languages to reach a global audience.
Real estate: Are you a real estate agent looking to create virtual property tours for your clients? With AI-powered text-to-speech technology, you can easily create voiceovers for your property videos, highlighting the key features and amenities of each listing.
Travel and tourism: If you're in the travel industry, creating videos showcasing different destinations and attractions is necessary. Adding a voiceover can help transport your viewers to the location and make them feel like they're there.
Marketing agencies: As a marketing agency, creating videos for your clients is a big part of your job. With AI-powered text-to-speech technology, you can create high-quality voiceovers for your clients' videos in a fraction of the time it would take to hire a professional voice actor.
Social media influencers: If you're a social media influencer looking to create engaging content for your followers, adding voiceovers to your videos can help you stand out. Plus, with AI-powered text-to-speech technology, you can create voiceovers for multiple videos in one sitting, freeing up more time to make even more content.
Let's discuss incorporating AI-powered text-to-speech technology into your video marketing efforts. There are a few different ways you can do this:
Use a video creation platform: There are a variety of video creation platforms out there that offer built-in text-to-speech functionality. These platforms typically offer a variety of templates and customization options, allowing you to create professional-looking videos in just a few clicks.
Use a standalone text-to-speech tool: If you already have video editing software you're comfortable using, you can opt for a standalone text-to-speech tool. These tools typically allow you to import your script and choose from various voice options and languages.
Hire a freelancer: If you don't have the time or resources to create your videos, you can always hire a freelancer to do it for you. Many freelancers specialize in video creation and can use AI-powered text-to-speech technology to create high-quality voiceovers for your videos.
In recent years, technology has developed tremendously, with artificial intelligence becoming the primary source of many new opportunities through various AI-powered computer inventions - improved text-to-speech technology being one of them.
Text-to-speech in videos is often referred to as AI voices or AI voiceovers or just shortened to TTS. Here, we will look at how TTS is created and how we can use it in videos.
Now, if you are interested in AI voiceovers for your next video project - here's everything you need to know to get started. That includes how they are created, how they can be used, their benefits and downsides, and how they are technically applied.
How are AI Voices made?
First of all, AI voices are not authentic voices. They are created synthetically through a computer process called deep learning. However, AI voices can be made based on authentic voices, but real voices are not directly used to create AI voices.
The computer creates audio from a written or generated text using sound frequencies to mimic the human voice, similar to when a musical instrument produces sound.
The TTS Software can create and say out loud any word - even words without meaning. It knows actual words and uses computer learning to pronounce words correctly in several languages.
How Can You Use Text-to-Speech in Videos?
By now, it isn't a question of whether or not to use videos in your marketing strategy - it's more about how to make your videos more engaging than your competitors.
Using unique features in your videos makes sense because it can make them more expressive and engaging. In particular, TTS has become a popular tool for creating more engaging videos with AI voiceovers and can be used in commercial, entertaining, informative, and educational videos.
They can be used as a comic feature in videos - for example, you have probably heard them in many TikTok videos by now. TikTok voiceovers have become a prominent and characteristic feature of TikTok videos.
You can create an audio expressing surprised comments, wondering comments, or ironic comments, which makes the video much more full and engaging. You awaken both the visual and audible senses, and it can give the video a complete structure.
Also, AI voices are often used as an informative feature supporting the storyline and main points of many kinds of videos, for example, educational ones. In educational videos, a combination of visual and audible material allows all learners to understand and remember the presentation and the main points, significantly improving learning outcomes.
What are the Benefits of Text-to-Speech?
TTS is a unique and dynamic element. Let's take a look at what it can add to videos.
Better Comprehension
Text-to-speech helps improve the accessibility of videos and makes overall comprehension of the video better - for the typical viewer, but also helpful for people with dyslexia or other learning difficulties, as well as for non-fluent viewers to clarify points and meanings. It can strengthen the main points in your videos if you use it strategically to point out and highlight your main messages.
Increased Viewer Engagement
If you are a content creator on TikTok or YouTube, you know how important it is to put effort into keeping your viewers engaged. Keeping them engaged means that they watch more than just a few seconds of your videos.
Their attention and interest are kept preferably throughout the whole video - avoiding that they click away. Viewers engaging in your videos also means commenting, liking, or sharing your video. All this adds up to your overall engagement metrics.
Voiceovers help make content more digestible. Engage your audience with both the visual and audible parts to create a better comprehension of, attention to, and memory of your content.
With better awareness comes more confidence to engage with your content. For example, when you take a class and understand the topic well, you are more likely to answer and ask questions.
For many viewers, the speech will be more engaging than the text. However, don't forget to add text as well, as many people nowadays watch videos muted or with the audio volume decreased. Combining both will serve as a better foundation for a broader and more engaged audience.
SEO
Voiceovers can help you achieve a better search engine ranking and overall visibility since they indirectly affect SEO (search engine optimization) positively by improving engagement metrics.
It doesn't directly add value to your keyword profile. However, you can add a script of your voiceover as closed captions; that way, you have a direct feature to improve keyword-based SEO.
Makes video-making simple
One of the most significant advantages of TTS is that it is so easy to add to videos and only takes a few steps to complete the process. It is one of the tools that can help streamline video making and make it more cost and time-efficient.
