There is no hard formula for gleaning keywords from voiceover copy.\u00a0 There are too many writers in the world with too many creative ideas (hallelujah!) about how to present the information and so the presentation style will always be varied.\u00a0 This leaves us scratching our heads each time we get to a script to try and understand what is being said, what is most important, and most importantly HOW it is being said.\u00a0 That\u2019s right \u2013 time and time again when I ask a student to tell me how a writer is presenting the information they go straight to telling me WHAT the information is \u2013 but I can see the WHAT \u2013 the what might be, for example, that there\u2019s a quality coffee beverage on hand here in the case of this sentence:<\/p>\n
SOMETIMES YOU JUST WANT A GREAT LATTE.<\/p>\n
But the HOW is something else entirely.\u00a0 The HOW falls into the category of these possibilities: sarcastic, warm, friendly, upbeat, mischievous, confident, and so on.\u00a0 Here\u2019s where the lack of formula gets challenging.\u00a0 There was nothing about this sentence that was formulaic.\u00a0 But \u2013 there are clues.\u00a0 The sentence implies that the speaker already knows something about the listener by surmising that they might crave a latte.\u00a0 This speaks to a sense of familiarity, that the only way the speaker could know this is if he or she knew the listener or has had this same craving themselves before.\u00a0 Either one implies that sense of connection between speaker and listener.\u00a0 It says, in other words, \u201cI know something about you\u201d or \u201cwe have something in common.\u201d\u00a0 This way of being has a SOUND that is unique, in the same way that sarcasm or sincerity has its own unique sound.\u00a0 This is the HOW and it could very well be the thing that books you the job.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not addressing keywords.\u00a0 The keywords in that sentence are simple \u2013 GREAT LATTE.\u00a0 Some might say YOU, but whoever is listening knows that they are the \u201cyou\u201d and what they really want to know is what\u2019s in it for them?\u00a0 Or what about them??\u00a0 Some might say the WANT is important, but \u2013 want WHAT?\u00a0 What here is of BENEFIT to the listener?\u00a0 Yup, a GREAT LATTE.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean the other words aren\u2019t important, but if you have to choose carefully\u2026..this latte speaks to the heart of the matter.\u00a0 One tiny bit of \u201cformula\u201d for spotting keywords, at least in commercial copy, would therefore be to find the BENEFIT, or what\u2019s on offer to begin with (product).\u00a0 But one important thing to note is that yes the product is obviously important, but if you are the listener you don\u2019t want a product name simply shouted at you \u2013 again, you want to know how it is going to enhance your life (what is the benefit to you?).\u00a0 Hence the reason that GREAT is just as important here as LATTE.\u00a0 The next bit of possible formula could be found by examining the beginning of the following sentence in that same script:<\/p>\n
COME TO MCDONALDS FOR FREE LATTE FRIDAYS\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n
When looking for keywords you also want to make sure to look for the new information, to not repeat yourself so to speak.\u00a0 The writer has so little time to convince the listener of something that communication needs to be tight and precise.\u00a0 Meaning \u2013 you have already implied that a great latte is on offer, and here the new information, the new benefit, is that these lattes are FREE if you come in on FRIDAYS.\u00a0 Perhaps one would argue that MCDONALDS get enhanced as well, since that is where you would find this deal.\u00a0 If you come HERE, you get THIS.\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 It works.\u00a0 Just remember, less is more when it comes to keywords, lest you wind up enhancing every other word in each sentence and nothing really pops out as important at that point.\u00a0 It all just feels shouted at that stage.\u00a0 When in doubt, try it out.\u00a0 Read it aloud with the words you deem important and hear how it sounds.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t \u201cfeel\u201d right, it probably needs adjusting.\u00a0 If you want to keep going on this path of analysis, check out the breakdown of another voiceover scipt here to increase your success in understanding<\/a>.\u00a0 You can also get in the mindset of understanding copy through an actual voice actor here in this site about Interpreting a Voiceover Script.<\/a>\u00a0 The work never ends, does it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is no hard formula for gleaning keywords from voiceover copy.\u00a0 There are too many writers in the world with too many creative ideas (hallelujah!) about how to present the information and so the presentation style will always be varied.\u00a0 This leaves us scratching our heads each time we get to a script to try […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-voice-over-gurus-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t