Whether you’re preparing to launch a new business or you have an established business, one of the most important assets your brand can have is a strong voice. Unfortunately, many businesses focus solely on design and neglect to develop a clear brand personality that can be used across multiple communication channels.
So what is brand voice?
Your brand voice is the tone and personality that make up who your business is. Think of brands like Airbnb, Geico, or Nike. They all have a very unique way of messaging that has been successfully integrated into every customer communication. And the way each of these companies communicates has become uniquely familiar and recognizable.
Why is it important?
Imagine having a conversation with a person, and that person droning on and on to you, never making eye contact, and bragging a lot without ever asking you anything about yourself.
You’d probably exit the conversation as soon as possible—because an engaging conversation requires friendliness, authenticity, and reciprocity.
So think of your brand’s messaging as the conversation, and the voice as the personality of the conversationalist. If you don’t offer an inviting conversation to your customers, they aren’t going to stick around very long.
Who do you think you’re talking to?
You wouldn’t have a conversation with your grandma that included a bunch of F bombs. (Or, maybe you would, and that means you have a cool grandma.) Nor would you speak to your closest friends with formality.
You have to know your audience, and how to speak to them. That requires having established personas of each segment, and brand standards for how you talk to them.
This doesn’t mean that you should have four different websites for four different personas. If you have multiple personas, then you offer a strong, self-select user experience on your home page. The nuances in messaging come into play when you want to connect directly with a specific audience—via an email, in an A/B landing page test, etc.
The big idea is to know whom you’re talking to, and how best to engage them in a conversation that turns into a conversion.
What comes first, the design or the voice?
If you have a color palette and logo established, or if you’re still working those elements out, does it hamper getting the brand voice established?
We say no. Traditionally, content holds the concept of your brand—it tells the story of who you are and what you do. If your business is a laid-back startup with a sense of humor and you’re leaning toward a conservative color palette, it’s time to align the design.
In other words, don’t let a current logo design or palette force your brand voice into a corner. The two must work together to work well.
What if your brand’s voice needs an upgrade?
When an established company has evolved and grown past the initial brand, it’s a smart idea to take a look at the brand voice.
We recently worked with a company that has been in business for 35 years, starting as a family-run landscaping service in the metro D.C. area. In that span of time, the company grew to a team of 60, now providing complete outdoor architectural services to an increasingly upscale demographic.
To change the conversation from a mom-and-pop feel to a more sophisticated (yet still boutique) feel, we needed to establish a voice that was inviting and luxurious, yet still friendly and knowledgeable. The brand was elevated without losing the warmth of the close-knit business. Take a look at how that project turned out.
Having a clear and confident brand voice gives your business a strong personality that will connect with the right audience. It’s a process that is definitely best left up to a team of branding professionals, whether you have one in house or can collaborate with an agency.
You’ll want to work with a team that can assess your current messaging and voice, your goals, your brand’s true personality, who you’re connecting with, and how you’re connecting.
If you’d like to talk to us about your brand voice and how we can help you make it really sing, get in touch.