With the right software, adding voiceovers is simpler than recording them yourself. TTS lowers production costs because it eliminates the setup costs, such as equipment, the time it takes to record and retake, and if, for example, you have to hire a voiceover actor.
Additionally, leveraging a free AI voice generator can further streamline the process, offering a cost-effective solution for generating natural-sounding voices without extensive human involvement.
Hiring a voiceover professional can be expensive, depending on your project and budget. You also might need to rent a studio to do it. It takes some training or at least talent to record good voiceovers yourself, and you need the specific setup and tools to do so. Without it, it can easily sound quite amateurish.
And it's no surprise that it's pretty time-consuming. However, you might just be good at it or passionate about learning it, and for some kinds of videos, it's a convenient feature to add a natural voiceover. But thanks to AI development, you now have both options, which have advantages and uses.
You can easily edit and change parts in your TTS during the editing process or even after if you discover that you want to change something or if you want to make new, slightly altered, similar content.
You won't have to retake everything yourself or track down your previously hired voiceover - you have it on your computer, ready to make a speech.
Reach an International Audience
If an international strategy is part of your business, TTS is a helpful technology to make marketing material more flexible. Some TTS software can do more than convert text to speech - they can translate your voiceovers into several languages. This means you can add language-specific voiceovers to, for example, promotional videos.
Even though your content isn't originally in English, you can still reach an international English-speaking audience by adding English voiceovers to your videos. This can give a much more extensive reach, distribution, and visibility. You can also customize and localize your content by creating layover voices for your videos for specific groups of audiences.
Choose Your Voice
Usually, you'll get a selection of voices to choose from. That means you can customize your AI voice. You can hear a preview with different voices, so you can select the one you think best fits your video. There are female and male voices; you can even create a conversational voiceover by choosing different voices for different parts.
A downside to AI voices can be that they sound more robotic. Although this is true to some extent, many newer AI voices are made quite realistic and natural, based on authentic voices.
Another issue can be that sometimes AI voices struggle to pronounce words correctly, especially regarding more uncommon words. For this reason, it's always good to listen to a preview of your voiceover to proofread' it and ensure it is accurate and easy to understand.
Cost-effective
TTS is a cheap and quick solution. You won't have to invest in recording tools or hire professional voiceovers. The price of TTS is usually based on the number of characters converted—however, many software offer, for example, 1000 characters on a free plan.
Copyright-free
TTS is copyright-free.
How do you add voiceovers to Videos?
AI voices are created from AI-powered text-to-speech computer programs that some video editing software offers today. The TTS tool is usually integrated into complete video editing software. You have all the necessary tools within one software to edit your videos. The text-to-speech function enables you to create voiceovers directly from your script.
Follow these few simple steps to add voiceovers to your videos:
Press 'Create project' to upload your video. Go to the 'Audio' section and select 'Text to speech'. Choose the right place on the timeline and add the text you want the voiceover to read aloud - either by typing it directly or by copy-pasting it elsewhere. Choose the language and voice you prefer. Listen to the preview. Apply the voiceover to your video.
You might think, "But won't using AI-powered text-to-speech technology make my videos sound robotic?" The answer is no! While some text-to-speech tools may produce a more robotic-sounding voice, many AI-powered text-to-speech tools have advanced algorithms that make natural-sounding voiceovers almost indistinguishable from those recorded by human voice actors.
AI-powered text-to-speech technology can help you create a consistent brand voice across all your videos. This is especially important for businesses with an extensive video library, as it can be challenging to maintain consistency when working with multiple voice actors.
But enough about the technical stuff – let's return to the fun part! How can you use AI-powered text-to-speech technology to create engaging and entertaining videos? Here are a few ideas:
Create explainer videos – If you have a complicated product or service to explain in writing, creating an explainer video with a voiceover can help make it more accessible to your audience.
Create funny videos – Adding a humorous voiceover to your video can help make it more memorable and shareable. Just make sure the humor is appropriate for your audience and brand.
Create educational videos – If you're teaching others, adding voiceover to your educational videos can help keep your audience engaged and focused.
Create promotional videos – Whether promoting a new product or service, adding a voiceover to your promotional video can help make it more persuasive and compelling.
Conclusion
So, should you use TTS instead of recording a voiceover yourself or hire a voiceover actor? It depends on how you want your video to be, your time, budget, vision, and what suits your content. AI voiceovers are not comparable to professional voiceover actors.
You can't expect AI voices to master the same level of prosody (rhythm, intonation, etc. that can help express, e.g., irony or sarcasm) as a human voice. However, technically, TTS voiceovers are a quicker and more cost-effective solution, as you do not need recording gear or to retake your recordings several times.
Avoiceoverr can be made very quickly, and it is easy to go back and edit the text/speech. Although the sound of AI-created voiceovers has become very popular and does tend to engage viewers, it might sound slightly robotic and emotionless in sensitive ears.
The recipe for an engaging video comes in different shapes depending on individual style and preferences. That said, knowing what tools are available and how to use them is helpful - it makes video editing much more flexible!
There are endless possibilities for using AI-powered text-to-speech technology for your video marketing efforts. So, what are you waiting for? Explore the tools and platforms available and see how to incorporate this cutting-edge technology into your video creation process.