How can you effectively communicate with internal and external audiences? How do you communicate after a complete corporate rebranding? How do you train the leadership, the marketing department, and internal communications to present a united front? The answer to the questions lies in your brand voice.
Your brand voice is the tone of your communications, the style of your content, the personality behind all your writing. A brand voice ensures consistency no matter who on your team is creating the posts. Without a strong, intentional brand voice, your content will sound to your fans like corporate press releases — or worse, like your brand has no personality at all. Brandemix offers 5 inside-the-agency tips to make sure you’re delivering a consistent and compelling brand voice.
1. Answer 3 Questions:
Who are you and who are they?
A brand voice requires two decisions. First, who are you as an organization? What sets you apart from everyone elseWhat are your mission, vision, and values? How do you speak about your brand to your employees? A legacy luxury brand like Gucci (“Founded in Florence in 1921…”) sounds different from a hip newcomer like Warby Parker (“Let’s find you some amazing glasses”).
Who is your audience?
How do they communicate with each other? Are they formal or casual? Would they rather read articles, look at photos, or watch videos? What sort of content do they create, which you might be able to turn into user-generated content on your own channels? For example, if you notice your customers write something like “I LOVE LOVE these shoes,” then maybe one of your emails should read “You’ll LOVE LOVE these shoes.” Match their voice and they’ll see you as one of them, instead of a corporate robot.
Keep in mind that there is more to “content” than just copywriting. By learning what sort of photos they’re taking and videos they’re watching, you can create more compelling, more effective content. For example, maybe your customers would rather see a behind-the-scenes tour of your offices, while your employees would rather share or pictures of their pets.
Are you a Wizard or a Warrior?
It may seem difficult to distill your company’s attributes into a single personality. But what if I told you that weren’t that many types of personalities out there? Psychologists and storytellers have known for decades that just about every characters falls into one of twelve categories that symbolize all human motivations.
Maybe your brand is the Innocent, which spreads joy and simplifies life; brands like Dove, Snuggle, and Hershey’s. Or maybe your brand is the Maverick, disruptive and rebellious, ; brands like Harley-Davidson, Doritos, or Red Bull. Sages like Google and Morgan Stanley help people understand the world, while Creators like Lego or YouTube give people the tools to realize their visions.
You can find useful Pinterest boards, one for each archetype, here. Of course, your voice doesn’t have to come from this list. Maybe you want to model your voice on the wit and confidence of Tony Stark in Iron Man or maybe your CEO’s personality is the perfect match for the brand. Have fun with it — this is your company’s personality, after all!
2. Set standards
Once you’ve made these decisions, you need to make sure everyone is on the same page. Collect all your brand voiec information and some sample content into a brand book. Put it any relevant content information; if you refer to customers as “guests,” (like the Disney parks do) put it in the book. A brand book should also include identity guidelines, to make sure your website, mobile site, affiliate sites, and social channels all look the same. Distribute the book to anyone who might create (or approve) content. It will be a living document, reflecting changes as your organization uses new terms, creates new products, or reaches new audiences.
3. Conduct a messaging workshop
I’ve helped many organizations of all sizes craft their brand voice. I bring all the stakeholders together for an ideation session that takes into account employee surveys, executive interviews, and customer feedback. Together, we determine how your organization currently communicates (to both employees and customers) and how your audience communications. We emphasize similarities and decrease or eliminate differences.
Of course, your audience doesn’t completely dictate your brand voice, and you should stick with your existing values as much as possible. But even a slight alignment in your messaging can create a big increase in engagement, loyalty, and content sharing.
4. Raise your voice!
Creating and maintaining a brand voice can take some time, but once you’ve achieved it, creating content becomes so much easier. No matter what the circumstances, your team will know how to communicate with a consistent style and tone, which will set you apart from much of your competition.
5. Raise your hand!
Need a hand creating a brand or holding a workshop? Drop me a line.
Jody Ordioni is President of Brandemix.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.