As a business, finding your brand voice is an essential, but often missed, piece of a smart marketing strategy. Your brand voice is how you present in the content you create, on social media, and while interacting with clients and potential clients online.
Not to be confused with tone, brand voice is more about personality. Think of it this way… if your company was represented by a person, who would she be? How would she engage online? What topics would she speak on? What platforms or topics would she actively avoid?
Your brand voice uses the combination of all of those elements and more to create a unique style all your own. Crafting an authentic brand voice is vital. And refining then effectively communicating it can help you stand out online and attract your ideal audience across platforms.Â
To learn the 5 steps to finding your authentic voice and attracting your ideal clients, keep reading.
Table of Contents
- Analyze Your Brand Identity
- Reflect on Current Messaging
- Outline Your Client Persona
- Organize an Internal Guidelines
- Review & Revise as Needed
5 Steps to Finding Your Brand Voice
If you’re struggling with the creation of your brand voice, you’re not alone. It can be a huge challenge to set yourself apart from the crowd — regardless of industry. But there are a few steps you can take to make the process easier.
1. Analyze Your Brand Identity
The first step to creating or refining your brand voice is to analyze your brand identity. When we think of brand identity, we often think of the visual since brand Identity typically refers to your logo, the typography you use, and the color palette that defines your brand.
But identity is much more than that. It’s your values, unique positioning, and even your personality. It’s in these elements that you’ll want to dig deeper. Ask yourself the following questions:
What is my company’s mission?
What do we, as a business, value most?
Where do we differ from our top competitors?
And most importantly, how can I effectively convey these things to potential clients?
The answers are where you’ll find your personality. And it’s the combination of who you are and what makes you unique where you can begin to find your brand voice.
Tangible Tip: Perform a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of your brand compared to your top 3 competitors. Need a template? Message our team!
2. Reflect on Current Messaging
Once you begin to refine your brand identity, it’s important to reflect on the messaging you’re currently putting out. Content can be pulled from anywhere connected to your brand but pay close attention to the copy in the following places:
- Brand Website
- Business Blog
- Social Media
- Email (promo and newsletters)
- Printed Marketing Materials
- Advertisements (online or otherwise)
What are your best-performing pieces? What content is generating organic traffic for your website? Which social media posts are gaining traction online? And, of that content, what trends can you see that are resonating with your audience?
Tangible Tip: Perform a Messaging Audit every 6 months and ask these 3 questions: Is it consistent? Does it convey your value proposition? Does it speak directly to your ideal client?
3. Outline Your Client Persona
Speaking of your audience, understanding who they are (and also what they want) can help you find your brand voice. After you reflect on your current messaging you should have an idea of the type of content your current audience is responding to.
If you find that your most engagement with copy isn’t really a reflection of who you are as a company and how you’d like to present as a brand — change it!
If it is though, try to replicate that messaging anywhere you may be lacking. Are you getting conversions through email marketing but not on the blog, make a shift in your copy to match the voice, cadence, and tone that resonates with your ideal client.
Tangible Tip: Create an audience profile that includes a name and biography. Need a template? Message our team!
4. Organize an Internal Guidelines
At this point, you should have more clarity on your brand voice. Now, it’s time to really hone in. A great way to do that is by creating a brand voice chart. Start by defining your voice in 3 words.
Say you’re a young, hungry, financial advisor branching out with your own firm. Perhaps you’d want to convey that you’re:
- Bold
- Intelligent
- and Compassionate
If that’s the case, push even further with a list of Dos and Don’ts based on your chosen characteristics. Using the above traits, you might list something like this:
- We’re bold enough to tell it like it is but we’ll never push our clients out of their financial comfort zone.
- Our brand is all about spreading the love, delivering as much education and value as possible on how to manage the financial future of our clients.
- Above all, we know how close our clients hold their finances, and we’re committed to compassionate investing, helping them save in a way that makes them feel good!
Ensure that both your brand characteristics and any dos and don’ts you choose are accessible for every member of your team. Whether creating blog content or sending emails to prospective clients, your brand voice should shine through!
Tangible Tip: Include your brand voice and messaging guidelines as part of your Style Guide.
5. Review & Revise as Needed
Outlining your brand voice is necessary, but don’t feel stuck with the results so plan to revisit your brand identity, voice, and vision at least once a year (or as often as needed).
Remember, your brand voice should be a true reflection of how you wish your company to be seen. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments if and when something no longer suits you.
Tangible Tip: Set a reminder to review and revise your brand voice with your team every 6 months to ensure your messaging resonates with your ideal clients.
Next Steps
One way to ensure that your brand is aligned with your current marketing strategy is by working with a smart digital partner. Assessing your brand voice, identity, and audience personas is the very first step in our Strategy Audit Intensive process. We want to give you smart digital advice based on your unique brand so we have to start with these important details.
If you’d like to learn more about how Smart Girl Digital can help you, book a FREE Digital Discovery session where we can give expert guidance on brand and marketing alignment. For more information, contact us today!
