If your business were a living, breathing person, what would it sound like?
Having a unique and captivating brand voice is no longer optional – it’s essential to stand out. Especially with the vast amount of AI content filling up the internet.
But how can you discover that special style which connects with your audience and perfectly represents your brand?
This guide will help you suss out that golden thread, helping you express and communicate your own unique stamp on the world. Brand messaging is crucial for creating a consistent and recognizable identity for your brand.
Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time.
Uncovering your brand’s voice may seem hard and overwhelming at first. Brand voice matters for establishing consistency and recognition in a crowded digital landscape.
But don’t fret! The process of identifying your brand values and getting clear on how you communicate will lead to a rock-solid brand identity that really resonates with your audience.
A brand voice is the unique personality and tone that a brand uses to communicate with its target audience across various mediums, including social media, website, blog posts, emails, and advertisements.
Think of it as the distinct personality that shines through in every piece of content your brand produces. It’s a combination of tone, language, and personality that reflects your brand’s values and resonates with your target audience.
Whether your brand is playful and quirky or serious and professional, your brand voice helps you connect with your audience on a deeper level.
A strong brand voice is essential for building brand recognition, customer loyalty, and trust. In a crowded marketplace, a compelling brand voice helps your brand stand out and be memorable.
It’s the consistent thread that ties all your communications together, making it easier for customers to recognize and remember your brand.
A consistent brand voice also fosters trust and loyalty, as customers know what to expect from your brand. When your brand’s voice is clear and consistent, it creates a unified approach to tone, style, and messaging, which is crucial for effective marketing.
Your brand voice is quite literally the human side of your business—the way it speaks, responds, and engages. A strong brand personality is crucial for building brand recognition and consistency in messaging.
Through this voice, you show your audience that your company isn’t just a faceless entity, but a vibrant business with its own character and charisma.
So how can you establish a unique brand voice when there is so much noise out there?
Nothing stands out more than a contrarian viewpoint. People may love it or they may hate it, but at least it will be memorable!
As P.T. Barnum once said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. While maintaining a consistent voice is crucial, a brand’s tone can shift depending on the context, audience, and medium, allowing for nuanced messaging that remains appropriate for different situations.
What’s something you believe that others might disagree with?
What do you wish more people understood?
What’s are accepted best practices that you think are not useful or don’t work based on your experience?
Having a consistent voice for your brand makes your brand stand out and helps build a strong connection with your audience.
This will lead to more loyal customers.
Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.
– Jeff Bezos
Think about being able to identify a close friend just by the sound of their voice. That’s how familiar and relatable your brand’s personality should be, articulated through your brand’s voice.
Be authentically you, and speak to your customers on a personal level.
That’s the power of personal brands!
Let’s check out some brands that have absolutely nailed their brand voices:
Apple: Confident, direct, and simple. Their voice reflects core values of innovation and simplicity.
Skittles: Humorous, mischievous, and playful. Perfectly matches their colorful and fun product.
Dove: Empowering, kind, and inclusive. Resonates with their mission to promote real beauty.
Harley-Davidson: Strong, rebellious, and aspirational. Captures the spirit of freedom and adventure their customers love.
These brands have successfully crafted distinctive voices that click with their audiences and reinforce their brand identities.
Think of your company’s mission statement as the starting line for developing your brand voice. It’s like the heart of your company, laying out the main purpose and collective goals. Here’s how you can use it to guide your brand’s voice:
Spot Keywords: Check out the words and phrases that pop up in your mission statement. These can shape your brand’s tone and language.
Align with Values: If your mission statement talks about innovation and customer satisfaction, aim for a brand voice that’s forward-thinking and customer-centric.
Stay Authentic: Make sure your brand voice reflects the true essence of your brand, keeping it consistent and genuine.
Developing a distinctive brand voice starts with the identifying your company’s core values. These values will be the driving force behind your brand, guiding all your actions and interactions.
64% of consumers cite shared values as the primary reason they have a relationship with a brand.
Source: HBR
These aren’t just statements, they’re a reflection of your brand’s beliefs and philosophies.
But it’s not enough to just have an about page with a ‘Company Values’ section and expect customers to find this. Your values come through every aspect of your business.
Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.
– Walter Landor
Take Apple as an example.
Their brand voice is based on their core values of innovation and simplicity.
Whether it’s in an ad, a product description, customer emails, or even how and when you are greeted when you walk through the doors of an Apple Store, these core values are always expressed.
Give life to your brand by creating a persona that reflects your core values, mission, and the kind of customers you seek to connect with. Developing a brand voice tailored to both your company and its audience is crucial for resonating with your target consumers.
To put it simply, your brand’s persona is the human element that adds a personal touch to your brand identity, enabling customers to relate to your brand on a more personal and emotive level.
Branding is the art of becoming knowable, likable and trustable.- John Jantsch
Start by asking key questions to help shape your brand’s persona:
If your brand were a person, what would their personality be like?
Are they serious or humorous?
Formal or casual? Traditional or innovative?
Use this line of questioning as a framework from which to build upon.
Next, consider how your brand’s persona communicates.
What kind of language do they use?
Do they speak in buzzwords and industry jargon, or are they more inclined to explain things in a simple, straightforward manner?
With people increasingly keen to forge strong, emotional ties with the brands they endorse, the persona you create could be key to establishing a long-lasting, constructive relationship with your audience.
