Ask these 5 key questions to create a winning brand voice
Imagine for a moment that you lost all of your contacts in your phone and you didn’t have anyone’s number memorized. When someone texted you, do you think you’d be able to tell who was who? Sure, context clues would give you some hints. But you’d probably be pretty good at guessing based on their style of texting alone. You’ve got that one friend who…
Always
Sends
Texts
In
Separate
Bubbles
AND THAT OTHER FRIEND WHO ALWAYS TYPES IN ALL CAPS.
There’s your dad, who ends every sentence in a period. And then there’s your little brother who never capitalizes anything and uses the most random emojis 🦬
These variations between how the people in your life text is their voice. And brands should have personalities and voices, too! If brand messaging is what you’re communicating to your audience, your brand voice is how you communicate with your audience.
If you’re building a brand and want to be unmistakable to your audience (even if they didn’t see who the email was from or who posted the reel they’re watching), then keep reading.
Why does brand voice matter?
Beyond making you recognizable to your audience, your brand voice is a crucial piece of your overall brand strategy. It spans across every marketing channel you have.
How you talk to your customers (and future customers) creates an emotional connection that leads to loyalty.
I recently got an order in the mail from my favorite toothpaste brand, and their packaging made me laugh out loud. The humor they used made them feel less like just toothpaste and more like a cool community that I want to be part of. Now that they feel like my friends, I’ll definitely order again!
Making decisions about how your brand sounds also creates consistency so that you sound the same as your team grows.
While you may start out writing your own social media posts and blogs, you’ll pass those tasks off to an agency or in-house team someday. Toward the end of this blog, I’ll share the elements of a brand voice guide that keeps your marketing team on the same page!
So, where do you start? How do you create a brand voice that connects with audiences, feels authentic to your brand, and can be easily replicated as you go? It starts with asking five key questions.
What is your brand strategy?
It can be tempting to replicate the brand voices that you hear from other successful brands. If Gen Z, trend-based humor worked for them on social media, it will work for me, right? Not so fast. A trendy brand is only the right choice for you if it aligns with your overall strategy. (Read this recent blog to find out if a trendy brand is right for you!)
Brand strategy centers on a few key questions: Who is your ideal client? What gaps in their life do you fill? What is your mission and purpose? Once you have strategic grounding, you’re ready to make decisions about your brand voice.
What are your brand attributes?
Brand attributes are the five or so words that sum up your brand’s personality. Think of this as the words you might use to describe a best friend. Here are some examples of brand attributes from brands that Author Brand Studio has helped develop:
Brand 1 - A company that creates handcrafted storage products
CLEAN • MODERN • CLEVER • MASSTIGE • DOWN-TO-EARTH
Brand 2 - A company that makes financial literacy tools for kids
CLASSIC • DEPENDABLE • FRIENDLY • NEAT • UNCOMPLICATED
How do these words translate into brand voice guidelines? Words like “clean” or “uncomplicated” indicate that sentences should be short and easy to understand. “Classic” means that this brand probably won’t be using any slang, while “modern” could allow for popular expressions in the website copy. “Clever” leads to lots of puns and witticisms, and “friendly” implies an element of casual, welcoming language.
Write down your brand attributes and then spend a few minutes riffing on what each adjective could mean for the way your brand talks.
Who is your ideal client?
Knowing your ideal client is crucial for talking to them in a language they can understand. Start with demographics: How old is your ideal client? What’s their annual income? Where do they live? What’s their occupation?
While demographics are important, psychographics are more important. To hone in on this aspect of your ideal client, reflect on these questions: What problems do they have? What do they desire? What do they value? What do they wish they had more time for? What are their dreams? What are core pieces of their identity?
After you answer these questions, you’ll have a fictional character that sums up your ideal client. (Feel free to give this person a name!)
What role does your brand play in the life of your customer?
It’s a common mistake that new brands make: Once they know who their ideal client is, they start writing in the voice of their ideal client. I’ve also seen people with personal brands who assume that their brand voice should be their own voice. (For more on building a strategic personal brand, read this blog!)
For some brands, writing like your ideal client does or like you do IRL works! But for others, it falls flat. Here’s why:
Your brand voice doesn’t just depend on who your ideal client is or who you are. It also depends on the role your brand plays in the life of your ideal client.
Let’s say you’re a licensed therapist who is now running a coaching business for high school and college students. While your ideal clients are Gen Z, hopping on TikTok trends and calling everyone “bestie” isn’t necessarily the best strategy. You play the role of a guide in your clients’ lives, or, in terms of brand archetypes you are “The Sage” or “The Caregiver.” Talking to your clients like their friends do would diminish the mentoring role you play. Plus, it could come off as inauthentic or trying too hard. Instead, a brand voice that is calming, clear, empathetic and concise would align better with your strategy.
On the flip side, let’s say you’re an apparel brand geared toward 16 to 22-year-olds. Once again, you’re dealing with a Gen Z audience—but in this case, your brand’s role is less like a guide and more like a cool best friend. (You’re “The Everyman” in terms of brand archetypes!) For you, it makes all the sense in the world to write in a brand voice that sounds like your customers. Your brand voice can be casual, funny, trendy and youthful. It’s giving strategic, bestie!
Putting it all together: What to include in your brand voice guide
Now that you’ve honed in on your brand strategy, your brand attributes, your ideal client and the role that you play in your customers’ life, it’s time to put it all together. The most common way to articulate your brand voice is in a brand voice guide. This is a document that communicates what you sound like. Here’s what the best ones include:
Brand attributes - Those adjectives that we talked about before! How would you describe your brand if your brand were a person?
Brand personality - You have your ideal client demographics, but what about your brand personality demographics? Who is your brand? Even if you never share this with your customers, it’s helpful to have an idea of whose voice you’re writing in. Is your brand a trendsetting 21-year-old? A wise, compassionate therapist? A sarcastic mom? Envisioning a person behind your brand can help guide you to a consistent brand voice.
Do’s and don’ts - Create a bullet list of things that you’re all for and things you’d like to avoid. This is a good place to share preferences about word choice, humor, legal guidance, cursing, slang, and more.
Example sentences - For each do and don’t, write an example to illustrate what you mean. Yes, use both sentences you love and sentences that don’t match your brand voice! You can create these on the fly or pull from existing copy that represents your brand voice well.
Keywords to use - What words or phrases are important to your brand or part of your intellectual property? Keep track of these in your brand voice guide!
Emojis - If your brand has a presence on social, it’s a great idea to pick a few emojis that align with your brand to use consistently in captions or on your profile.
Grammar & style guidelines - Here’s where things get a bit more technical. Does your brand voice follow AP style or Chicago? How do you feel about the serial comma? What do you capitalize? What words are hyphenated? This is a list that you will keep adding to as you write!
Like so many elements of branding, your brand voice will evolve over time.
As your business expands and as you gain clarity on your mission, your brand voice will crystalize, too.
Give yourself permission to let your brand voice guide be a starting place! As you gain a following and connect with ideal clients, you’ll learn what resonates and engages with them.
The best place to start: Brand strategy.
Like I mentioned earlier, before you can develop a brand voice, you need a brand strategy. Going through that process alone can be overwhelming and confusing. That’s where Author Brand Studio steps in! We build strategic, story-driven brands that stand out from the crowd by making a meaningful impact on your customers. Let’s hop on a (totally free!) 30-minute call to find out how we could help you. Click here to schedule yours.
