We all know branding combines various elements, but have you heard of brand voice? Join us as we dive deep into brand voice, its characteristics, and best practices to help your business stand out in your niche and strengthen your brand identity.
These are the three categories that our blog is divided into:
What is a brand voice?
We communicate with each other in various forms. Everything boils down to how the listener hears your message, from the tone of your voice to the slang and accent.
That applies to both corporate and personal settings. For you as a business, it’s essential to determine how to say your message and make sure it connects with your audience.
For example, hashtag selection should align closely with your target demographic. Younger audiences like millennials and Gen Z might engage well with trendy hashtags such as TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) or TBT (Throwback Thursday). However, these same hashtags could appear irrelevant or confusing to older age groups, potentially diminishing the effectiveness of your communication strategy.
We want to avoid that, so establish your brand voice. As a business, you must sound professional but relatable and have authority on the subject you want to impart to your target market.
Your one-of-a-kind brand voice does precisely that. With industries and niches getting saturated by emerging businesses daily, you need to protect your brand and establish that you are what your customers want and need.
How you communicate matters, so to create the best brand voice for your business, let’s learn about the elements and tips.
Elements That Create Brand Voice
Communication is multifaceted. You need to know which parts to work on to make it effective. Let’s use the example above again: the generational differences of your audience. You need to identify your audience to shape your brand voice.
For Gen Z, the tone they love is when you sound personal, like you’re talking to them one-on-one or having a conversation with a friend.
Your tone must be straight to the point with no BS for Millennials. But you must also sound clever and know what you’re saying, or they’ll eat you alive.
Do you see how brand voice will affect your overall branding? And, like any part of your marketing strategy, your agent has features.
Get to know them right here. Here are the four elements you need to set for an influential brand voice.
Character
The feeling of your brand voice answers who you are to your market. It’s the unique mascot or spokesperson your audience may identify with, much like Ronald McDonald or Colonel Sanders.
It’s the personality you tell your market about; are you going for a cute vibe? Or maybe you want to be conversational yet come across as knowledgeable about your niche.
That’s food for thought when you’re thinking about your character.
Purpose
As the name suggests, the words you use need to have intention, a straightforward brand message paired with flowery words that your market understands.
There are usually three types of forms you can use to shift your brand voice:
- Sales
- Engagement
- Informing
Let’s say you want to encourage sales, so you’d have a CTA saying, “Grab Yours Here” or “Join/Subscribe Today and Don’t Miss Out….” These are examples to help you prompt your reader to action.
Or if you want engagement with your market, you’d add to your caption something like, “Comment your favorite___ below. We love to hear from you.” This type of voice tells your market that you want to talk with them and gives a personal feeling that people love.
For informing, you could tell a story or have a "food-for-thought" type of tone. Make your market feel like the information you’re giving is something they need to know, “Here are ___ facts about (your product or niche).”
That type of voice helps you appear knowledgeable and believable, and you hook the interest of your audience because they’re entertained and learn from you.
Syntax
Second last, we have syntax, a.k.a. the language you use to communicate with your audience. This portion refers to the words you use to talk to your market.
From formal to informal speech patterns to jargon and slang that only you, your customers, and your fellow business people can understand. An example could TikTok's #fyp.
This hashtag could be confusing for new users on the platform. It would be better to use #foryoupage. This spells out the meaning of "fyp" and lets new users know that your content could appear on their "For You" page as determined by the algorithm.
The bottom line is that you must be careful to use words and phrases your market would understand.
Tone
Your brand's tone is dynamic and should be strategically adapted to different contexts while maintaining a consistent underlying character. Unlike your core brand personality, which remains relatively stable, the tone is flexible and can shift based on several key factors:
- Communication channel: Different platforms require nuanced communication styles. The tone you use on LinkedIn will differ significantly from Instagram or Twitter. A professional network demands more formal, authoritative language, while social media platforms allow for more casual, conversational approaches.
- Audience segment: Each audience demographic responds differently to communication styles. Younger audiences appreciate direct, witty, and often irreverent language. In contrast, professional or older audiences might prefer more measured, respectful, and informative messaging.
- Situational context: Your brand's tone must adapt to the emotional weight of different situations:
- During product launches: Excited and confident
- When addressing customer service issues: Empathetic and reassuring
- Sharing industry insights: Knowledgeable and authoritative
- Celebrating company milestones: Warm and celebratory
- Emotional resonance: Effective tone goes beyond words—it's about creating an emotional connection. Your language should reflect the feelings you want to evoke: trust, inspiration, humor, comfort, or excitement.
