What Brand Voice Is & Why Every Brand Needs A Strong One
Brand voice is what communicates a brand’s unique personality. It plays a huge role in how people perceive brands, especially in the online world. The words, brand tone of voice, tempo, punctuation, and even emojis used (or not used) are all digital body language cues that influence potential customers’ decisions.
In our last Coffee Talk, Sue and Curniss talked about how a strong brand voice can help organizations connect and engage with ideal customers, and why having a guide for it is so important when you have more than one person writing copy (aka content) for your brand.
Their conservation was jam-packed with tips, insights and examples so you should probably watch the full replay – but if you only have a few minutes, here are the key takeaways.
4 key brand voice strategies
1. Consistency is key
When it comes to brand voice, it’s important to stay consistent. Whether it’s in person, on the phone or online through social media platforms, your brand voice should always be aligned with your mission statement, vision and values. Staying consistent will help distinguish your brand, improve recognition, and build a strong emotional connection with your audience.
2. Be genuine
People want to engage and buy from brands they know and trust so your brand voice needs to be genuine. If your brand voice is fun-loving but your office environment isn’t, that’ll come through and the disconnect can lead people to wonder: Can I trust this organization? Do I want to do business with them? Having an authentic brand voice helps build trust and meaningful long-term relationships with your target audience.
3. Create moments of connection with your audience
Make the most of moments when you have your potential customers’ attention to create a personal connection. This is especially important these days when most of us communicate online. Without as many face-to-face interactions, you need to let your brand’s unique personality and charm come through your brand voice by creating content that resonates with your audience.
4. Develop brand voice guidelines
To have a strong brand voice, everyone within your organization needs to be on the same page. You want to make sure everyone is speaking the same language when they’re communicating with customers or potential customers. This is simple enough for small businesses and companies of one (lucky you!) but the minute you start to work with larger teams, multiple departments, frequent new hires and/or interns, it becomes hard to manage which is why developing a brand voice guide is critical for every organization.
Watch The Full Coffee Talk Replay
Create Your Own Brand Voice Guide
Wondering how to create a brand voice guide? Here are the key elements you’ll need to define.
Brand Messaging
To start, you need to define what you stand for. What are your organization’s mission, vision, values, taglines and key messages? Clear brand messaging is a must if you want a strong brand voice.
Brand Personality
Next, we have brand personality. Simply put, this is how you’d describe your brand if it were a person. Ask yourself: What are 3 personality traits you want your brand to be known for? You’ll want to reinforce this set of human characteristics with your brand voice. One way to do this is to identify adjectives and create a brand thesaurus you can refer to whenever you’re writing copy.
Brand Tone
Brand tone is the emotional inflection that comes through your communication and can be adjusted based on situation and message. For example, you may use a different brand tone when you’re celebrating a win on social media versus sending an onboarding email to a new customer. Since brand tone is variable, it’s helpful to outline do’s and don’ts for common situations.
Brand Tempo
Tempo is the pace at which you communicate. It can range from lightning fast to leisurely but shouldn’t leave your audience yawning. When defining your brand tempo, ask yourself if you want to communicate with quick short sentences, through storytelling, or something else entirely.
Brand Emojis
Brand emojis are a great way to humanize your brand and create personal connection. They also work extremely well to captivate attention and convey a message. Choose 10-20 emojis that complement your brand.
Brand #Hashtags
Hashtags are a helpful tool to reach your intended audience. Create 5-10 hashtags that will get you seen in your industry. Tip: check out what hashtags successful competitors are using.👀
Want a Hand With Your Branding?
If you don’t have the time or expertise to create a brand voice guide but know it’s important for your company’s success, we’ve got you covered. 😉 Book a meeting with one of our strategists to discuss your goals and develop a plan that’ll get you results.
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