Sometimes people use the terms ‘brand voice’ and ‘brand tone’ interchangeably, but they aren’t the same thing.
Brand voice represents your message, while brand tone is the manner in which it’s delivered. Your tone may need to change based on the content or platform.
For example, the way you speak in a social media post might be different from how you respond to customer questions or issues.
Your brand tone can adopt different nuances, but they should all fit comfortably within the boundaries set by your brand voice.
So while voice and tone work hand in hand to personify your brand, they play distinct roles and serve different purposes.
Some companies like Shopify even define several tones within their brand voice guidelines, showing their versatile approach to various brand communications.
Taking a closer look at your present content is a great way to identify your brand’s existing voice – a voice that has developed naturally over time, not deliberately created.
You’ll begin to see how your content can align with your brand’s voice and core values, shaping the company’s personality traits and communication strategies.
To start the process of examining your current brand voice, collect a mixed bag of various content, including:
Content from all your channels – website, social media accounts, newsletters, and press releases
Documents created by different departments – this might include content from sales, product, engineering, marketing, support, or even leadership
Pieces of different formats – from lengthy articles to short posts, videos, or audio
External and internal communications
From here, make it a point to rate each content piece, to determine how effectively it embodies the essential traits of your brand identity.
Give each item a score based on its authenticity to your brand. Don’t forget to make observations about what feels right (or wrong) for each sample.
| Content Type | Purpose | Format | Brand Identity Alignment Score (1-10) | Observations |
| Example: Website Homepage Copy | Marketing | Text/Webpage | 8 | Consistent tone, needs more personality |
| Example: Social Media Post | Social Media | Short Post | 6 | Lacks brand-specific language |
| Example: Monthly Newsletter | Communications | Text/Email | 7 | Good engagement, slightly off-brand tone |
| Example: Product Launch Article | Sales/Product | Long Article | 9 | Very aligned with brand values |
| Example: Internal Memo | Leadership | Text/Document | 5 | Formal, lacks own brand voice, evaluate communication style in comparison to competitors |
Formal, lacks own brand voice, evaluate communication style in comparison to competitors
Fill in the Content Type: Describe the content piece (e.g., blog post, tweet, brochure).
Purpose: Specify what the content should be used for (e.g., marketing, external).
Format: Identify the format of the content (e.g., video, text, podcast).
Brand Identity Alignment Score: Rate each piece on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 means perfectly aligns with your brand identity, and 1 means not aligned at all.
Observations: Note what specifically about the content is aligned or misaligned with your brand’s voice. This could include tone, language, messaging, or any other relevant aspect.
Gleaning these specifics will enable you to fully grasp the nuances of your brand voice, making it easier to explain it to your team.
You can create a consistent and recognizable brand’s voice by identifying what sets your brand apart, helping to differentiate from competitors.
Start by focusing on your brand values and the mission of your company, if there is one. These aspects provide a holistic view of your brand and help you shape a voice that’s true to your brand’s authentic identity.
Take note of the words that frequently appear – these are likely to be key descriptors of your brand and company.
We speak assertively, but never arrogantly.
We use humor in a clever way – avoiding silliness.
We use informal language, always bearing in mind context.
We show our knowledge and respect our reader’s intelligence.
We are kind, friendly, fun and sociable.
We are helpful, without being too pushy or intrusive.
We strive to be clear, concise, and genuine.
After setting your main brand voice elements, figure out how each trait can adapt to suit various scenarios and goals.
Start by listing all the marketing platforms and types of content your business uses. Your brand’s tone will flex and shift according to each platform and content category.
Next, determine the potential readers or users for each type of content or platform.
Then, alter your way of communicating to connect with and engage these particular groups effectively.
Shopify does a good job of showing examples of tone in different contexts:
Imagine how the tone of your voice changes depending on the situation you’re in or the person you’re talking to.
The way you talk to your bank on the phone, how you conduct yourself during an annual performance review with your boss, or how you chat in a relaxed manner at a dinner with friends – all these instances require different tones and behaviors.
Your brand voice should resonate with your customers… through all communication channels. A distinctive brand voice that resonates in social media posts is crucial for creating engagement and connection with your audience.
Try including your customers’ communication style in your brand’s voice and tone to strengthen it.
During sales interactions, take note of the language customers use when discussing your products or explaining the problems your products solve for them.
Make note of specific terms or phrases your customers use when talking about your brand or products. Then, make a list of these words to use or avoid in your content.
Creating a list of specific words and phrases may seem like a lot of work, but it’s a great way to set your brand voice apart.
Having words you should use and ones you should avoid can make your brand’s language more consistent. This supports a consistent brand voice throughout different channels and parts of your business.
After you’ve identified all the factors that shape your brand voice – including major brand traits and the exact language to use or avoid – it’s time to document your insights.
Ensure that your brand guidelines are readily accessible to anyone who works in your business, writes for you or creates content for you.
Regardless of your brand guidelines’ design, it should encompass all crucial elements of your brand voice, such as:
Guidance for different communication channels
Instructions for various content categories
Rules for everyday parlance
Your compilation of approved and disapproved verbiage
Make your brand guidelines pop by incorporating real-life examples where feasible.
This will seriously help your team when generating their creative content.
Your brand voice can change, but regular checks will ensure it stays true to your brand’s identity.
