Coming Up With The Right Voice For Brand Marketing

Every brand has a voice that is reflected by the tone of their communication and the messages they put out. That voice has its own personality, and is a significant part of the brand due to the fact that it is what your audience will see throughout your marketing.

Because of the enormous impact your brand’s voice can have, it is important that you make sure your messages are being put out in the right voice. Before you can do that, you need to first define what that voice is:

Decide On The Personality You Want To Put Across

One of the best ways to start defining the voice of your brand is by first describing its personality. Is it brash? Bold? Loud? Formal? Subtle? Inspirational? Try to stick to a few (two or three) single words and use them to describe the type of personality you imagine the voice of your brand as having.

Take Into Account Your Audience

Keep in mind that the voice of your brand should be one that can communicate with your target audience. As such you should take them into account and research how they communicate with one another. Are they formal or casual? Do they prefer dry facts or a more conversational approach?

The goal should be to find a voice that is appealing to your audience, while still being a good fit for your brand.

Be Authentic

Nothing is worse than a brand that tries to ‘put on’ a voice and comes across as sounding fake. While it is true that your brand voice is engineered to a degree, it should still be authentic – and not overly rehearsed or robot-like. Even if you’re adopting a formal approach, you should try to ensure your brand’s voice sounds as though it’s coming from a person.

Establish Consistent Guidelines

Once you settle on a voice, you should establish consistent guidelines to ensure you’re able to use it throughout your brand marketing in as similar a manner as possible. The guidelines don’t have to be too explicit, but rather could be something as simple as ‘a casual and conversational, bold, inspiring voice’ or something of that nature.

Embrace Change

As much as you will want to be consistent – you should accept the fact that you may not land on the ‘perfect’ voice for your brand at the first attempt. In fact even if you do, as your audience changes and trends evolve the ‘perfect’ voice may very well change along with them.

Be sure to embrace this idea, and treat your brand’s voice as a living entity that changes with time.

By following the approach outlined above, you should be able to come up with a voice that is able to effectively communicate your brand’s messages and values. It require some refining or a few tweaks, but at very least you will have a consistent voice that reflects your brand – rather than a haphazard mix of different tones and styles.