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We’ve all had moments in our lives when we’ve been completely captivated by a master storyteller. Maybe the keynote speaker at your last conference knocked it out of the park. Perhaps you’ve sat in your car listening to your favorite podcast, lost in the story. Heck, maybe you were at the bar and couldn’t get enough of the yarns the guy next to you was spinning.
We’ve also all had the experience of losing our voice and the challenges that presents. Having your voice fail you makes it difficult to communicate or be heard at all. Other times, the tone of your voice may not match your intent, which can confuse the people at best or at worst, tick them off.
This is why finding your unique brand voice is so important. It attracts the people who are interested in what you have to say and what you’re selling. Which is the whole point of marketing, right?
Use Your Mission and Values to Find Your Unique Brand Voice
Your voice is how you communicate who you are to the world. The same is true of your brand voice. Authenticity is the name of the game here. Customers and employees can sniff out bullhunky from a mile away.
Use your story, mission, and values to guide you as you develop your brand’s voice. If your company identity is serious, formal, and risk-averse, your unique brand voice better be serious, formal, and conservative (with a lowercase “c”). If your company identity is whimsical, fun, and funky, then your voice better be witty, conversational, and informal.
Develop Your Voice, then Your Tone
Voice is your company’s consistent, unchanging personality, just like your own speaking voice. Your tone is the emotion and inflection you put behind your voice, like when you whisper, yell, speak excitedly, or whine. Just like you change your tone to fit the moment, companies change the tone of their voice to suit the platform or the message.
When you get your voice and your tone right, it attracts the people who are interested in you and what you have to say. It helps your company authentically meet the moment, whether you’re launching a new product, dealing with a customer service issue, or adding your voice to the news of the day. Who knows, you might even go viral (in a good way). On the other hand, when you mismatch your voice and tone to the moment, it can be a huge turn-off. It may leave people confused, disgusted, or angry. Who knows, you might even go viral (in a bad way).
Spend some time with your mission and values. Look back at how you’ve communicated with customers in the past. What was effective? What missed the mark? Use this data to come up with a guide for what your company voice and tone sound like and how they are used to market new product, handle complaints, and interact with the world.
Add in Your Visual Language
Anyone else talk with their hands? How about your eyebrows? We all rely on body language a great deal when communicating with people. It’s the visual language that completes, affirms, or contradicts the words that come out of our mouths. Brands have a visual language, too. It includes the images, videos, and graphic elements used across all marketing materials. Depending on how it is used, like body language, visual language will complete, affirm, or contradict your brand message.
Be considerate of the images and other graphical elements you select for website, social media, email, and print materials. Do they complete or affirm the tone and voice you have developed for your brand, or do they contradict it?
Let’s imagine you’re a restaurant that’s marketing its new line of fresh salads. Your menu has six salads with a variety of types of greens, proteins, and other toppings. Custom photography of each of these new dishes would complete and affirm the message that you have these great salads on your menu. A stock image of a pitiful garden salad with wilting iceberg lettuce and one or two sad cherry tomatoes would contradict the idea that you’ve got some great salads on offer.
Stay Consistent
Consistency and repetition are important habits to develop in your unique brand voice. It takes five to twelve touches for someone to buy from you, and it’s important that every touch develops the relationship and you sounds like who you are. Once you’ve found your brand’s voice, use it! Feel like you’re a broken record. People need to hear your message—in your authentic voice—multiple times to truly understand you and your brand.
Ready to find your unique voice? The Solutionistas are here to help. Let’s talk. In the meantime, download our free brand guide.