How to record a voicemail greeting or IVR message with text-to-speech

A voicemail greeting or an IVR phone-menu prompt ("Press 1 for sales, press 2 for support...") is short, but it's also one of the least forgiving formats — it plays on a loop to every caller, so a mispronounced word or an awkward pause is heard hundreds of times. Text-to-speech is a natural fit precisely because you can iterate on it for free until it's right, rather than re-recording in a booth.

Write it like a caller hears it, not like a script

Read it out loud yourself first — phone greetings use shorter sentences and more direct phrasing than a video script ("You've reached [Business Name]. We're currently unable to take your call.") A voice that sounds natural when narrating a paragraph can sound stiff in a two-line greeting if the pacing isn't right, so this format rewards extra attention to pauses over wording.

Pace the menu options with exact pauses

For an IVR menu, each option needs a clean beat before and after it so a caller isn't rushed into missing a digit. Insert pause between each option — "For sales, press 1. *(pause)* For support, press 2." — rather than relying on punctuation, which different voices interpret inconsistently.

Get the pronunciation right once

Business names, product names, and abbreviations are the most common thing a TTS voice mispronounces, and a voicemail greeting says your business name in the very first line. Fix it once in Pronunciation and it's corrected everywhere you use that name going forward, not just this one recording.

Draft for free, download once it's right

Because Draft is free and unlimited, there's no reason to commit to a paid render until the pacing sounds exactly right — play it back as many times as you need, adjust the pauses, and only download the finished file (compatible with any phone system or PBX that accepts an MP3 upload) once you're satisfied.