Consistent branding strategy is the foundation of a remarkable business presence. Your company logo, brand statement, marketing content, product materials, and customer engagements should reflect a unique and strong brand voice. They all deliver a clear message to your customers, help set proper expectations among customers, and build long-lasting relationships with them.
Most business owners have a common goal to make their brand memorable to their target audience. It’s the reason why a brand voice should be clear and consistent. Your business will stand out if it carries remarkable qualities people love. Have you figured out what your brand voice is? Do you want people to recognize your brand at first glance? If your answer is yes, that’s great! We love to talk about developing your brand voice with a few examples. But let us understand what it is first.
Image taken from Babyfresh Organics
What is Brand Voice?
A brand voice represents the business’s personality, values, and attitude in communicating with people. The concept of voice is no different when people associate it with a brand. Brand voice expresses a unique personality a brand takes on its marketing campaigns, company policies, visual materials, and other types of communication.
Imagine a scenario when the interviewer takes note of the distinct characteristics of an applicant. The interviewer carefully observes the applicant’s choice of words, gestures, and tone of voice. The applicant represents your brand and the interviewer is your customer. Anyone who wants to create a good impression when applying for a job puts his best foot forward. Therefore, it is good to stick to the qualities you want your recruiter to notice.
In the case of your business, chosen words of your ad copy or blog content, the company mission and values, and the staff’s attitude in engaging with customers should impress your target audience.
Brand voice helps in achieving consistency across all your brand communication. Regardless of who is the writer of a specific ad copy or blog content, it should deliver the company’s brand voice. Remember, consistency is vital to your branding and marketing strategy's success.
The tone of your brand is another essential factor affecting your brand's communication with the target audience. Setting a proper tone can attract potential clients or website visitors. You must nail it according to your target customer's preferences, lifestyles, and motivations. It’s okay to adjust your brand tone in different situations, but it needs to reflect your company’s brand voice. Think of the first three adjectives associated with your company. It can help you to stick to your company values that define your brand voice.
Image taken from SOW Body Fitness
Importance of Brand Voice
Your brand voice represents your company’s distinct traits among other businesses within the same niche. There are several reasons why having a brand voice is important for your business. Here are the top answers to why you need a unique and strong brand voice.
1. Promotes Customer Loyalty
2. Make Your Brand Come to Life
3. Brand Voice can Build Trust
4. Distinguish Your Company From Competitors
1. Promote Customer Loyalty
Developing your brand voice can promote customer loyalty. It creates an atmosphere where your customers get to know your business and helps them connect or bond with your brand.
Customers will love your business if they feel welcome or special. They also share an interest in brands they can relate to, especially if your brand voice is friendly, passionate, or realistic. For most people, it is natural to become close or loyal to a friend who shares similar interests and values. It’s the same as developing your brand voice that understands your customers’ needs and preferences. You can get more loyal customers for having a unique and strong brand voice they love.
2. Make Your Brand Come to Life
Brand voice makes your company more human. If you’re a business owner or a marketer, take time to personalize your branding materials. Your ads campaign, blog content, and newsletter should make your brand come to life. Share a story about your company milestones.
Moreover, add your customers’ testimonials on your website to encourage more people to try your products or services. Tell a story about your talented team and your humble beginning as an entrepreneur. Personalization makes sense to your customers. They can relate to humans rather than abstract brand concepts.
Make sure to emphasize the importance of personalization to your digital marketing team. For example, you can connect with people through virtual company events, friendly newsletters, and compelling narratives about the CEO and the brand’s recognition in the global market. Things like these can make your brand come to life.
3. Brand Voice can Build Trust
Trust is key to your business’s long-term goals. Your brand voice should suggest trustworthiness rather than just enticing first impressions. A smart business owner invests in safe and high-quality products to ensure customer satisfaction. Trust is earned when you meet customers’ expectations, provide practical solutions, and sustain communication. Be transparent and consistent in dealing with difficult situations with your consumers. The way you talk to customers should reflect your brand voice. Whether you should sound professional, friendly, or curious, it’s fine. Be yourself and be consistent.
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4. Distinguish Your Company From Competitors
A unique and strong brand voice distinguishes your company from your competitors. It reflects a sense of authority that only your brand can project. It is one of the benefits of developing your brand voice. It sets your business one step ahead of others.
Brand voice is what customers perceive in your choices of words, digital media content, and social proof. It’s the personality they can associate with your brand without talking about the business name. That’s why communicating with customers should be more personal rather than systematical. If you know your customers personally, it’s definitely an advantage.
Brand Voice Examples
1. Apple: Simple - Clean - Confident
Apple is the world’s most valuable brand for mobile devices and software. We can say that the voice of the brand fits perfectly. The brand message is clear in all forms of communication. Just like what Apple products represent, they have clean and confident marketing ads copy.
Image taken from Apple
2. Oreo: Classic - Playful - Sweet
Oreo cookies mark a century filled with sweetness and playfulness. Its brand voice portrays its target audience's characteristics of being playful and fun. They create personalized content promoting positivity and kindness. Having partnered with PFlag National, they encourage customers to create a Pride Pack covered with love, allies, and a space to add a personal message of encouragement. We think this is a clever approach to make people support the brand's advocacy.
Image taken from Oreo
3. MailChimp: Helpful - Warm - Accommodating
Image taken from Mailchimp
You know how email marketing can go upside down, right? No matter how complicated it may seem, Mailchimp makes its brand voice warm, helpful, and accommodating. It’s pretty cool because it makes the audience feel email marketing is a no-brainer task.
Guide to Developing Your Brand Voice
- Describe Your Brand in Three Words
As a business owner, the first thing you must ensure is to know your brand well. You can jot down the first three adjectives that come to mind when you think about your brand. Your company mission and values should be aligned with your brand voice. Here’s an example of a brand voice chart to help you identify yours.
Image taken from Content Marketing Institute
- Research About Your Target Audience
Your brand voice should reflect your customer’s preferences and interests. If you know your target audience's characteristics, developing a brand voice they would prefer to listen to will be easy. It’s like nailing the genre or title of their favorite music. You should research customer persona, age group they belong to, and even cultural background. Personalization can be done easily if you know your customers’ wants and needs.
- Brief Your Content Creators About Brand Voice
Consistency is essential for promoting brand awareness. Your team should be familiar with the brand voice of the company. It will help them create content with a clear message about your brand’s values and attitude.
- Enhance Your Brand Voice
Developing your brand voice is not a one-and-done process. It is a continuous quest seeking constant improvements as your company grows. When a specific business evolves, it reaches a wide range of audiences worldwide. Hence, you need to ensure your brand meets your customer's expectations. Don’t be contented with the same old brand statement. Sometimes, you must experiment to find out what’s best for your business.
Final Thoughts
You now understand a brand voice and its importance to your business. Set a brand tone that matches your company’s mission and values. People will remember your brand if you properly present it to them. Be consistent and coherent in creating content and ad copy for social media or various online channels.
Image taken from Strikingly
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