What defines your brand more than anything else? Its voice.
Your brand voice is how you communicate to your audience and how your audience recognizes you as a brand. It’s in the content you create, your social media engagement and the way you communicate and represent your company. It’s your personality.
But what steps do you take to find your brand voice and reach your ideal audience? Here are 3 tips to get started:
Before creating messaging or making connections, you’ll need to define your brand. To start, make a list of three to five adjectives that describe your brand’s personality. At Next PR, some of ours include: Smart, Fun, Knowledgeable, Witty, Direct. This is a great opportunity to involve your team members, too. Have them brainstorm adjectives (try writing them on Post-its and hanging them up in a meeting), then begin defining your voice with the adjectives that make multiple appearances. By giving your brand an identity, you’ll begin to think of it like an actual person.
What are your ultimate business goals? Who do you need to reach in order to achieve them? This is your target audience. Once you know who you’re trying to reach, you’re able to craft buyer personas. These profiles will be a representation of your ideal audience and help you personify your brand. Create these “people” for each sect of your business and audience – what are their interests, where do they shop, what are their pain points – and craft messaging that speaks to their needs. You should even name them! This will help you hone in on your messaging and ensure it resonates with your audience.
Successful brands have a distinct but recognizable voice and apply it consistently across all platforms. Strengthen your brand voice by utilizing different social media platforms – but don’t confuse your audience with an inconsistent voice across these channels. Represent a uniform voice on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email marketing, your website, etc. Through this, you establish a recognizable voice and your audience can start engaging with and trusting your brand.
Think about your favorite brands: What do they have in common? They likely represent themselves in an engaging, relatable way across their website and social channels – boosting engagement and customer loyalty.
Start honing in on your brand voice and use these steps to further develop your brand’s personality.