10 tips to record a better voicemail message for your business

This post is all about recording a better, more appealing voicemail for your business. You can imagine now, Dave phones up but you're not able to answer. It goes to your voicemail... it sounds rushed, it sounds like you couldn't be bothered, it sounds like you don't care.

You could make it sound so much better by following the points below. BUT... NEW FOR 2024!!!!! (and 2025 and 2026 and 2027 just to buy me a few years of not having to update this post again) here's a new, mega post about voicemails. Because I'm obsessed.

It tells you everything you need to know about voicemails, from examples to personalising them and from using humour to https://www.martinwhiskin.co.uk/post/first-impressions-crafting-the-perfect-voicemail-greeting

One Plan your voicemail recording. Work out what you’re going to say and write it down. If you don’t know what to write: • Google something like “business voicemail script” • Phone some businesses after closing and listen to their messages Two Once you’ve written your script, read it out loud to make sure your written word sounds like the natural spoken word. If it doesn’t, change it so it does. Just talk it out until it sounds real. Three

This one might sound silly, but mark on your script places where you need to take a breath – this will usually be at commas and full stops. This will give the listener time to digest the information but will also help keep a natural pace. Four

Find yourself a quiet environment to do your message recording. Turn off the TV, shut all the windows and doors and tell everybody to shut up. Background noise and distractions will put you off, but more importantly, they’ll sound AWFUL to callers. Five

Try not to take a huge breath at the beginning, a normal size breath is enough. Some people will attempt a one gulp take, but that brings a lot of problems with it. Breathe naturally at the start and throughout.

Six

Slow down. A lot of people hate recording business voicemail greetings and end up speaking too fast because they want to get the task over with. Your callers need to hear every word. No garbling! Seven Smile! It will immediately make you sound more pleasant, friendlier and more engaged in what you’re saying. This works even if you’re a really moany person by nature. Eight When you’ve finished the message recording, listen back to it. Be critical and redo it if you’re not sure about any part of it. Re-write it if need be. Nine So, you think you’ve finished? Well, I recently conducted a survey asking what people thought of their business telephone messages and 50% said “they’re ok". But “ok” simply isn’t good enough. If you find yourself saying “that’ll do”, then record it again. Pay as much attention to your phone messages as you do to every other part of your business. Ten The final point is optional but it’s the easiest one by far: Ignore points 1-9 and get me to do it from scratch…

Download as a PDF if you want to keep it or print it off.

BONUS POINT Eleven! Added for 2024.

If you're recording your voicemail straight into you mobile phone, you could do a lot worse than investing in one of these Rode phone mics. There's a video that highlights the difference in quality between that and the built in phone mic.

Or visit the telephone answer message shop Ok, thanks for reading, please visit my voiceover artist homepage or visit my services page to see what I can do for you, until then, see ya!

FREE TELEPHONE MESSAGES?!

If you're a business and you close for the summer bank holiday, get your self some free professional voicemail greetings.