Every business has a voice—a distinct way they communicate with their intended audience. But, not every business knows exactly how they’re being perceived by the outside world. Sometimes, what businesses think their voice is, and what customers actually hear, are two very different things.
WHAT IS BRAND VOICE?
Brand voice is as much about how you say something, as what you’re actually saying. It’s a reflection of your company’s values and an embodiment of your brand’s unique personality.
We all have a specific tone that we carry with us, whether that be in conversations with friends, in a work meeting, on a phone call or even on our personal social media accounts. Our voice is a part of who we are and when used the right way, it can build trust and healthy relationships overtime.
Take one of your close friends for example. You can readily identify their voice not because of what they’re saying, but how they’re saying it. This isn’t something that just happens overnight though. It takes a little while to get to know someone — what they’re like, how they sound, what they value and whether or not they’re someone you can trust and want to do life with.
Trust follows consistency.
Same goes for your brand voice. Defining your brand voice and executing it consistently in your content and messaging can be an effective way for building trust among your customers and making your brand more recognizable and approachable for your prospectives. But, much like building a friendship, establishing your brand/brand voice requires time and consistency.
You have a great brand, now it’s time to take it a step further by defining your brand voice.
HOW TO FIND YOUR BRAND VOICE
At MAKE, we like to provide you with the latest insights, strategies and solutions to best equip you and your brand for success (however you choose to define it).
Brand voice is just one small, yet vital part of the engine to get businesses where they want to go.
Our content team created a process (inspired by other great minds) to help establish the framework around how companies perceive their brand/brand voice, and how it should be perceived. Having healthy dialogue around the similarities and differences team members may have about their brand creates an opportunity for further alignment.
It’s all about getting teams on the same page.
THE MAKE WAY
Brand voice Q&A
We sit down with teams and ask a series of questions to give each member a clear understanding of how they want their customers to describe their brand. This opens up the floor for good conversations among team members, and gives our content team more insight on the company’s brand, values, what makes them tick, and how to further define their brand voice. We encourage them to describe what their brand means to them, and help marry that up with what their customers expect… and that’s when the magic happens.
5 steps to finding your brand voice
After teams establish what their voice should be, we show them how to achieve that voice with 5 steps — personifying your brand, describing your brand voice, creating a brand voice chart, choosing your ideal spokesperson, and putting your brand voice into action.
How to execute brand voice for content
Like everything else about a brand, brand voice is an asset; a tool to be used to delight current customers and help businesses acquire new ones. With a newly equipped voice, we go the extra mile to help companies put it to good use across various channels. After all, if teams aren’t using their voice consistently, it really isn’t their brand’s voice.
USING YOUR BRAND VOICE
Having a great content strategy starts with defining your brand voice and finding ways to execute it most effectively for every piece of content you create. You’ll want to produce content that’s digestible, relevant and consistent with the heartbeat of your brand —your core values, ideas and the why behind what you do. Brand voice is what sets you apart and helps establish familiarity, trust and consistency for your potential leads and customers. Much like your own personality, your brand voice is something people will begin to hear and more readily identify with your brand.
Brand voice can be used for:
- Social channels
- Blogs
- Email marketing
- Website copy
- Printed materials
- Videos
Keep in mind – having a newly equipped voice is just one step. To support your brand initiatives and give you the competitive edge you want to have in your industry, you’ll need a strong digital marketing strategy in place… and our team of MAKErs can help you do just that.
