Let’s talk about developing your brand voice.
First of all, I won’t ask you to sing (unless you’re reading this in the bathtub, then by all means take advantage of the acoustics.)
All I ask is that you think about the way you communicate for your business, everywhere and anywhere.
There’s what you say, your message. And there’s
how you say it, your voice.
If you’ve seen your new-ish business grow over the years but you’re starting to see a profit plateau, this is for you.
If you can’t figure out how to talk about your products or services in a way that sells, this is for you.
If your engagement metrics constantly fluctuate, this is for you.
If your bounce rate makes you wonder if you built your homepage out of elastic, this is for you.
If that IG follower count is driving you nuts, this is for you.
What you’ll get:
- A sneak peek of my Brand Style Guide
- 4 simple steps to develop your brand voice
- An easy-to-reference, good-as-gold guide for anyone writing for your business…anywhere.
Instagram followers and The Mirror of Erised
My best friend has a magic mirror.
You look in it and are transformed, instantly 3 inches taller and 10 pounds lighter.
When we were younger, we’d get ready for a Saturday night out, mesmerized by this thing like it was the Mirror of Erised.
We knew it wasn’t real, but ooooh if it didn’t make us look great.
That’s what your Instagram follower count can do to you too.
If you watch it go up and down, you can drive yourself insane. Was it something I said? Was it the filter I used? Was it the wrong emoji? Was it my hashtags? Posting time? Aesthetic?
I love to split test, but with that many variables, it’s too easy to throw your hands in the air and say “It must be me. They don’t like me.”
But that’s just not true. They didn’t “like” your picture, or your feed. Or maybe they did but you drew the short end of the selfie stick on the last #UnfollowFriday. (She just wanted to create more margin. We all need more margin.)
And the people who did unfollow you because of what you said? Let. It. Go, Elsa.
Because those followers were your skinny mirror.
They added to a vanity metric, but they weren’t real! They weren’t there to interact with your post or probably ever do business with you.
So don’t try to write in a way that pleases everyone, attracts every DM TO PROMO! account out there, and doesn’t do your business any real favors.
Write to your people.
Do you know how to talk to them in a real, profitable way?
Do you own your brand voice?
I use Instagram as the example, but the same principles apply to your email list, blog readers, Facebook group, Pinterest, Twitter.
Speaking in your brand voice with total confidence lets you see those unfollows and unsubscribes as a good thing. Your voice subtly communicates your brand’s values and value – the right people will like what you have to say.
And when those people opt-in, loyally follow, and double tap on the reg, your marketing efforts become much more effective.
What is a brand voice?
Your brand voice is how you talk to your people. And if you think it’s not important, I want to nudge you over to this particular definition:
“It’s the interplay of personality, substance, tone, and style.
Though our voice is constant regardless of who we’re talking to or what we’re saying, we adapt our tone—from serious to empathetic to lighthearted—to fit the context and the customer’s state of mind.”
That’s from Microsoft’s (thorough!) Style Guide.
The major brands you know and love use style guides just like this. They’re designed to help employees and contractors (like, you know, copywriters) maintain consistency no matter where they’re talking about the brand, what they’re saying, and to whom they’re speaking.
This includes, but is not limited to
- website copy
- direct marketing
- customer service communications
- instructions
- newsletters
- press releases
- captions and comments on social media
- product labels
- billboards
- prank sticky notes slapped on your sister/CFO’s back
A cohesive voice communicates stability, trustworthiness, and professionalism while differentiating the brand.
And you don’t need to be a multibillion-dollar corporation to make brand voice work for you.
Small biz . Big voice.
Like I mentioned above, a brand style guide is clutch for anyone writing for your business. If my copywriting, content, or ghostwriting clients don’t have one, it’s the first thing I create for them.
Not only is it useful for me, it gives them and their other contractors or employees a guidebook to use for years to come.
So when you’re struggling to write a month’s worth of IG captions that will attract the right followers…brand voice guide.
When you add a new product or course and DIY the sales page copy…brand voice guide.
When you delegate comment response and non-client email to your VA…brand voice guide.
When you outsource the email sequences for your next promo…brand voice guide.
The brand voice section of my style guides is always one of my favorite parts to write.
It blends both business goals and personality, encourages creativity, and makes a powerful tool for connecting with my clients’ clients. And connection = cash (or PayPal, Square, or your preferred secure checkout method.)
While my whole style guides are giant, juicy tomes of brand nerdery, this brand voice slice is a great way to get a taste.
Work through these steps to establish a consistent brand voice that you can use whenever you talk about your products or services.
Step 1. Establish communication goals
In order to know how to say something, you gotta know why you’re saying it.
Everything you say to your audience needs to have a purpose – otherwise, you’re just adding more noise to an already buzzing world. But when you consider your communications strategically, you can assign a desired outcome to everything you say.
Taking the time to do this will save you thousands in marketing costs and will earn you many times that in closed sales.
Start by answering:
- What do I want my audience to feel when they interact with my brand?
- What do I want my audience to do when they interact with my brand?
- What do I want to make my audience aware of?
- How can I educate my audience?
Example:
If I were developing a brand voice for an upscale, eco-friendly, exclusively 5-Free Polish nail salon this might look like:
To make our clients feel…Healthy, relaxed, and chic.
