Find your brand voice with the help of our content experts. Connect with your consumers today.
If you plan on interacting with your consumers online, you need to have a unique voice. This voice could be the point of difference that your business needs to beat the competition.
Developing a brand voice will help you maintain consistency across your website and social media platforms as well as assist with the accurate representation of your organisation.
Take a look at our brand voice guidelines today and get in touch with us if you have any questions. Once you’ve got your identity sorted out, read our article about how to write web content for the next phase in your content marketing strategy.
1. Know your Audience
The best way to effectively communicate with customers is through research and targeted content. If you have a longstanding business, use analytical tools to see which demographics interact with your website most often, and which people generate the most conversions.
If your business is a new venture, outline a clear target demographic. If the audience isn’t clear to you, research your competitors and find out who they are having success with. You can choose to aim for the same consumers or find a niche market.
After you have a clear idea of your target audience, you can start developing a brand voice that is suitable for your customers. Do as much research as you can about what kind of language you audience uses and responds to. Take a look at this guide to identifying and researching your target market for more information.
2. Define your Vocabulary
The next part of our brand tone of voice guidelines is definition. You can distill the essence of your brand by choosing three key words that you would like to represent the personality of your business. For example, if we look at Digital Animals as a brand, we could focus on the following words:
- professional
- playful
- inspirational
Expand your brand vocabulary by listing more synonyms (or phrases) next to each word.
Professional – expert, authoritative, talented, efficient, dexterous
Playful – lively, spirited, bright, passionate, engaging, creative
Inspirational – motivational, impressive, challenging, enriching, educational, realize your potential, innovative, modern
You can use these words for guidance when you’re writing content.
3. Define your Objectives
After you have developed your vocabulary, you need to be able to put it into practice. The next part of developing a brand voice is defining your objectives. To do this, take a word from your vocabulary and expand on what it means in the context of your business.
For example, if we focus on the word ‘playful’, we would define it for Digital Animals in the following way:
Playful – As a digital marketing agency, we are creative and passionate about what we do. We are innovators and we aren’t afraid to try something new. Working with our team can be fun, but we always maintain professionalism.
Being specific about each word in your vocabulary will help you maintain consistency across platforms and content writers.
After you have expanded on each vocabulary item, you are ready to expand on your aspirations. Make a series of dot points outlining your goals as a brand. After you have your objectives, your content writer can apply the expanded vocabulary to each point and create a content strategy with clarity.
4. Outline your Brand
If you want to be thorough when you’re developing a brand voice, you need to create a brand vision statement, a mission statement, and a tagline.
Brand Values
Before you work on your statements and tag-lines, write down the moral values of your brand. What is important to you as an organisation? What kind of ethical codes of conduct do you want your team members to reflect? What values are unique to your business?
Vision Statement
This is where you state your long-term goals as a brand and explain your motivation for your work. What would your business look like if you achieved these goals?
Mission Statement
Your mission is tied into your vision but with more of a focus about how your brand interacts with clients and stakeholders. What is your specific purpose as a a business?
Tagline
A short, punchy phrase that you can use for marketing purposes. It should relate to (or be informed by your vision and mission as a brand.
Check out these brand voice examples for more ideas about how to develop your voice.
Each element we’ve covered in this post will help you create a clear content writing guide for anyone who writes on behalf of your brand. If you want someone to create a writing guide for your business, or take care of the content for you, contact Digital Animals today for a free consultation.
Author: Anna Clark – Copywriter & Digital Marketing Assistant, Digital Animals