Six Strategies to Ensure You Create a Resonant Brand Voice
As a purposeful woman with a platform, business, ministry, or audience you need to connect with, when developing your brand’s voice, bear in mind that it is an extension of your overall brand personality. Your brand’s voice includes the way your brand sounds, it’s tone, and the types of language it employs to communicate. It is important to use a voice that matches the overall personality of your brand and one that resonates with your target audience both tangibly and emotionally.
A powerful personal brand connects with its niche on an emotional level.
Striking the right tone, pacing, and phrasing for your brand matters even more in today’s marketplace where all brands have access to social media platforms and are competing for the attention of their niche. If you’re wondering how to ensure you strike the right balance, I’m here to help, with six questions you need to consider as you craft your brand.
What attributes describe your brand?
Brand attribute identification is an exercise I often kick client’s off with as they begin to frame their identity. It is powerful because it sets the stage for how the brand will look, feel, and sound. An easy way to tackle this is to think of 5-7 adjectives you want to be associated with your brand. For example, an interior designer may describe her brand as “modern,” “innovative,” “upscale,” “adaptable,” and “high touch.” Just these few descriptors, immediately give you a sense of who she is and how she approaches her work. It informs her voice because as an upscale brand, her tone may lean more formal, more polite, and perhaps more succinct.
How differentiated is your voice from your competition?
Differentiation is at the heart of branding. If you are not able to differentiate your brand, it becomes indistinguishable from your competitors. It is helpful to do primary research on your competitors to get clarity on how you need to sound to stand out from among them with a unique and distinct brand voice.
How do you naturally sound?
How can you leverage your current communication style and tweak it for your brand voice? If you have a distinctive spoken voice, way of phrasing, or speaking, use these to your advantage. What are your natural defaults when you communicate? Do you use certain words in your ordinary conversation that are salient for your brand? Leverage these words as an opportunity to stand out. What type of imagery do you use innately? One of my clients just oozes visual metaphors and images related to adventure. She does this so naturally that I encouraged her to use this as a unique aspect of her brand’s voice. I have a Trinidadian accent and a style of communicating that is unique to me. I have had strangers recognize me by hearing my voice alone! Knowing this, I wield my accent in my work because it is an innate part of my identity.
How do you want your target audience to experience you when they interact with your brand?
The President of the market research company I worked for used this phrase to undergird our work: “You persuade people rationally but motivate them to act emotionally.” In short, you get your target audience to act (buy from you, follow you, work with you) when they connect with you emotionally. Gaining clarity around how you want them to feel emotionally through your voice, tone, and cadence is important. Consider what issue your product or service solves for your target audience and how you enhance their lives? Your brand’s voice needs to reflect and reinforce how you do that. If you’re an accountant, for example, who desires to be perceived as trustworthy and competent, your voice will likely be confident and reassuring and you may take a more formal rather than casual tone.
How do you need to communicate to your target customer so they connect with you?
This is a pivotal question that works on several levels, but certainly, as it relates to your brand’s voice. While your brand must be authentic and genuine, it’s important to consider your target customer and the type of communication that makes sense to them. How does your target client need to hear you for you to emotionally connect with them? For example, the way you communicate with college students will be different from how you communicate with senior-level executives. When determining your voice, you must consider who you’re speaking to and how best to ensure they connect to your messaging. Also bear in mind your target audience’s social media preferences and how they communicate on those platforms. This will give you even greater clarity in determining the type of voice they relate to.
Which brands’ voices appeal to you?
It’s always worthwhile to take a cue from brands you admire. In particular, pay attention to their voice. What about the way they communicate appeals to you, draws you in? How can you emulate that? Are you drawn to casual or formal tones? Funny or matter-of-fact? Sassy or mellow? How can you elicit similar emotions through your brand? On the other end of the spectrum, which tones turn you off? What phrases do your competitors use that you want to avoid? A type of communication that turns you off?
Social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others are some of the most visible channels for showcasing your brand’s voice. Maintaining consistent messaging in a cohesive voice will help your brand become familiarly recognized on multiple channels, including social media posts, blog posts, vlogs, educational videos, podcasts, and advertising. All of these channels offer a platform for your brand to communicate to your target audience in a way that feels familiar to them. Make sure it resonates on an emotional level so that your brand has the potential to positively influence how your target audience responds to you.
Natalie Jobity, MPhil, MBA, ACC, founder of The Unveiled Way, is a leadership and career coach, consultant, brand strategist, bestselling author, mentor, speaker, and facilitator who has earned a reputation as "The Brilliance Unveiler." She empowers female leaders to live in the fullness of their purpose and unveil their brilliance by leveraging the power of their strengths, expertise, and distinctiveness, so they make transformative impact in their sphere of influence.
Visit Natalie’s website to learn more about how she partners with leaders with her signature “Unveil Your Brilliance” program and her "Brand Your Biz Like a Boss" consulting service. While you’re there, join her Unveiled community and pick up your complimentary copy of her "Empowered to Lead: Seven Strategies to Help You Become a More Impactful Leader" guide.