8 Easy Steps to Define Your Brand Voice

Define your brand voice and stand out from the crowd.

In business, the term “brand voice” is often heard and used amongst entrepreneurs, coaches, as well as mentors to name a few. But why is it so important to define your brand voice?

Why does it play such an integral part of branding, buyer psychology, marketing and business growth?

The brand voice speaks volumes to the audience and acts as a source of communication between the two parties. Since it is one of the most important ingredients in marketing, one can imagine that the better the brand voice develops, the better the marketing and business awareness.

There are simple ways to define your brand voice

While there are many great ways to define your brand voice, this post will focus on 8 steps to achieve this.

But before we get into the nitty-gritty talk, let’s first discuss what role a brand voice plays.

Yes, we already know this is how customers and businesses communicate and connect, but what else is there to a brand voice?

Why establish a brand voice for your business or product?

People want to connect to something that they can trust

It’s human nature to choose the product or brand that they trust. You can imagine why so many big brands get the support they do. This comes down to the fact that their customers know, like and trust them.

Look at large brands like Nike, Adidas, Dell, Apple, VW, Samsung, Ford, Clover, Cadbury, Shea Moisture, Cantu, and lots more. When people trust a brand they become loyal and will almost follow their favourite brands to the ends of the world.

Your customers can relate to it and are happy

When your brand is well-known in your market, your customers should be able to relate to it. For example, you manage your landscaping business and everything you do in marketing caters or speaks about the wellness and creativity of gardens.

If your customers are seeking a reputable landscaping company, and become familiar with your brand’s voice then surely they will come back for more. Especially if you have already shown that you provide excellent service and workmanship that they can depend on.

Your brand becomes almost “human”

Another term you hear in marketing is “catering for humans.” The thing with digital lifestyles is people tend to lose touch of reality and become preoccupied with their online activities.

While this may be the case for some people, making your brand a more human-relatable one will help to bridge the gaps between your business, audience, and potential customers.

Connect emotionally 

The emotional connection in marketing and business is a very crucial aspect. It makes sense that while you define your brand voice, you should connect to the emotional side of your customers.

This is often seen in companies’ slogans. Some excellent company slogans that everyone can relate to or recognise include:

• Nike – “Just do it”
• Apple – “Think different”
• Loreal – “because you’re worth it”
• Maybelline – “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline”
• BMW – “The ultimate driving machine”
• Audi – “Vorsprung durg technik (Advancement through technology)
• McDonald’s – “I’m lovin’ it”

When we think about Audi, Mercedes-Benz or BMW, we immediately associate the car manufacturers with some of the leading few in the world. Ahead with technology, design, and luxury! That’s the emotional connection these great brands have long-established with their audience and customers.

What makes a voice different from tone?

Yes, another thing to consider when you define your brand voice is that the tone should correspond. For example, the voice represents the company’s personality of which can be (sincere, caring, sophistication etc). The voice of a brand is consistent and unchanging, represented in every aspect and marketing material.

The tone, on the other hand, must connect to the company’s voice but be appropriate for the content material. For example, a doctor’s website shares information with the readers. It should be professional, helpful, and approachable. There is also a degree of emotional connection in the tone of the company’s brand.

8 simple ways to establish or define your brand voice

When it comes to businesses, markets are extremely competitive. With that said, you have to do things that are unique to your business. Being original is one of the things people appreciate and will always remember your company by it.

1. Be original

As mentioned, originality counts and will do your business good in the long-run. When we look at one of the bigger brands, for example, Earth Child (a branch of the Truworths clothing group), they stand out because they craft eco-friendly, organic clothing for children. They focus on sustainability and are dedicated to delivering quality clothing items via sustainable resources.

Your unique concept should be something that people will later remember your business by. It’s a bad idea to copy the competition because this will only take away from the potential that your brand has to be one-of-a-kind.

People may feel less inclined to support a brand that copied another company’s idea. So even if you sell the same product or services, think about ways that you can make the customer experience unique.

2. Who is your target audience?

Figuring out who your target audience is one of the easiest steps to help you define your brand’s voice.  If you are aimed at a younger generation, the tone in your content materials will be different for your younger audience than that of a brand aimed at a middle-aged or Gen-X (mid1960s-early1980s)  audience.

