Brand voice is one essential element of your brand, and it is as important as your website or your logo. While nailing it down can be challenging, it’s a vital step to give your brand consistency and personality. Having a united identity allows your brand to connect more deeply with your target audience.

What is a brand’s voice?

Brand voice is the word choice and overall attitude you use when talking as your brand. Think of it as the personality that infuses every word you write. If your brand was a person, how would they talk? What traits would they embody? What phrases would they use? What words would make them cringe? 

Answering these questions will begin to point you in the direction of defining your brand voice.

Why is it important to pay attention to your brand voice?

We want to pay attention and maintain consistency with our brand voice for the same reasons you would pay close attention to visual design. Consistent branding builds recognizability with your target audience — if your audience is always seeing a different logo associated with your business, that’s going to confuse them and could even damage your credibility. 

The same is true for your brand voice — if you showcase a different personality in one email than you do in the next, it’s going to create dissonance which will confuse your audience. 

A brand voice that is attuned to your market also gives you the ability to connect with your audience more deeply. Your brand voice should share a common language with your target customers and prospects: what words do they use, and what personalities do they resonate with the most?

Finally, ensuring your brand voice is consistent means that your brand can present itself as a distinct personality, even if you have a team of different writers working together. 

Can my brand voice change depending on the platform I’m using?

Your brand voice, like your mission statement, generally doesn’t change. Think of it as your core personality — even as your brand grows and changes, your brand voice should remain constant. 

However,  your tone may change depending on the situation you’re in. You wouldn’t talk to your friends in the exact same way as you would your boss, right? In the same way, your brand might use a different tone in their Help Center articles than they would in their TikTok captions. And similarly, you would use a different tone to announce an exciting change in your business than you would to address a complaint.

The key here is to maintain consistency in your brand voice even as your tone changes to accommodate each situation. 

The exception? Sometimes brands will deliberately post something that seems so out-of-character for their typical brand personality, that it reads as humorous and can actually attract positive attention. For example, brands like Lionsgate and Duolingo have used TikTok to create humorous videos, many of which have gone viral. On Twitter, Sunny D tweeted “I can’t do this anymore” and received over 300K likes and 130K retweets. This prompted several other brands to chime into the conversation. In fact, there is an entire SubReddit dedicated to recording examples of brands acting like people on social media in this way.

While this can be an effective one-off strategy to attract attention, it’s key to develop a consistent brand voice that connects with your audience. Even as you adapt your tone to match the situation or to make space for humor, a brand voice will give you credibility and make your brand seem like it has a distinct, human personality — not just another brand chasing a trend.

Finding your brand voice

How do you find your brand voice? And once you define it, how do you ensure it stays consistent even as you work with multiple writers across multiple platforms?

Here are a few best practices:

• Start keeping tabs on brands you love. Are you always saving tweets from funny brands? Do you love brands that are bold and a bit irreverent in their marketing? Or do you lean more towards brands that are passionate, mission-driven, and inspirational? Start noticing what marketing strategies you’re drawn to, and then examine your choices to see if there are any commonalities.

• Audit your target audience. How do they speak? Is there a noticeable difference between your voice and theirs? How do you want them to feel when they interact with you? 

• Take a look at your past content. Dive into the analytics and see if there are any visible trends. What content performs best with your audience? Was it a vlog-style video where you were being vulnerable with your audience? Or was it a short, inspirational tweet?

• Examine your mission statement. What is your business here to do on earth? What do you believe in? What does your mission statement say? These principles should guide your brand voice. 

• Take a look at your competitors. Do they all sound the same? Is there an opportunity to stand out from the crowd? 

• Include personality traits for your brand voice in your overall style guide. To ensure your brand voice stays the same, keep notes on your voice alongside other critical brand guidelines like color palettes, fonts, etc.

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It can feel intimidating to develop a brand voice or personality on your own, but the good news is that the people who know you best can often provide the most profound insights on how your brand comes across. 

If you’re looking for someone to help guide you through the process of getting to know yourself and your brand, a good place to start is by getting in touch. Together, we’ll get to know you and your brand deeply, we’ll unify common themes, and craft a language that feels unique and impactful to you. 

What are you waiting for? Let’s chat!