Have you ever realised that we can act differently around certain friends. You might off in the past caught yourself saying something. And later thinking huh, I wouldn’t usually say stuff like that with so and so. This I believe is some sort of mirroring effect. We might not even realise we are doing it but when we want the other person to like us we try to mirror a similar personality. Because we know like attracts like.
The Different Voices We Take On
Similar to building a brand we use certain types of qualities and traits that are present within your ideal people. And cleverly weave these into your brand identity to help attract them effortless. A common brand tool that can get forgotten amongst the detailed visuals Is your Brand voice.
Throughout our life time we will all taken on different types of voices. It’s good to be aware that the way in which we talk to our friends is likely to be different from the way in which we talk with our parents. Plus the way in which we talk to our customers or clients is probably going to be worlds apart from how we might talk with our future children.
Why Having a Brand Voice Is So Effective
Voices can be an effective tool in branding. It can inject tonnes of personality and colour to your brand and help you be remembered for it! You’re probably wondering if you even have a brand voice? We’ll chances is are you already do have one.Specially if you already have a website and social media account. Your brand’s voice lives within every description for a post and story, emails. Your brand’s voice is within every piece of text on you website, from titles to even buttons, all these elements contribute to your brand voice.
Brand voice example
Being mindful of your brand voice can not online help you be remembered. But also helps you attract the people you want to work with. Before we get into how to choose your brand voice. Let’s first of, look at a few brands that are doing this really well. Mailchimp have crafted the perfect balance between chatty & professional.There copy priorities clarity with the use offbeat humour and conversational language. This gives the reader a sense that they aren’t being spoken down to
Mailchimp is serious when it comes to working with brands, but they don’t take themselves too seriously.
Remember it’s not what you say- but how you stay it. Therefore there are few different things that help make up your brand’s voice. The tone of voice you choose to communicate with, the specific choice of words you use. As well as the things you wish to stay clear.
Brand Voice For Suitable Moments
Be mindful to the fact that your tone may slightly alter depending on what is appropriate for certain situation at hand. For example if you have an unhappy customer or client. If your writing an email back and your tone of voice usually uses humour to lighten the mood. Within this circumstance this technique is likely to backfire. Therefore taking a more professional, serious and compassionate tone of voice is a better fit.
Step To Help You Create Your Own Brand Voice
If you let me I’d like to take a moment to help guide you in creating your brand voice. The first task is understanding how you’ll identify your ideal people. Do this by writing down 4 different keywords or phrases or keywords you will use to refer to your ideal customers.
For example mine are
One-woman business owners
Passion-led Businesses
Mindful businesses
Small businesses
Along side this make another list of all the phrases and words you will avoid using. Previous experience has taught me the avoid list is even more helpful. The words I have made a conscious effort to avoid are patronising and childish slang labels such as:
Go getters
Girl boss
Boss lady
Hustle
Grind
Female CEO
Boss Bitch
Then make a long list of buzzwords and ideas that your brand encourages to use or create a feeling of:
Such as:
Creative
Stories
Flow
Small Business-hood
Mindfulness
Functional
Feminie
Good-natured
Functional
People-centred
Passionate
Once you’ve gained a good idea on the actually keywords and phrase you’ll encourage and avoid it’s time to get clear on your communication tone. Start of by choosing 4 keywords that help describe your tone of voice for example they might be:
Clear
Chatty
Cheeky
Honest
Friendly
Dry
Humours
etc
I then again create a list of keywords that we will avoid within our tone of voice:
Such as
Formal
Serious
Bossy
Brand Tone Example Exercise
At this point you should be clear on how you identify and refer to your ideal customer, the buzzwords you’ll encourage to use in your copy and the tone of voice you want them to feel as well as the ones you’ll stay clear of. It’s now time to get your writing hat on and create a three different example that can help you show you brand voice. If your tone of voice is direct, caring, honest and cheeky. Your example brand voice might sound like this. We understand getting into debt too look good, won’t feel good. View our high quality cost-conscious design solutions that won’t break the piggy bank.
Taking about debt shows honesty and directness. By openly understand that, that won’t feel good for them shows that you care. Offering a solution and ending it on a light-hearted note with piggy bank comment.
It may take you couple of goes to get a feel for your voice.This is the time to experiment make sure it’s right for you.
Usually if your starting out in business you’re the one that’s uncharge of your brand voice. So make sure it works, if you realise humour doesn’t come naturally maybe don’t force it there are other way you brand voice can become distinctive
Got To Know
Another friendly reminder, is not every sentence will be able to include the list of tones you picked out for your brand voice. Some’s a title might need just be clear and other might time you can add more cheekiness to them. Remember your website is like a book you can use different areas to show you brand voice come to life. Such as when you reach a 404 page due to a broken link. You can show you brand voice by saying personalising the message that comes up.
I hope you have a fun time crafting your brand voice. If you need further help just drop me an email the link is in the show notes. If you missed last weeks episode have a listen or read now!