Your brand voice is more than just a collection of words; it’s an expression of your brand’s unique personality. At QC Digital, we understand the intricacies of creating and promoting a brand. Think of it as the beating heart of your brand. By consistently sending messages that align with the essence of your brand values and promises, you can establish trust. Also, foster deeper relationships and inspire greater loyalty in your audience. It not only attracts new customers but also cultivates lifetime value with your existing ones.
Remember, you need time and effort to build your brand identity. As brand expert David Aaker apparently once said:
Great brands are not built by a single advertisement or transaction but rather by thousands of small gestures that build trust and cultivate relationships.
— David Aaker
What exactly is a brand voice?
One of the things that brands often struggle with is their brand voice. This is where we come in and help guide customers with a long term strategy for promoting their brands. At its core, a brand voice is a distinct personality and style that a brand communicates via its written and verbal language. It’s how a brand expresses itself and interacts with its audience on a human level.
When a brand voice is aligned with the brand’s values, vision, and target audience, it can create a strong foundation for maintaining brand-building trust and deeper relationships with the audience. Sounding consistent with all aspects of your branding is critical.
Nevertheless, a brand voice can and should adapt to different environments and platforms. Just as a person matches their tone of voice to their environment, so can a brand.
For example, the tone of voice used in advertising copy might be more daring and attention-grabbing than in customer interactions.
And while on TikTok, a brand may adopt a more casual tone to resonate with a younger audience, on LinkedIn, it may sound more professional and formal. Likewise, blog post readers don’t mind reading a longer piece, but Instagram users are looking for short-form captions.
But now, let’s explore six steps on how you can create a great and authentic brand voice that truly resonates with your audience.
Identify the Target Audience
Study your ideal and existing customers. Targeting your target audience allows you to customize your brand voice to their expectations, preferences and language. This step is critical to engage with them at a human level.
But how? Conduct market research and get information about their demographics, behaviours, needs, goals and problems.
You can also run surveys, convene focus groups and go through existing customer data. Do you notice patterns in the conduct and characteristics of your present customers? Which other brands do they interact with, and what do those brands feel like?
Ultimately, the secret is to sound uniquely you. As Morgan Brown, Shopify’s VP of Marketing points out:
Customers are looking for different brand voices, experiences and visions from each brand they invest in.
— Morgan Brown
To sum your research up, you may find it helpful to make personas. Personas are profiles of the ideal customers that you can later rely on as stakeholders in taking decisions.
Study the Competition
Scroll through your competitor’s websites and sign up for their newsletters. Which tone of voice do they use? Do you see patterns in the way they talk? Any keywords or other frequently used phrases?
Studying your competitor’s brand voice can help you find space in the market that your business can fill. For example, Alto stands out amongst ordinary pharmacies.
You can also pull influence from brands you are not competing with. Imagine how a brand voice might sound that blends Lululemon with Apple. Maybe like this: “Your workouts just got more intuitive thanks to our innovative Luxtreme™ fabric.”
Define the Brand’s Vision & Values
One of the most important things any business can do to build trust and value is to ensure that your brand voice works well with your company’s vision and values. Customers can skillfully spot when a brand is not genuine, so staying true to your values is a must.
A vision statement can help you summarise the future your brand is striving towards. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be 100% achievable. By proposing a compelling and meaningful vision, you can attract an audience that believes in what you’re doing.
Marc Pollard from Sweathead once pointed out a great way to craft compelling vision statements: Try to imagine how your company will change the world:
“A world in which … (something is different).”
For example, “A world in which there is no poverty.” You can also rephrase the statement later, such as: “Imagine a world without poverty.”
To define brand values, I typically look for what values the company shares with its target audience. This approach will help create a brand that fosters a sense of community and shared values.
Brand tone vs brand voice
Brand voice is what is you say and your tone is how this message is sent out and conveyed. Consider what qualities you want your brand to express. Should it be formal or casual? Funny or serious?
By compiling a good mix of characteristics, you’ll make sure to keep your brand voice fresh and interesting. A good rule of thumb is to pick no more than five characteristics relevant to your brand.
Consider the following characteristics:
- Formal vs Casual
- Confident vs Modest
- Enthusiastic vs Calming
- Humorous vs Serious
- Inspiring vs Informative
- Playful vs Professional
- Courageous vs Reserved
To further define your brand’s personality, imagine the brand as a person. A person’s unique identity shows through in how the people dress, behave, and speak — the topics they talk about and their tone.
Ask yourself:
- What would my brand wear?
- Who would they hangout with?
- What would they eat?
- What social platforms would they use?
- What music do they listen to?
By answering the right questions, you can create a more detailed and clear picture of the brand personality and tone of voice.
Write a brand style guide.
Words are gold when building a greater connection with your target audience and maintaining the right kind of brand identity. And just like with your visual brand materials, consistency is the key here, too.
So, how can you make sure that your branding efforts remain consistent across all platforms and communication channels. This, even when multiple copywriters are involved? The easiest way is to make a brand style guide and stick to it religiously.
These guidelines could cover a range of aspects, such as:
- The tone of voice (whether you want to sound informed, warm, or conversational)
- Personality (e. g. a supportive friend)
- Vision and values (e. g. a zero-carbon world)
- Examples (including dos and don’ts)
- Customization (how to sound on LinkedIn, Instagram, newsletters, etc.)
- Grammar and syntax (e. g., simple sentence structures, no abbreviations)
- Typographical guidelines (such as how to write phone numbers or certain terminology)
Are you looking for some inspiration? Mailchimp shares its Mailchimp guidelines publically.
Review your brand style guide.
Don’t forget to review your brand voice guidelines often to make sure they remain consistent and relevant to the evolving brand identity and target audience.
It’s a lot to think about. However, all of this work will pay off in time. With an authentic and easy to remember brand voice, customers will listen to and trust your brand.
Let’s look at some examples.
Brand voice examples
To wrap things up, let’s look at how others use their brand voice across various channels.
Oatly
Oatly is a plant-based food and beverage business known for its bold, unapologetic, and unique brand voice. See for yourself.
Dropbox
The Dropbox brand voice shows the company’s focus on simplicity and easy to use by being straightforward, easy going, and confident.
Allbirds
The brand voice of the sustainable shoe brand Allbirds is environmentally conscious, fun, and approachable. Allbirds always goes a great job in bringing in elements of surprise.
As these examples show, making and maintaining your brand identity is a big step towards building trust and recognition with your target audience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, brand voice is an essential component of a strong brand identity. By consistently delivering messages that work well with your brand’s values and promises, you can build trust, deeper relationships, and greater loyalty among your audience.
You can create a one of a kind and authentic brand voice by first understanding your customers and studying the competition. Then define the brand vision and values and set the tone of voice for your brand. Finally, write up some brand voice guidelines.
Keep in mind that building a great brand takes time and effort. Brands are not built through a single advertisement but through thousands of minor gestures that cultivate trust and relationships over time.
