To manage a successful business, it’s imperative that you’re able to plan for and achieve ongoing growth. To do this, you need to attract, service, and satisfy your customers, and keep them returning time after time to buy from you.
Few things are as beneficial to a company as returning customers because it costs significantly less to retain clients than it does to find new ones.
Your brand’s “tone and voice” can make a major difference to how your current and potential customers view your company, products and services, and whether they remain loyal to you.
Why Brand Voice and Tone Matter
Your brand’s voice is the way you communicate with the world, it includes your website, social media, and other forms of content. It can be formal, informal, cute, cheeky, or any number of other approaches. The tone you take helps your audience to differentiate your brand from others in your industry, so it is important for it to be consistent across all platforms and to reflect your company’s values.
Brand voice matters because it helps to shape your business’s personality and impacts the way you are seen by the market. When new users come to your website you have 10 seconds to make an impression before they leave, so it’s important to capture visitors’ attention in that brief time. [quotesright]An effective brand voice also builds trust and authority, so it needs to reflect your value proposition and resonate with your visitors enough to make them want to know more about you. [/quotesright]
Developing an Authentic Brand Voice
To develop an authentic brand voice and tone that works for you, start by identifying the image or personality you want your brand to project. Get participation from your management team to make sure you include every facet of the organization. Brainstorm the answers to questions such as:
- If your brand was a person, what attributes would you want them to portray?
- What would this person look and sound like?
- What level of education would this person have?
- How would they communicate with the audience?
Identify a few broad traits on which to base the development of your brand voice. These traits should speak the same “language” as your audience. Some examples of this could be:
- Serious, educated and intelligent,
- Sympathetic and inspirational,
- Quirky, fun and light-hearted, or
- Down to earth and direct.
Insert your chosen characteristics into a table and add your understanding of each one alongside it. For example, you might decide “helpful” is a broad trait, and this could mean assisting prospects to find a solution to their problem, even if it isn’t one that’s delivered by your product or service.
Conducting a Brand Voice Audit
Once you have an idea of the type of brand voice you want to project, conducting an audit of your existing content will tell you how close you are to achieving the goal. Gather a collection of your content that includes everything from explainer videos to webpages, print brochures, customer emails, and social media posts.
Examine an example of each item critically to determine whether it conforms to the brand voice criteria you identified. Collate the content into groups of items that represent the voice correctly, items that should be discarded, and items that might make the cut after a few tweaks.
Review any web analytics you have available and compare those with your evaluation, to see if the items you consider representative of your ideal brand voice actually show higher conversion rates. This will give you a scientific basis to determine if you are on the right track.
Create a list of the attributes and characteristics you want your brand voice to deliver and distribute it to everyone in the company who creates content or has direct contact with customers. [quotesright]Appoint a member of your team to oversee all new content – and periodically review existing content – to make sure you remain consistent in voice and tone. [/quotesright]
Examples of Brand Voices
Thinking about companies with unique brand voices makes me recall some of the slogans, visuals, and messages that have stood out over the years. To give you an idea of what I mean, here are some examples of notable brand voices:
- Cards Against Humanity. [quotes]Many Americans are familiar with this card game, which is tongue-in-cheek and known for the controversy it raises.[/quotes] The game treads remarkably close to the line sometimes, so it’s fitting that their brand voice speaks to “horrible customers” and portrays itself as “as despicable and awkward as you and your friends.”
- Dove Beauty Products. The Dove brand aims to be empowering and uplifting, and its voice emphasizes the company’s mantle of responsibility. It aims to empower female consumers by raising awareness of body positivity. The organization’s content uses models of all shapes and sizes, supported by messaging in a soothing, friendly, and inspirational tone of voice. It is easy to spot the qualities of the brand promise through the content, which is reinforced by using affirmative language such as “beauty is a source of confidence” and “realizing your full potential.”
- MailChimp. Email newsletter software provider MailChimp speaks to its audience in an informal, slightly dry, humorous tone. Tutorials and communications are all clear and free of jargon, and the company’s genuine tone helps it to relate to small businesses and their challenges. The brand smartly manages to be offbeat while never being inappropriate, which makes its command of voice and tone very successful.
[quotes]It’s best to play it safe when you initially develop a brand voice, until you’ve had a chance to test what works with your target market and review the results.[/quotes] Then it’s a case of making sure your voice and tone support your unique brand personality and that you use them consistently across all your communications.
Resources:
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/04/find-brand-voice/
https://www.brafton.com/blog/creation/4-brand-tone-of-voice-examples-to-use-when-building-your-own/