- Brand personality alignment: While tone can change, it should never feel disconnected from your core brand personality. Consider tone as different outfits your brand can wear, but the underlying character remains consistent.
Example Scenario: Consider a tech company that typically uses an innovative, slightly nerdy tone. During a serious global event, they might temporarily adopt a more compassionate and supportive tone without losing their fundamental identity of being forward-thinking and intelligent.
The four elements that make up your brand voice may differ per situation, but the perception you’ve built around it stays. An excellent way to do that is through emotional design since it has visual and auditory content for your brand voice.
It also helps create the best impression for your business, which is great for the seven seconds your customer takes to make one of you.
Tips for Creating a Unique Brand Voice
Now let’s dive into the steps you can take to make your brand voice more recognizable to your target market. We need to make them feel that you’re different.
- Visualize Brand Persona and Audience
- Pinpoint The Purpose of Your Content
- Glossary of Unique Terms and Definitions
- Adapt to Your Audience
- Consistency Lessens Misunderstanding
1. Visualize Brand Persona and Audience
Give a face to who you are talking to; it helps to visualize who you want to become so you and your team are on the same page.
To help you plan better, here are some guidelines for you:
- Fictional Name
- Age
- Personality
- Interests
- Dislikes
If you want to give your persona a more defined personality trait, consider incorporating insights from the 16 Personalities Tests. You can also look at Carl Jung’s 12 Archetypes, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, to help you create a brand persona that fits your business. After that, you must determine your target audience: Gen Z, Millennials, or both.
You can look back at the first part of Elements that Create Brand Voice for the tone both generations like. You can also base it on specific ages, like Young Adults (20-30) to Adults (30- 45).
Your brand voice will start to take shape as long as you can pinpoint who you are and who you want your message to reach.
2. Determine the Purpose of Your Content
Next, we have the WHY you want to communicate with your market. Where is your content going to appear?
Think about that to help you plan how to sound on your posts. Always look back to the elements of brand voice to assist you in this area.
But here are some keywords to remember for your posts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and others:
- Active = Sales
- Knowledgable with some Jargon = Informative
- Conversational or Friendly = Engagement
3. Glossary of Unique Terms and Definitions
Whether it’s animating your posts or blogs for your website, make sure you have terms that are yours.
Take a look at Spotify. They often use humorous words with a friendly tone to connect with users. For example, look at Spotifycore or Streambait pop. These terms describe hit playlists like Chill Hits or Alternative Beats from Spotify or other music streaming services.
You can also look at Apple as an example with their use of AirDrop or other Apple-related products. They have their own words to describe their products.
You can make yours, too. Doing so allows you to create content that resonates with your market.
4. Adapt to Your Audience
This part is tricky since we don’t want you to lose your identity as a business. But some specific words and platforms resonate better with your audience.
And you have to pair your visuals with such words. Let’s say you’re doing a giveaway. You must decide if you’re going with a still image, short video, or animated post.
Then, pair that with a caption that matches your brand voice to produce sales (you can use an AI caption generator to save time). With that picture in mind, you can start to plan the tone and words you’ll use.
5. Consistency Lessens Misunderstanding
Lastly, we cannot emphasize being consistent enough. Whether it’s a work email to a product description on label design, you need to give specific words and tones that stay true to your brand persona.
Whether digital or print marketing, make sure both sound like your business would say it. Let’s say it’s your greeting on your Instagram post.
You could go niche-centered with, “Hey ___ lover! We have a sale going on right now. Don’t miss it!” In turn, all your posts that pertain to niche-related topics and announcements could have that same vibe with a tweak on how you present them to keep them fresh.
Implementing a robust brand asset management system can significantly streamline the process of maintaining brand consistency across all platforms, enhancing your brand’s voice and presence.
It also lessens misunderstandings, as your market can’t accuse you of returning to your word unless you mention a rebranding.
Stand Out With Your Brand Voice Today
There you have it, a guide to uniquely branding yourself online through a brand voice. As the famous saying goes, communication can break or break a relationship.
Create a positive impression on your market with words and media design to further your business endeavors. You can hire a freelance designer to aid you.
Or you can customize designs through templates. From business cards to invoices and Facebook ads, you can experience designing the best fit for your business.
Establish your brand voice and tell the market that you exist today.
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Written by DesignCrowd on Thursday, May 25, 2023
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.
