1. Optimizing your videos for search engines

By “optimizing”, here I mean search engine optimization.

It is widely known that search engines are not quite good at handling rich media content, such as images, flashes, and videos. This makes video marketers in a dilemma: you want to promote your videos to the largest number of audiences as possible, and on the other hand, search engines, who can bring you a lot of audiences, can not read your content.

That’s why you need to do SEO for your video. Below is how:

a. Write neat video page titles and descriptions:

Page titles and descriptions have influential power that affects search engines determine the topics of your page, and their recognition of the topic of your page determines your rankings for a series of related keywords.

b. Write “rich content” for your video:

There are many things you can add to your video page, to make it more useful. By “more useful”, I mean it can satisfy more diversified user needs, and satisfy them better.

For example, you can add more information about your video, so before really watching it, people can have some ideas what your video is about, including the author of the video, what it is about, how long it is, what’s the story behind it, who the video is for, the resolution, etc.

On Youtube, you can also add video clip information, such as from which time point, what the video is about, so the less patient people can forward or backward to the part that they like.

c. Add video transcription:

Video transcription is awesome, seriously. To the “dumb watchers” who also have a more widely used name “search engine”, transcription is what make them able to “read” your video.

2. Socialize your video:

Making your video easier to be shared is really important. For those who really love your video, making them one click nearer from sharing your video may mean a 50% increase of sharing rate.

Today adding social buttons is even easier, because there are a bunch of tools that you can use by copy&paste, such as AddThis, ShareThis and AddtoAny.

3. Interact with your audience:

Interaction with your audience is a good way to keep people active. Read people’s comments, and answer those you think interesting or valuable.

Reading the comments is also a good way to learn how people like your work. Do they enjoy it? Do their reactions are what you expect? Based on their comments, you can see if your video convey the right message as you wish.

To “sell” yourself well, you need to keep your voice and your own personal brand shine. Below are a few tips that are useful and can improve your voice over business:

1. Where are your customers?

Put yourself in the shoes of your clients. Think about it: when your client needs voice over services, where would she/he go?

That’s where you need to make your appearance.

2. Establish your own brand.

As a business owner, you need to establish your own brand. A good reputation can definitely equal more clients. Your brand can be your own name, or a new name specifically designed for your voice over business.

I recommend you to create your own brand name, especially when your own name is a kind of common one.

3. Visibility is money.

Being seen means that when your clients need your services, you are there to help. There are several ways to enhance your visibility, including:

1. local advertisements
2. business emails
3. phone calls
4. a professional website
5. voice over directories
6. voice over job platforms
7. social networks such as LinkedIn

So how to create a successful voice over website is essential. Below are some tips that we’d like to share with you today:

1. Have voice over demos:

Voice over demos are important for your clients to have ideas on your expertise. You don’t have to add a lot, because every client comes with different needs. A good strategy is that you add only 4 – 5 demos to show that you are professional, and let clients send you inquiries that include that specific demand so you can return them with demos that better suit their projects.

2. Be found:

Only having a website is far from being successful. You must also let your potential customers find you. Nowadays the places where people look for useful information are search engines, directories, bookmarks and social media sites. That’s where you need to post your website.

3. Make your clients happy on your site:

Creating a website is easy but creating a website that can make your clients happy is hard. Do you visitors find what they want on your website? Do you easily get lost? Is the payment process safe and secure? User experience design is something you need to pay attention to too.

4. Respect data:

Data is what makes you have the super power of reading visitors’ mind. You need to add web analytics tools to your website, such as Google Analaytics. Most of the tools are free and easy to use. But the value they can bring you is priceless.

1.自制剧的广告植入模式。

这个在几年前，土豆和优酷就开始不断的尝试了，比如土豆的自制剧，有某品牌冠名，然后在自制剧中植入各广告商的广告。从调研结果来看，这样的植入式广告，只要不过于恶心和直白宣传，其实广告效果还是不错的，用户体验也很好，广告的到达率也较高。比如早期的杜拉拉升职记里的汽车广告，欢迎爱光临里的啤酒广告；

2.插播广告模式。

这个奇艺在尝试。一般视频广告都是在视频片头的广告，或者在视频播放时的背景广告。奇艺的广告是在视频播放中，大概有5秒时间的播放，在观众还没有反感的时候就结束了。这种广告形式对用户体验有一定的影响，但是也不失为一种新的尝试。

3.角标广告。

优酷和之前的56都在做角标广告，就是在视频播放的时候，在字幕的地方播放一些小广告。虽然用户可以点击关掉，但是还是比较影响用户体验，而且广告效果也不好。

4.广告商赞助广告。

视频类型除了电影电视剧，还有大量的综艺节目和选秀节目。通过冠名赞助一些节目，在节目中出现品牌名称，这也是一种广告形式。比如PPTV的护舒宝快女等。

其实对于视频网站来讲，广告模式作为主要的商业模式时代已经过去，视频网站都在尝试新的突破，比如现在的版权分校和会员收费等等。未来，可能尝试将视频和电子商务结合，在视频播放中或者在视频播放背景里潜入电子商务购买的展示和按钮；也可能尝试将视频和社交结合，在看视频的时候进行分享和交流；还可能将视频和游戏结合，开发视频游戏等。

First a little information about the two languages:

Mandarin is the standard and official language of People’s Republic of China as well as one of the four official languages of Singapore. It now has been successfully promoted across the country, which means wherever you are in China and whatever dialects the people are using, including Cantonese, if you speak Mandarin, people understand you.

On the other hand, Cantonese, in nature, is a dialect, which is widely used by the Chinese people living in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and some countries in Southeast Asia.