To encourage our clients to…Pamper themselves with a service that makes them look good and feel good (without the harmful chemicals.)
To make our clients aware of…The 15 gallons of water waste that a typical salon pedicure entails.
To educate our clients on…The hygienic and cosmetic benefits of a low-water or waterless nail spa service.
Refine and edit until you have goals that are broad enough to apply to everything from email subjects to your FAQ page.
Step 2. Create ground rules
Peter Kavinsky shake to make it official.
You can’t break the rules until you learn them. But when it comes to your brand voice rules, DON’T BREAK THEM.
Instead, make them broad, easy to follow, and focused on your audience. You can delve into the nitty-gritty (parentheses, em dashes, title case, etc.) in other places.
For your brand voice, keep the ground rules focused on:
- What makes your brand different? Refer to your onliness statement if you have one (you should have one.)
- How does your audience talk about the problem(s) your product or service solves?
- How you want your audience to feel?
- What action do you want them to take?
Example:
For an online home decor boutique, this might look like:
We apply an editorial experience to online shopping.
Communication is direct, friendly, and sounds like a real human wrote it.
Everything we write sounds natural, conversational, and inviting.
Sensory language is used to engage customers and increase their average spend.
Copywriter pro tip – start with this as your #1 rule:
Communication is clear and written in the customer’s own words whenever possible.
Step 3. Brand tone of voice
Again – your brand voice isn’t about what you’re saying, but why and how you say it.
So now you’ve:
- Determined what kind of action you want your audience to take whenever they read your sweet talk
- Established ground rules for how you communicate
In this step, you’ll figure out the way you talk – your tone of voice.
Your brand’s tone of voice should reflect your brand’s (or your own) values and should help build connection with your audience by showing them the humanity behind the brand.
Think of your brand voice as the meal and your tone of voice as the flavor – here’s where you let your glorious personality shine through.
Think about 3-5 adjectives you’d use to describe your overall brand voice. You can stop there, or you can elaborate with specific guidelines that also demonstrate your tone.
Example:
Using the home goods boutique example again, check out this tone of voice mission statement:
Our voice is all about warm hospitality. We want our customers to feel like we’re welcoming them to our home on the web. Talking to our customers in a way that’s friendly, conversational, excited, and professional reflects our commitment to providing a sensory online shopping experience.
Our voice is:
- Friendly – we want to make our customers feel like they walked into our perfectly styled boutique. We want to welcome them, hand them a virtual espresso, and invite them to browse through the beautiful home goods we’ve curated just for them.
- Conversational – we “chat” with our customers while they shop. We share our favorite things, from our newest collection to the best eggs benedict in town.
- Excited – we match their enthusiasm for creating a beautiful home (have you seen our throw pillows?!)
- Professional – we take customer satisfaction seriously. Especially when writing for customer service, we remain conversational and informal, but always highly professional.
Step 4. Talk it out
We can talk shop for hours about the tone and style of your brand voice. I should go put on my coziest jammies and fluffiest slippers right now because if we get started I’ll stay up until midnight with you mapping out the perfect brand voice.
But not every contractor you hire may share slumber-party-levels of enthusiasm for your reasoning behind the use of sentence case on your Call To Action buttons.
That’s where concrete instructions and tips come in handy.
When making this list, ask yourself:
- What kind of content does your brand share on social media? Why? (Again, paint with broad strokes here – this is your brand voice, not your social media marketing strategy.)
- How do you build trust and connection with your audience?
- What style do you use? Are you wordy? Hemingway-approved?
- What’s your tone? (See step 3!) Are you serious? Bubbly? Sweet? Bold?
- What are your top style rules?
- What’s your brand voice mission statement?
You might find that some of these answers get long. That’s GREAT. Just break them up so you’ll have even more concrete examples and easy-to-follow tips.
Example:
An e-interior designer who specializes in preppy, Southern-style design might end up with something like:
Our Brand…
- Shares client before and afters to demonstrate our skill.
- Shares concept boards to attract ideal clients.
- Shares decorating tips & tutorials to establish expertise.
- Makes use of personal anecdotes to foster connection.
- Tells authentic stories to build trust.
- Is effusive, colorful and enthusiastic.
- Loves Southern-isms near as much as we love family heirlooms and gingham.
- Is always positive and helpful.
- Asks open-ended questions to start conversations.
- Uses first-person plural when referring to the brand. (“We”, not “I”)
- Uses sentence case for everything but titles.
- Affirms the grace and goodness of the Oxford comma.
- Communicates our love for designing spaces that serve as perfectly collected backdrops to sumptuous meals, impeccable parties, treasured family memories, and the art of Southern living.
This is The Voice!
Taking the time to bring your brand voice to life is worth it.
It might seem kind of navel gaze-y or unnecessary, but it makes you think about why you say the things you say.
Your brand voice will help you build a profitable content strategy, so you’re not just creating more noise on social media.
Your brand voice will help you write copy that converts (to an opt-in, to a follower, to a sale, to a client.)
Your brand voice will help you scale your business with an easy guide to add to your onboarding process for anyone writing for your business in any capacity.
Your brand voice is part of what makes your brand a business – a majorly profitable one, at that.
Tell me: do you have a dedicated brand style guide, or a smaller brand voice guide to help you and your contractors or employees?