For instance:

Older generation

You’re targeting a Gen-Z (mid-1990’s-early 2010’s), the generation after the millennials (1981-1990s). Your market is cars. Your Gen-Z wants a vehicle that is fun, strikingly nippy, fuel-efficient, and affordable since many may be studying or far from peaking in their careers.

VERSE

Younger generation

For the Gen-X audience maybe the price isn’t necessarily a deciding factor. While the vehicle can be affordable, your Gen-X audience may be looking for comfort, safety, and sophistication. Many of them have children, and some could be heading towards retirement.

To help you get an idea of the audience, you want to think about factors such as age, gender, careers, level of education, and possibly their race too.

Another few factors to bear in mind when trying to figure out who your target audience is, is to think about:

• What gets your audience talking? Is there specific content that drives more engagement?
• Who attracts them socially? Are they following anybody in particular on their socials, health professionals, other companies, authors etc?
• Where and how do they spend their “extra” income? Do they like dining out, beauty products, video games etc? 

3. Find the common grounds that separates your brand from what it is and what it is not

To help define your brand voice, you also need to establish what it is your brand is and what it isn’t.

Example:

What your brand is

• Your brand is dedicated to family
• You favour words like “caring,” “loving,” “happiness,” “home”
• You thrive on captivating the hearts of your audience

What your brand is not

• Inconsiderate
• Harsh with bad jokes
• An over exaggerator 

4. Create a brand voice chart of motivation

To help keep you on track with your brand’s voice, you can create a chart that is dedicated to reminding you and your staff members about what the brand stands for.

This chart can include, for example, the company’s commitment to the customers. Customers appreciate the fact that their needs are put first and the dedication and efforts that go into helping them get the best experience from the brand.

The chart can also highlight the fact that the brand must be reliable. If there is one thing people admire is reliability. If there’s a brand that they can depend on then that’s a brand they would support.

Along with these valuable aspects the chart can also highlight the fact that the business must remember to maintain honesty, authenticity, and solve problems.

5. Ask your audience for help

You can ask your audience for a hand by doing a survey. Your survey can include helpful questions for them to answer because this will increase your chance to accurately define your brand voice.

Ask the following questions in the survey:

• How would you describe our brand?
• Would you say that our “tone” is suitable?
• If our company was a real person, how would you describe our personality?
• What do you like most about us?
• If our brand was a famous person, who would describe us best?
• Mark with an “x” do you think our brand is: natural, playful, friendly, dynamic etc

To help engage your audience, don’t create a long survey. Your viewers may not always have time to answer the questions so when it is short, it’s easier to briefly answer.

6. Assess your competition

To help create and define your brand voice to stand out from the competitors, you need to study your competition. What does the competition sound like and what do they do? You can improve by avoiding their mistakes. “Keep your friends close and your competition closer”

Don’t follow the same industry fads that the rest are following, instead, use this as an opportunity to shine or be a disrupter.

7. Look to others for inspiration

Finding inspiration does not mean being a copycat. We’re already clear that authenticity counts for the long-run. But, if there is another business brand voice that you admire, even if it’s in a totally different market to your business, you can use it as inspiration to strengthen your own.

 

8. Be consistent

When you go about creating images and graphics for your social media posts, advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, paid features in traditional marketing mediums, remember to keep consistent.

It will be very confusing for your audience if you’re posting fun, bright images with language full of slang one day and then switch to a serious, corporate tone with serious images the next.

That’s why defining your brand voice is so important! It’s so that anyone who does work on your accounts represents your company in the same way, every time.

Think about images, copy (the words used), video, captions, adverts and more.

If you delegate your social media to a staff member or external company, be sure to have a discussion about your brand and the image you always want to portray to the public.

Provide them with examples of what your brand must look and feel like so that they have a full understanding of what fits with your brand voice and what doesn’t.

The takeaway on how you too can define your brand voice

Defining your brand is an ongoing commitment and a long-term investment for your business. Companies can continue to redefine and perfect their brand throughout their time. Your brand will seal the relationship with new, old, and prospective customers and it will give your viewers something to relate to every time they interact or see the brand.

Along with constantly developing your brand, you must also be able to configure it for change and to move with the times. The more flexible your brand, the easier you’ll be able to adapt it for the necessary changes as they show up.

Have you figured out your company’s brand yet? Get started on it today!

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