So you may be thinking that Mandarin seems a one-for-all solution, and since Cantonese is only a dialect, you should probably give it up. But that is not the case. Although Cantonese is recognized as a dialect, it is such a popular dialect, which is used by around 120 million people globally. What’s more, if your product is targeting specifically one or more areas where people speak Cantonese, using dialect in your voice over can definitely shorten the distance between your business and the hearts of your audience.

A Little Data:

In 2009, 72% of China’s (including Hong Kong and Macau) TV and Radio commercials are in Mandarin, and 26% in Cantonese; In 2010, the percentage of Mandarin rose by 1% and that of Cantonese dropped by 1% accordingly; In the first half of 2011, the percentages of the two languages went back to the level of two years ago – 72% : 26% .

So we can see the shares they take respectively are relatively steady.

So let’s get back to the question: should you use Mandarin or Cantonese?

Free Takeaways:

Well, if your product is targeting all the Chinese people, do Mandarin; if your product is focused on Guangdong or Hong Kong and the Mainland is not considered, then go with Cantonese.

Yes, you are right. The answer is your brand.

We are in a recession right now, so letting people remember your brand has never been more important. And giving your brand a voice is one of the best options.

Talking is Always More Efficient than Writing

Scientific researches show that most people keep a longer memory for short sentences they hear than read. This means a voice over can make it easier for your customers to remember you than an ad copy.

But You Need the Right Voice

Voice over can enhance the performance of your marketing campaign, yes, but that doesn’t mean whatever voices work for you – finding the right voice that can perfectly represent your brand is just as important. “Tone of voice” is a term for copywriting but something that really happens in voice over.

Anything Else? Yeah – a Script.

After finding the right voice, you need to start working on the script. This is also crucial so you should resort to a professional writing company to do this for you.

Believe or not, voices have personalities. Someone that can do perfect recording for a historical documentary can hardly do energetic radio commercials. So finding the right voice is crucial.

Below are tips for those that are seeking voice over artists:

1. Ask for demos

Demos are important and all professional voice over talents should have demos. If you meet something that claims he/she is professional but has no demos, then it means they have wrongly categorized themselves.

You should ask for demos before making any decision. Preferably it should be demos with only pure voice and no background music.

2. Don’t forget to ask for the original file in .wav format

Usually when a voice over project is over, the VO professional will return a mp3 file to you. But actually the original format of any professional recording is in .wav format with the least quality lost. This is important if you are going to later process the audio files for other purposes, for example, mixing it with a video file. Wav formate audio files have the best quality.

3. Don’t expect a cheap quote

Well we are in a recession and everybody wants to save money, but voice over is not merely “talking to a microphone”. A voice over artist needs to pay for the recording studio, regular training bills, their voice over agents and professional equipment.

4. Be realistic about the time frame

Voice over is not just a reading job – it is actually more time consuming than you expect. Doing the voice over costs very much time, let alone the time used to process, split and combine the audio files.

5. Don’t forget to leave a feedback

If the voice over artist you hire meet or exceed your expectations, don’t hesitate to leave him/her a feedback. Most voice over artists work as freelancers today, and client feedback is crucial to their business.

Many people are earning a life with their voices: singers, speakers, announcers, and voice over artists.

Voice over is an interesting career – people may take it as a job of speaking, but actually it is much more than that.

Voice over is, in nature, acting, like those Hollywood starts. The only difference is that they act with their faces and bodies, and you do it with your voice.

Below are a few tips for those who want to start a career in the voice over industry:

1. Participate in professional training class

Like a diamond needs cutting, a natural born good voice also needs extra practice and training for voice over purpose. You have to resort to someone with much more experience in voice over, and finding yourself a coach seems the best choice. In major cities in China, it should not be hard for you to find a Chinese voice over coach – you don’t even have to get out of home, just searching for “Beijing Voice Over Class” and stuff over the Internet can give what you need.

2. Reading is loving yourself

Having a coach is not enough – you also need to know the strength of your own voice, so you need to have more knowledge in this specific industry and books are the best source. There are many books in the bookstore, which are authored by experienced voice over artists.

3. Knowing your strength

However amazing your voice is, you are definitely not Mr One-For-All. Every voice over talent has a niche – are you talented in animation voice over? is your voice the serious or exciting type? Are you full of energy to speak for a few successive hours?

4. Prepare demos

Clients won’t buy it under they hear it – this is the golden rule in the voice over industry. Prepare your demos before you start your career, and update your demo base on a regular basis.

5. Rent a studio

A studio with professional equipment is a must to voice over artists – nobody wants your work done from your bathroom. If renting is a huge cost to you, you can consider co-renting one with other professionals – everybody wants to reduce cost, don’t they?

6. Get online

Internet has become a prior information source and now is influencing the decision-makers in enterprises. If you want more people to know about your skills, you need your own website with details about you and your services.

7. Actors and actress need agents

Do you know how those actors work in Hollywood? Yes, they have their agents and their agents find work for them. The good news is that voice over professionals go the same way – find your own agent and let him/her be the bridge between you and your clients.

Scripts are a very important part of voice over, because however wonderful the voices are, reading a not so good script can still ruin all your efforts.

Unfortunately, things like this usually happen.

What should you do?

Referring to another trusted brand for proofreading and polishing can solve your problem. For example, MateinChina offers Chinese script translation and proofreading services. If you have already a localized version of the script, we’d be happy to review and modify it for you.

If you are a voice over company or video marketing firm, you should at prepare 2 -3 demos on your website for the clients to choose from. You need to category the demos into male and female, business or advertising, English, Chinese or Cantonese, etc.

MateinChina has prepared several samples, but that is not all – you can always contact us to let us know what types of voices you need, and we will get back to you with more specific voice over samples.