Before you record a professional voicemail greeting, you may want to consider the type of people who might call your home or business. That way, you can think about the information these callers might need before you compose your greeting. Most callers are familiar with how to leave a voice message, so try to avoid giving them instructions. Some things you may want to include in your greeting might be your full name, title, name of your company, and an alternate method of reaching you. If you plan to be unavailable for some time, it can be a good idea to tell your callers when you will return and give them the name and phone number of another individual to call in the event they need immediate assistance. A private voicemail box enables a person to receive telephone messages when the phone cannot be answered.
There are many little things I instinctively look for and notice and one of them is a person’s voicemail greeting. I often conduct initial phone interviews and when someone’s personal voicemail greeting turns me off, the interview process is over. It’s their first and last impression.

The above eight rules of engagement for voicemail greetings may sound easy enough, but they’ll require some practice to get just right. Let’s look at some examples to provide some context in how to apply the rules to various types of greetings and situations.
Verbal Content – generally, you should use 100 words to make up 1 minute of content produced with background music. In other words, one to two paragraphs per minute. The topic can range from product promotions to general company information.