Your voice—the things you talk about and how you talk about them—is the most important part of your brand. It doesn’t matter what you do and it doesn’t matter what media channels you use to broadcast it. Your voice is the most important part of your brand.

Why does it matter so much? Because your voice is what communicates your values and informs your audience and most importantly, it’s how your audience recognizes you. The whole point of establishing your branding voice is so that people will recognize the things you put out no matter what.

So, how do you go about molding your brand’s tone of voice to communicate your brand message effectively? Use the short and sweet guide for finding your brand’s voice below.

Start With a Strong Foundation

• Establish what your brand stands for:

  • Here are some ideas to help get your wheels turning: fun community luxury excitement progress adventure

• Establish your key message to the world:

  • To take the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful (Google)
  • To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world (Nike)
  • To make it easy for people to do themselves some good (Innocent Smoothies)

Want some help figuring this out? We’ve got you covered.

Find Some Inspiration

• Look for inspiration outside the walls of your office:

  • Ask team members for opinions of what they think your company values should be
  • Hold a meeting where you ask people to list words, phrases they associate with your company, and phrases they don’t associate with the company

• Asking for help establishing brand voice can have a big impact on the loyalty of your customers:

  • 66% of millennials have abandoned what had been their brand of choice because the brand no longer fit their identity (Source)
  • The most important driver of brand loyalty for millennials is a great product at 77%, followed closely by brand recognition and trust at 69% (Source)
  • 73% of consumers cite value as the leading factor that determines brand loyalty (Source)

Address Your Target Audience

• Decide how you’re going to say what  you want to say to whoever you want to say it to:

  • Should your voice be formal? stiff authoritative serious
  • Should your voice be informal? fun distinctive characterful

• It all comes down to target audience because if your brand voice doesn’t appeal to them:

  • 81% of consumers have un-liked a brand’s Facebook page if they felt the brand’s voice no longer resonated with them (Source)
  • 41% have unfollowed a brand’s Twitter handle (Source)
  • 97% have marked an email message as spam (Source)

Take your cues from your audience!

Find Your Funny Bone…Just Be Yourself

• Consider if humor fits into your brand’s voice. If humor is part of your brand voice, remember to:

  • Stay humble – it’s better to laugh at yourself rather than your customer
  • Be subtle – in most cases, gentle humor is the way to go for lighter copy
  • Go with your gut – if you’re ever in doubt, leave your joke out

• Humorous or not, the most important things you can do when establishing your brand’s voice is:

  • Build trust – 54% of people don’t trust brands. Ouch. (Source)
  • Be authentic – 80% of consumers say authenticity is the most influential factor in their decision to follow a brand (Source)
  • Meet needs – 48% of consumers expect brands to know them and help them discover products and services that meet their needs (Source)

45% of a brands image can be attributed to what it says and how it says it. Your brand is your promise, what you say you do, how you say you do it, and how it’s done. Make sure your company delivers on what you say you do with a well-established brand voice.

Are you ready to find your brand’s voice? Talk to us today and let’s establish the message that sets you apart from your competition.