Now that you’ve gained a deep understanding of your target customers and have whipped up corresponding customer personas to guide your future website copy strategy and creation (see this previous post to learn how), it’s time to consider your brand’s voice and whether its inconsistency is discouraging sales.
But before we talk specifics, let’s take a step back and define what a brand voice is.
WHAT IS BRAND VOICE?
In essence, brand voice is the the expression and personality of your brand developed through written words, phrases, and sentences. It should seamlessly compliment your visual identity and design and be one component of your overall brand and marketing strategy. From my experience, the most beloved brand voices also contain another extremely important element: consistency.
What do I mean by this?
For a brand voice to be consistent, each piece of writing associated with your brand (for instance, “About Us” copy, blog posts, email sequence content, you name it.) must have a similar tone, expression, and overall personality. By weaving these common threads throughout all of your brand’s writing, you’re creating a clear sense for who your brand is and what you stand for.
And when audiences KNOW who you are, they’re more likely to buy into your business and brand and purchase your products or services.
On the flip side, brands with conflicting tones and expressions, the ones with Home pages that give off entirely different vibes than their Services pages, the ones that come across formal and reserved in one blog post and conversational in the next, confuse customers immensely.
Loosey-goosey brand voices signal that a brand doesn’t have a firm grasp of who they are and what they stand for. As a result, neither do their customers. Without a clear, consistent voice, your customers simply won’t rally behind your brand, they won’t buy your products or services, and your sales will likely be ho-hum, at best.
Think of it this way. Imagine your brand as a person. Just like people, your brand would likely speak and express herself in a certain way. Her word choice and phrases would be all her own and would reflect her unique personality. As such, her overall vibe might be more formal or casual. To-the-point or conversational. Reserved or quirky. She might have a sense of humor and, if so, it may air on the sarcastic and snarky side or be goofy and light-hearted. Make sense?
To summarize, in order to create a brand that customers understand, relate to, and, most importantly, BUY INTO, all copy and content associated with your brand must have a consistent voice.
HOW TO ESTABLISH A CONSISTENT BRAND VOICE
Now, with all this in mind, let’s take an honest look at your own brand’s voice. Do the words, phrases, and sentences of your website copy and content create a consistent brand voice? How about the tone, expression, and overall personality? Do these elements give customers a cohesive, clear sense for your brand and what it stands for? If the answer to these questions is a resounding “no,” relax!
The remedy to an inconsistent brand voice is simple. It starts with pinpointing your brand’s unique voice and creating a supporting brand style guide to regulate all future copy and content creation. This guide should be a short, 1-3 page document that summarizes how your brand should be expressed across all digital and print communication channels (social media, email, direct mail, etc.).
Let’s start by nailing down your brand voice. To do this, I recommend picking 3-4 words that best describe and characterize your brand. Is it passionate, quirky, creative, snarky? Be selective!
Once these are chosen it’s time to draft your brand voice style guide. Create a chart with 3-4 rows (one for each of the descriptive words you selected above) and 3 columns. Your columns should look something like this:
Column #1: This column should flesh out your descriptive words a bit more. For instance, if you selected the word “light-hearted” to describe your brand, you might include “fun-loving, cheerful, animated, and witty” in this column. This context will provide additional guidance for your brand’s writing team.
Column #2: Let’s call this your “Do” section. It should outline words and phrases that align with each of your descriptive words, specify copy and content guidance for writers, and show examples of writing that properly depicts your brand voice.
Column #3: This is your “Don’t” section. It should highlights words, phrases, and styles of writing (for each descriptive word) that SHOULDN’T be part of your brand’s voice. Remember to share examples, if available, of writing that fail to properly express your brand’s voice. The more detail you can provide to your writing team, the more consistent your brand voice will be!
Once your brand style guide is complete, it’s time to put your new tool to use! Distribute it to all team members who create copy or content for your brand and ensure that all future writing adheres to your guide’s outlined do’s and don’ts.
When all writing is measured through the lens of your style guide, your brand voice is bound to be clear, consistent, and sales-optimized!
Key takeaway here: If your brand is lacking a consistent brand voice, identify 3-4 descriptive words to characterize your brand and create a supporting brand voice style guide to regulate all future copy and content creation.
Could your business use a little extra help bringing your brand voice to life? Contact me today for a free Discovery Call!
