Do you know who you are as a person? Can you describe yourself with a few words? You probably can, right? Now the question is, can you say the same about your brand/business? Knowing your brand’s voice and personality is an important part of the foundation of your business.
A brand voice is essentially your brand’s personality. A well-developed brand voice makes your business more human, which makes it easier to connect with customers. A brand voice can be anything, which can be great and intimidating at the same time.
Think of it like this: You tend to have different “voices” depending on your situation, right? You probably have a customer service or professional voice, the casual voice you use with friends, and a more family-friendly voice around your family.
A brand voice is similar to that.
Another way of thinking is that you’re personifying your brand. Making your brand more of a person instead of a business.
Your brand voice is different from tone, which can change depending on what you’re talking about. Think of voice as personality and tone as an emotion being communicated.
Honestly, your brand’s voice is an important foundational tool to start your business. It helps you connect with customers, influence how you market, and how you describe your designs and products.
Also, as a customer, don’t you feel more connected to companies that seem more human than a corporation?
Having a proper voice will also help you stand out from all your competition. If you have a solid handle on your voice, people can see a tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram post, and instantly recognize it as you.
If you decide your brand voice is confident, there are a few ways to show it. An easy way to convey this is by keeping things as simple as possible. Because you’re so confident in your brand, you don’t need a lot of flourishes to sell it.
You trust your product to sell itself.
If you want to have a friendly voice, then you have to be careful with your word choices. You always want to come across as warm and show that you have your customers back. Always assure them that you’re available anytime you need them.
Maybe you want to go down an unexpected route and be snarky with your customers. Some brands have been able to get away with this, it’s all about finding the right balance. You want to be entertaining, but not so mean to your customers that you drive them away.
Always make sure to include them in the joke, and not have them be the joke.
Finding the right voice takes time and should not be rushed. It requires careful thinking, planning, and knowing what you want your brand to be now and in the future.
Finding your brand voice is connected to your brand’s identity and personality. Honestly, some people find both while trying to figure out one.
Make a list of descriptive words you think your brand is and how you want your voice to sound. Are you edgy, silly, serious, artsy? Do you want to be friendly, authoritative, casual, or sarcastic when you speak to your customers?
Ask yourself, if your brand was human, how would you describe them? Is there any stereotype that they fit in? While it’s not good to stereotype, it’s a good place to start and then you can alter your description to fit your needs.
Here is a list of some descriptors, but your brand doesn’t have to fit in these, feel free to make your own.
Who are you talking to? Do you know their age? Their gender? Where do they live? What social media platforms do they prefer? All these aspects are important to know because selling to random strangers is difficult.
We talk about pet parents a lot and that’s because the pet niche is huge. So, to use them as an example, are you talking to serious pet parents that think of their pets as their child or parents who see their pets as friends?
This one distinction can vastly change how you talk to them. For serious pet parents, you can play into their obsession with their pets. If you were to write about our pet beds you can say something like:
“Every furry prince or princess needs a perfect throne to sit/sleep on. Get them the very best with this customized fleece bed. Make sure to take plenty of pictures of your royal furbaby curling up on this bed!”
Now, if your audience was more casual about pet ownership, they would be annoyed at best, disgusted at worst, at this description.
If you already have an audience, don’t be afraid to ask them for their opinions! Create a survey asking questions like: How would you describe us? If we were a person, what would our personality be? What is a tone that you’d like us to use more?
What does your competition sound like? Is there a brand that you’re a fan of? It’s good to do research to not only generate ideas but make sure you don’t sound too similar.
How do you want to interact with your customers? Do you want to be teasing or be a source of information?
Don’t be afraid to ask others for their opinion. Whether their fellow employees, friends, or family. They may have other ideas or words that you hadn’t thought of. They also have an outside perspective and can tell you if something isn’t working.
What about if your business has been live for a long time already? Can you still develop a brand voice?
Absolutely!
You can use materials that you already have and look for similar threads throughout the materials. Look at the best-performing material to see what your customers like best.
Materials can include:
Again, create a survey to see what your customers want or how they see you.
Now that you have all the info you need to create your brand voice, it’s time to organize and document everything for yourself and anyone else that joins your time.
Create a brand voice chart, make a simple spreadsheet that has columns like voice characteristics, details, what you are, and what you aren’t.
Doing this will not only keep organized but allow you to show it to others that may make content for you.
It’s time to put everything together in a single document. This way you’ll be able to give it to anyone who joins your business or you hire as a freelancer. Make sure to have your brand voice chart, a list of how you want to sound, and give examples of social media posts and email conversations.
Your brand voice doesn’t have to stay the same. Just like people, your voice can evolve over time. Make sure you implement any changes slowly so you don’t sound like a different person.
Portent’s Tone of Voice Generator: This free tool helps you figure out your voice through quiz-style questions.
SurveyMonkey: This software makes it easy to create and send surveys to your customers. They also make it easy for your customers to take the surveys.
Crowdsignal: This is another survey software, one made by the people who made WordPress, and makes the whole survey process easy for both sides.
You have defined your brand voice and now feel more confident about your business. Now you can have fun interacting with your customers and creating marketing materials. See if you notice a difference in sales or in interactions with customers.
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