Creative Voice Mail Greetings & Examples

I HATE getting sent to voicemail… especially when I’m on a tight deadline and need to deliver fast. In those situations where I’m frantically calling other businesses or contacting associates to find some freelance help, I generally hang up the second I hear a machine and continue down my contact list until I find someone with a pulse, UNTILL… I reached a voicemail greeting that was so unique, creative, and professional, that I couldn’t help but leave a message.

The voicemail greeting that I received was for a print shop that had a professional voicemail greeting created that sounded alot like a radio advertisement. The greeting kept my attention while giving me alternate contact options and a very good depiction of their company. After leaving my message I immediately opened their website (the web address was given in the greeting) and left another message in their contact form. Then, (and here’s the clincher…) I put my phone down and waited for their reply. They sold me!… and I haven’t even spoken with them yet! I simply knew that they were the people I wanted to work with, and despite my deadline, I felt comfortable giving them a couple hours to get back to me.

This experience was a mold breaker.. Listening to their voicemail greeting made me wonder why I have never considered bringing something new, creative, and most importantly, entertaining to the voicemail game before. Well… I made an attempt, and here are some tips and inspiration for you guys to use and hopefully integrate into your own voicemail greetings.

First things first… ANSWER YOUR PHONE!
I know this post is about creating a custom unique greeting, but DO NOT forget why we are doing it.. to retain a potential customer you may have just lost because you didn’t answer your phone. In my mind, a voicemail greeting is simply a contingency plan for the rare occasion you cannot answer. I don’t care if you have the best voicemail greeting in the world, NOTHING beats speaking with the person you called.

STOP BEING BORING!
You have reached bla bla bla… I’m not able to answer my bla bla bla, leave me your name and number after the bla bla bla. Really people? If your gonna do that, you might as well have the word GENERIC tattooed on your freaking forehead. If your gonna be that boring, please just say your name and call it good… people will appreciate you not wasting their time, and trust me, they will know what to do when they hear the beep. Try to find a different way to say what you need, but be sure not to overdue it, because that may just be annoying.

GIVE AN INCENTIVE!
I just reached your voicemail, you didn’t have the consideration to answer your phone, so why should I have the consideration to leave you a message!? Almost everyone feels that way when they get a recording, so let people know that when you do receive their message, you will take charge and handle anything they throw at you. Show your sincerity and demonstrate confidence. “I’m very sorry I missed your call, but leave me a short message, and I WILL make it worth your while.”

PROVIDE ALTERNATE CONTACT OPTIONS!
Somebody actually left a message.. You must be doing something right so far, BUT do you think that potential client stopped there? I doubt it… Odds are likely that they picked up the phone book again, and made another call… There has to be another way to reach you, so let your prospecting customer know how. Provide a web address, an email address, an emergency number, or even a better time to try calling back, because even if they are leaving a message, they still need to be reassured they can contact you somehow… perhaps in an emergency situation, or just to demonstrate your ability to be reached.

HAVE A THEME!
Some people try to hard to do EVERY thing they can while creating their messages, but it can be very hard to be funny, professional, and witty all in a 30 second or less message. I recommend having only 1 “theme” per message or it may become confusing to the listener.

HIRE PROFESSIONAL VOICE TALENT!
If you have the voice of Thurston Howell the Third, you may skip this paragraph. But if you don’t, you may consider getting a professional to put everything together for you. I have hired alot of “voice talent” in the past for things like video, radio ads, website audio, etc… the idea of finding a professional is usually what scares people into not looking, but I’m here to tell you its not hard to find one… you don’t need to contact hollywood agents or know people in the radio industry, all you have to do is look for them online, provide them a script, and you will usually have your audio within a couple days… I’m gonna give a shout out to my man Eric Saint John – This guy is one of the leading “internet based” voice talents… he has a huge range, and uses a state of the art sound booth and equipment.. the guy has simply never let me down.. Below I have provided 2 samples of Eric’s work that he did for my company Arbach Media… I highly recommend contacting Eric if you need a voice guy.. his web address is: www.EricSaintJohn.com, and if you choose to hire him, tell him Michael sent you.. lol

Arbach Media #1	Arbach Media #2

As you can see/hear, I had 2 voicemail greetings created for my company Arbach Media. I had two created so that I could auto rotate them and give my clients some flavor if they ever ended up hearing my greeting more than once. When I received the audio from Eric, they were cut in “dry voice”, which means that there was no music or effects behind it. I’m sure that the voice over talent you hire will provide that for you with an additional fee, but me being the perfectionist I hate to be, decided to mix music in myself… and that takes me to the next bullet point:

ADD MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS!
If you have some music or effects available, get yourself a copy of Adobe Soundbooth or something similar.. adding actual music or sound effects will take your greeting to the next level… Do not forget to be creative with your audio.. In my example #2, instead of using the VERY generic words “Leave a message after beep” I decided to have it say, “leave your message after the barbershop quartet” Why? Because it’s different.. and that’s what we are going for, to stand out and show some initiative.. If for no other reason, just add the music/sound effects because it sounds cool. nuff said.

DO NOT USE A PHONE TO RECORD YOUR GREETING!
I personally use a paid voicemail service provider for all my calls because it allows me to have features I need for business like voice to text transcriptions and a V.R.U. (Voice Response Unit).. BUT there are FREE services available to average users/small business owners that will allow you to UPLOAD your greeting instead of recording with a phone mic. Why upload your audio?? CLARITY people!!! You want to sound clear as day, especially if your paying to have your greeting produced for you.. One of the free voicemail services that I would recomed is called YouMail – www.YouMail.com – It works GREAT with mobile phones… apps are available and I’ve never heard of someone complaining about a FREE service.. I just noticed how many CAPITALIZED words I have in this paragraph.. I hope I don’t sound MAD to you guys! haha

Well friends, I have alot more tips/advice I can give on this topic, but it’s getting alittle long, and if you havent got my point yet, your probably not going to. How about we end this thing with some inspiration?

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