Imagine your brand in a crowdy marketplace with several competing brands, all calling out to an already distracted audience.

 Will anyone in that crowd recognize your voice?

Or will it fade into oblivion?

If no one can recognize your voice, it is probably because your brand lacks one or is yet to maintain a consistent voice unique enough to be recognized.

Standing out as a business can be daunting, especially in a saturated marketplace where so many people do something similar to you. Fail to establish your brand as different from the bunch, and you’ll struggle to build a loyal base of paying customers while recording low customer acquisition, retention, and business growth.

One of the ways to increase and retain customer loyalty, turn ordinary buyers into raving fans, and make bucket-loads of money for your business is by having a brand voice.

Do you know what a brand voice is or why it is necessary for your business?

You are about to find out—and as a plus, I’ll throw in a few tips for building your brand voice.

Let’s get down to it.

What is a brand voice?

Think of how you can spot the voice of the people closest to you, even in a crowded place. Or how you can differentiate between the personalities of your friends; you can tell them apart by how they speak or behave. If you have known them long enough, this comes with ease.

In the same way, successful brands have personalities too that set them apart from other brands. These distinctive qualities help them build better customer relationships that drive brand loyalty and increase lifetime value.

Your brand voice captures the peculiar way your company expresses its values and motivations. It helps your business stand out from the crowd and establish its presence in the market.

Customers get attached to brands they can relate to. By having your brand voice, you develop a way of communication unique to you, so much so that your audience can spot it from miles away. It breaks down barriers and helps pass your message across loud and clear.

Why is a brand voice important?

Now that you understand the concept of brand voice, you want to know why your brand needs one. Here are the four reasons why having a brand voice is crucial to your business as air to your lungs.

1. A brand voice helps you connect with your audience.

Imagine being in a room full of prospects who speak various languages different from yours. You’ll struggle with communicating your message with that audience, however valuable it has the potential to be.  

It is the same for your brand voice. 

You want your brand to be seen and heard, right?

You want to establish strong relationships with your target audience. 

A clear brand voice does that for you. 

It lets people get acquainted with your company and understand it better. Furthermore, your brand voice allows you to communicate better with your customers in the language they can hear and understand.

According to research, 59% of shoppers buy from brands they trust. And what better way to build trust than through effective brand communication? 

You get it now, right? 

Great. Moving on!

2. It reflects your brand personality.

A brand voice is valuable because it helps shape how potential customers see you. It makes it easy to communicate your core values and goals successfully. 

A brand voice is necessary for conveying the right brand personality that helps customers identify a company and motivates them to perceive its persona positively. This persona can be fun or authoritative; casual or formal— Depending on your target audience.

3. It creates consistency across all your communication channels.

Everyone knows the famous Nike slogan, ‘Just Do It.’ The phrase comes to mind when you think of the brand. 

What if, for its commercials, the brand used the slogan, ‘Just Do It,’ and for everything else, it used a variation that says ‘Just Try To Do It?’

Screams inconsistency, don’t you think? 

Being consistent across your channels and content helps to create a clear and recognizable image in the minds of consumers. 

A consistent brand voice helps to establish trust and credibility with your audience, making it easier for them to remember your brand and to understand and accept its messaging. By maintaining the same voice across all messaging channels, your brand builds a cohesive and recognizable brand identity. Ultimately, it leads to increased brand loyalty and sales.

How to create a unique brand voice

Here I am, about to fulfill my promise to you—I have highlighted seven proven tips for building a brand voice below. Keep reading.  

1. Develop a core brand identity.

The first step to creating your brand voice is to develop your core brand identity by establishing your vision, mission, values, and culture. 

What do you believe in? 

What qualities do you want your brand to be associated with? 

Your values and culture will give you a sense of your target audience and how to speak to them. It’ll also help you develop a vocabulary that communicates all that your brand represents.

2. Identify your competitive advantage.

Whether you know it or not, a silent war rages between you and your competitors, and only the best man wins. And one of the ways to win is to highlight the aspects of your business that help it stand out from the competition. That is your competitive advantage. 

What does your brand offer that others don’t? 

What do you do better than your competition? 

Anything that ranks you higher than your competitors should be captured in your voice. Let your target audience know how confident you are in your offer and how you’re the best choice among the bunch. Identify your business persona and how it beats everyone else in the market. Afterward, you can easily choose the right words to communicate your uniqueness.

3. Describe your audience.

What kind of audience does your brand serve? 

What is their demography? 

What are their goals and pain points? 

How do they speak? 

Your brand voice all boils down to your customers. You can find the answers to these questions through thorough research, surveys, polls, etc. You need to know your customer inside and out, to understand the language and voice that resonates with them.

A good example is TikTok.

TikTok understands that it is a platform primarily used by younger generations, especially Gen Zs. And so, it uses a relatable, casual, and often humorous tone in its content and advertising to build trust and engagement with the Gen Z audience.

This example shows how much your audience shapes your brand voice.

4. What existing content do you already have?

Consider reviewing your existing content. 

Is there a consistent tone in your content?

Can you spot an already-established brand voice?

What would you like to do differently moving forward?

By reviewing your existing content, you learn how your brand already communicates with its customers and how it currently presents itself. And if there are communication styles and tones you want to change, you’ll have a good head start.  

5. Personalize your brand

If you ever met your brand as a person, what kind of personality would you love it to have? 

Jovial? 

Humorous?

Formal? 

Outspoken? 

Uptight?

Identifying the voice most suited to that person will give you a clearer view of what you want your brand to sound like and the tone you want to convey.

6. Build a consistent style across your various channels.

Consistency is vital for developing a brand voice. It is crucial to create strict guidelines to ensure your content across the various platforms align with your brand voice.

Create a document that outlines your brand’s tone, language, and messaging and how to use each in different contexts. Share this guide with all employees and partners who create content for the brand. Also, ensure that everyone creating content for your brand is trained on your voice and understands how to apply it.  

7. Define how you use your tone.

It is vital to keep your voice consistent across all channels, but it is okay to have slight variations to your tone, depending on each communication channel. For instance, while you may use a formal voice tone for customer interaction, you can choose a more informal and goofy voice tone on social media.

What’s next for you?

Now you understand what a brand voice is, why it is essential to your brand, and how to create a suitable one—what’s next for you?

Do you have a brand voice but are uncertain it represents your core values?

Are you struggling to maintain a consistent brand voice across your content channels?

Does your brand lack a voice altogether?

Whatever category you fall under, now is the time to return to the drawing board. The good part? You can adopt any personality as long as it is unique and matches your brand and audience. 

If you need help developing your brand voice to set your business apart from the bunch, we at the Fourth Writers are here to help. Through our combined years of copywriting, we have learned the intricacies of developing a brand voice and creating content to reflect the same, acknowledging and implementing the change in dynamics as a brand evolves.

 We look forward to hearing from you. Send us a message.