Guest post by Karen Gunton from build a little biz.
One of the things I talk about a lot over at build a little biz is how your brand is more than your logo. Your brand is the message you send out to the world about your business and you send that message in two ways: with your look and your voice.
Most little biz builders invest a lot of thought and budget into creating the right look for their brand. They choose the right biz name, get a fantastic logo, make sure they have good product images and get nice business cards printed. That is fantastic, and an important part of branding, but equally important (if not more important) is the voice of your brand.
The ‘voice’ of your brand exists in the copy on your website and promotional flyers, in your emails, your newsletter and your blog posts. It is a part of your product descriptions, tagline, and sales pitches. It is in your tweets, Facebook comments, and (more literally) in your in-person conversations. If your voice doesn’t match the rest of your brand message, you can undo all of the work you have done to get your name out there and attract customers to your biz.
So how do you make sure the ‘voice’ of your business matches the brand message you mean to send out?
1. Make sure you are clear about what your brand message is. Is your business: efficient, methodical, professional, casual, funny, serious, modern, traditional, funky, trendy, cute, punk-rock… or something else entirely. (Get out your thesaurus if you need to. Come up with 5 words to describe your brand.)
2. Consider how you can express those messages with your voice. For example if your brand message is:
- Professional, traditional, serious – then you shouldn’t use slang, swear, or be too casual
- Fun, funny, silly – find ways to inject humor into your writing/speaking style
- Edgy, trendy, badass – you might use slang, text speak, modern lingo, swear words etc.
- Inspirational, motivational – use inspirational quotes, motivating words & language as part of your customer engagement
- Efficient, speedy, time-saving – don’t send long wordy emails, keep your copy short & to the point
3. Be the brand message. While your brand isn’t necessarily the same as your own personality, the more you live your brand message the easier it is to voice that message. Let your personality, your passion, your gifts shine through your brand even if you need to amplify that part of you for your business communication.
4. Be consistent & repetitive. Your brand message needs to be clear with every single interaction people have with you. If your brand is “quick, simple & efficient” – always make your voice quick, simple and efficient. Always. Everywhere. If “magnificent” is the word that best describes your brand then use that word every single chance you get. When your clients start sending you quotes with the word magnificent in them then you know you have communicated your brand voice!
5. Be creative! One of my favourite tricks is to make up words that fit your brand message. For example, if your goal is to help businesses go green with their businesses, and then you could “green-ify” or “green-itize”. If you use the word often enough it will become positively associated with your business. You can also find quotes, lyrics, sayings etc that match your brand message and use these often. Pinterest is a great place to find inspiration for that.
6. Look for examples of businesses that do this well. If you aren’t really sure how to make your brand message stand out in your voice, look at how other businesses do it. Visit your favourite sites/blogs and consider how they use their voice to stand out. Even if their message is different to yours, you can use the same tactics to express your message.
7. Go over the top with your brand message. Communicating your voice effectively can be a bit like speaking to large group without a microphone. You need to be BIG and go over the top with your gestures and tone so the people in the back don’t miss out. The same applies to your brand voice so think big!
8. Practice, practice, practice. It might take you a while to find the right voice and to get used to being so over the top with your message. The secret is to keep at it. If you find yourself reverting back to the same old, boring way everyone else communicates, stop and consider how you can inject your brand into what it is you are saying. The more you do it; the more it will become second nature to you.
9. When in doubt, get some help! If you find that you have no idea how to write and speak in a way that makes your brand and business stand out, hire a copywriter to help you. A great copywriter will get to know you, your business, your brand message and your target audience and help you express all of that in your marketing. Sometimes all it takes is a little help to get you going, and then you can continue on that same track. It is well worth the investment – and really, why wouldn’t you put the same investment into the voice of your business as you did the look of your business?
Over at build a little biz I help my clients get unstuck and my brand message is that I want little biz builders to do what they love, to be awesome with every interaction they have with their clients, and to kick ass with every strategy they employ. One quick visit to my site and you will see me use words like ‘awesome’ ‘kick-ass’ ‘badass’ ‘rock’ ‘be you’ and ‘unstuck’ all the time. I want my audience to know me and what I do – loud and clear.
Have you ever thought about your brand voice? Do you match your marketing to that voice?
Thanks to Karen for this great post. Don’t forget to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
One Response
Really excellent article! Wonderfully written. And I agree that most clients don’t realise the value words have for their business. That’s why they need us writers 🙂