The obvious parts of a brand, like product packaging and a company logo, are easy to create, but other parts, like brand voice and tone, can be hard to get right and define.
What is a brand? They are the feelings that people associate with your business. This includes the feelings and thoughts when they see a logo, hear a name, or use a product.
Defining the personality of a company is the main part of the brand. A good brand builds trust, familiarity and makes the company memorable among consumers.
Defining and controlling a brand’s voice is crucial to increasing brand recognition and credibility. As a marketer, you don’t want to break the perception of the company’s personality. If a brand’s voice is inconsistent, communication is ineffective. A brand without a personality will have a hard time building a loyal following.
Steps to define a brand voice to increase awareness and credibility
1. Know your brand
Struggling to define your brand voice? First, know your brand. Start by gathering your understanding of the company, its goals, products, and services along with the market, customers, and competitors.
The best place to start is with a brand style guide that has a clear mission statement and unique selling points. This will help you establish the purpose of the business and its unique offer to consumers.
2. Set the style
Style is crucial to ensure consistency. We maintain a standard of quality and consistency across all websites, products, marketing, sales, and editorial. Every time the customer reads the brand message, the copywriter behind it is invisible.
So the brand voice remains the familiar personality of the business. By having a style guide, you can define and control your brand voice. Print it out and give a copy to all relevant stakeholders for a close look at. Regardless of how you store your guide, make sure it’s accessible to relevant stakeholders, from writers, agency professionals, and marketers.
3. Identify the context
For your brand to be valuable, you need to establish the right voice at every customer “touch point.” A consumer can find a company and its brand in different places, such as the website, social networks, applications and software, email, advertising, messaging and media.
It is important to adapt the message to the context of the audience using the correct voice and tone. For example, a promotional email uses a different tone than an online display ad. Similarly, a social media post on Facebook may differ from a post on LinkedIn.
Always deliver the right pitch at the right time. Consider how the message may change based on readers’ emotions and use the right voice.