0097: 4 Ways You Can Make Voicing URLs More Effective

Raw transcript:

it used to be that local commercial
copywriters would repeat the phone
number a million times toward the end of
a spot uh used to be they weren’t even
area codes involved right uh it’d be a
seven digit phone number back in the day
uh repeated over and over and over again
that’s not the case Everything’s changed
more people more phones more everything
and it’s also gone digital and so we’re
doing an awful lot of URL narration and
I’ve got four things that I want to
share with you on how to take a URL and
copy and make it sing make it effective
and we’ll do that in this episode of the
vo Heroes podcast
[Music]
sharing a URL with a potential customer
is almost standard order procedure these
days as standard as an address used to
be or a phone number used to be or using
the phrase go to the Yellow Pages for
our contact information all right don’t
you but in the world of
um of of digital access in the world of
getting things going in terms of
bringing people to you over the web as
opposed to over the phone
I’ve got some tips for you on how to
make that even better first of all don’t
call it a URL
and if you need to work with your client
who’s writing the copy on this call it a
link
encourage them to call it a link find us
at this link or find us on the web at
don’t say URL I hear people say that all
the time and I think part of it is
because some copywriters are very
digitally Savvy and they want to show
that they’re digitally Savvy it’s a URL
just you know that that’s kind of tech
language not necessarily customer
language they just want to know where to
find you in their browser or find you on
the web
that also leads us to a very big mistake
that people make all the time they’ll
say such and such and such and such
backslash session okay backslash is
wrong it’s wrong and if people listen to
you say type A backslash and they
actually do type A backslash as opposed
to a slash
the link won’t work
a backslash is an illegal character in a
link in a URL
and backslash sounds cool and hip and
you know it’s an rlq which we’re going
to talk about in just a second but it’s
just wrong so forward slash or slash but
not backslash don’t say backslash a
backslash is only used in uh path names
in uh certain operating systems but not
in URLs all right so uh call it a link
no backslash
you don’t need https colon slash slash
www dot you don’t need it it takes up
multiple seconds in the time that you’re
you’re talking uh if time is of the
essence if it’s a Time spot you don’t
want to waste that time uh you just need
uh domain top level domain so
veoheros.com you can find me at
vealheroes.com not https colon slash Now
www is 99 of the time not necessary and
if it is necessary that’s on the company
that misconfigured their website
but what www does is first of all it
gives you the opportunity to show off
how good you say the letter W right www
dot
um but it’s also an oral cue
it’s not necessary but it might be
useful to let people know that a link is
coming so it’s a it depends kind of
answer and then finally that whole.com
thing is it really.com
or is it dot Co or dot net or dot org
check to make sure when you get work or
when you do an audition make sure that
you are clear on what that top level
domain is because there are hundreds of
them now there are absolutely hundreds
of them rehearsal my app doesn’t have
a.com I mean it does but it forwards to
what its actual domain is which is dot
Pro so my domain for rehearsal is
rehearsal.pro because the app the the
product is called rehearsal pro so it
could be that we assume that it’s.com or
we think if they put something else in
there it should be.com
make sure that you are clear and concise
and correct about the top level domain
that your url that your link ends in be
sure that it’s.com and maybe it’s not
something else all right so four things
you can use to make your life better
especially as we uh are are approaching
this not only in commercial work but
also in explainer video work in uh sales
video work in help file work there’s a
million different ways that that links
can pop up and knowing and understanding
some things that makes it easier for The
Listener to hear what you’re saying and
then act on your call of action is what
I wanted to accomplish and hopefully I
did now if you want to hit the like
button because you just loved what I
said or if you want to subscribe to the
channel or if you want to click on the
Bell to get notified when we have new
episodes on this I would so appreciate
all of that I would like tell all my
friends about what a great person you
are I would
uh I’m David H Lawrence the 17th and I
appreciate you both watching and
listening and I will see you in the next
episode of the vo Heroes podcast
[Music]

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