How To Create A Brand Voice

SEO - 20 February 2023

SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Brand voice refers to a company's distinct personality and tone of voice in written and spoken communication with its customers and stakeholders. It encompasses everything from a company's words and language to the emotions and values conveyed in its messaging. Businesses require a strong and distinct brand voice for a variety of reasons.

A unique brand voice helps businesses stand out in a crowded marketplace. It allows them to differentiate themselves from competitors and establish a unique identity that customers can easily recognize and connect with. Plus, a consistent brand voice helps to build brand awareness and loyalty by creating a strong and memorable impression on customers.

For example, anyone can recognize the logo of an apple taken in one bite.

In short, having a strong and unique brand voice is essential for businesses to build a strong brand identity, establish a competitive advantage, and connect with their target audience. By developing a brand voice that reflects their personality and values, businesses can create a powerful and authentic communication style that resonates with customers and creates a lasting impression.

Define Your Brand Personality and Values

Defining your brand personality and values is a critical first step in creating a solid and unique brand voice. Your brand personality refers to the characteristics and qualities that define the personality of your business. However, your brand values refer to the beliefs and principles that guide your actions and decisions.

By defining your brand personality and values, you can lay the groundwork for your brand voice, ensuring that your communication is authentic and consistent with your brand's identity. This foundation can guide the creation of a tone and personality that resonates with your target audience.

One effective method of defining your brand’s value is to conduct a brand audit, which involves analyzing your brand's current messaging and communication to identify areas of strength and weakness. This can help you better understand your brand's current positioning and develop a strategy for refining and enhancing your brand voice.

Identify Your Target Audience

Identifying your target audience and understanding their needs, preferences, and pain points is essential to developing a strong and effective brand voice. Your target audience is the group of people you want to reach with your messaging and communication, and understanding them is critical to creating a voice that resonates with them.

By conducting research and gathering insights into your audience's demographics, behavior, and preferences, you can develop a more nuanced understanding of their needs and desires. This information can help you craft a brand voice that speaks directly to your audience, addresses their concerns, and offers solutions to their problems. Ultimately, understanding your target audience is key to creating a brand voice that is authentic, relatable, and effective in achieving your business goals.

Develop Your Brand Voice

A brand personality refers to the set of human characteristics and qualities that a brand is associated with. It includes traits such as friendly, innovative, or professional, and is intended to make the brand more relatable and memorable. The brand personality helps to inform the brand voice, but it is a broader concept that encompasses all aspects of the brand, from its visual identity to its messaging and communication.

A brand voice, on the other hand, refers to the unique combination of characteristics, language, and messaging that a brand uses to communicate with its target audience. It encompasses the personality, values, and beliefs of the brand, and is intended to create an emotional connection with the audience. A brand voice guides the way a brand communicates, both in terms of the language and tone used, as well as the content and messaging.

The tone of voice, meanwhile, refers to the specific style or approach a brand takes in its communication. It can be formal, casual, humorous, or serious, depending on the brand's personality and the audience it is trying to reach. The tone of voice is an important component of the brand voice, but it is more specific and focused on communication style rather than the brand's overall personality and messaging.

Here are some tips for developing a brand voice:

1. Create a brand voice guide. A brand voice guide is a document that outlines the key elements of your brand voice, including your personality, values, tone, and messaging. This guide should be used as a reference point for all of your marketing and communication efforts.
2. Define your brand messaging and language. To develop a strong brand voice, you need to be clear about your messaging and language. This includes identifying your key messages, choosing the right words and phrases to convey those messages, and being consistent in your communication across all channels.
3. Consider your target audience. Your brand voice should be tailored to your target audience. Think about the demographics, psychographics, and other characteristics of your audience, and consider how you can communicate in a way that resonates with them.
4. Be authentic and consistent. Your brand voice should be authentic and consistent across all channels. This means staying true to your brand personality and values, and ensuring that your communication is consistent in terms of tone, messaging, and language.
5. Test and refine your brand voice over time. Your brand voice is not set in stone. As you gather feedback and insights from your audience, you may need to refine and adjust your brand voice over time. This requires ongoing testing and experimentation, as well as a willingness to be open to feedback and make changes as needed.

Apply Your Brand Voice

Developing a brand voice is just the beginning; it’s important to apply that voice consistently. The key to applying your brand voice to different types of content is to ensure consistency across all channels. By staying true to your brand voice and messaging, you can build a strong and recognizable brand that resonates with your target audience.

Though there are numerous instances where the audience is exposed to brand voice and language, there are four major channels through which you can and should apply your brand voice. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Blog Posts

When it comes to blog posts, there are many different ways to apply your brand voice. For example, if your brand voice is friendly and conversational, you might use a more casual tone and include anecdotes or personal stories in your blog posts. This helps to create a sense of connection with your readers, making them more likely to engage with your content.

On the other hand, if your brand voice is more professional or technical, your blog posts might be more structured and informational, providing your readers with valuable insights and expert advice. This helps to position your brand as a thought leader in your industry, which can help to build credibility and trust with your audience.

Let’s briefly look at some of Grammarly’s blog posts as an example:

Just by looking at these two blog examples, we can say that there is a consistent pattern in the brand voice of Grammarly blog posts. In both examples, we can see the usage of the pronoun “we” and brief sentences with a combination of simple and friendly images. These features all contribute to the brand’s voice that the reader, user, or customer faces consistently when they view the blogs.

Social Media

Social media offers an excellent opportunity for businesses to express their brand voice in a more casual and personal way. When developing a brand voice for social media, it is crucial to consider the most relevant and engaging content for the audience.

Businesses can use humor, irreverence, or thought-provoking messages to convey the brand voice depending on their audience's preferences. Maintaining consistency across all social media platforms requires using the same language, style, and tone in posts and messages, as well as ensuring visual elements align with the brand's style guide.

Using hashtags is one of the best and most obvious ways to apply brand voice on social media. It is possible to come across #neverenough in almost all Instagram posts of AnalyticaHouse and also Insta bio.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is another powerful tool to express your brand voice, and it can be used to communicate directly with your audience. To develop a consistent brand voice, you need to ensure that your emails are consistent with your other brand messaging. This includes using a consistent tone, language, and style that aligns with your brand's values and personality.

Personalization is also crucial when it comes to email marketing. You can use your customer data to tailor your emails to individual subscribers, including their names, location, and preferences. By personalizing your emails, you can make your subscribers feel more valued, increase engagement, and create a sense of brand loyalty.

Advertising

Your brand voice can also be expressed in your advertising. For example, if your brand voice is fun and energetic, your ads might feature bright colors, bold graphics, and catchy slogans. If your brand voice is more serious or professional, your ads might be more informative and factual.

Measure Your Brand Voice

Measuring the effectiveness of your brand voice is critical for ensuring that it is contributing to your business goals. Without tracking and analyzing your brand voice's impact, you won't know if your efforts are effective or if you need to make changes to improve your strategy. Effective measurement can help you understand what is working and what isn't, and where to focus your efforts for the best return on investment.

Sources

https://www.grammarly.com/business/learn/how-to-create-a-brand-voice/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brand-personality.asp#:~:text=The%20term%20brand%20personality%20refers,a%20specific%20consumer%20segment%20enjoys.

https://coschedule.com/marketing-strategy/brand-voice

https://rockcontent.com/blog/brand-voice-examples/

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/define-brand-voice/