As a business owner, you understand the importance of creating unique and engaging content that reflects your brand's message and personality. Whether it's through your blog, social media posts or other forms of communication, having a consistent brand voice is essential in order to connect with your target audience and make a lasting impact.
Like human beings, every company has its own unique set of characteristics that differentiate it from other companies. Your company’s name, logo, product, marketing strategy, values, promises, and service design are some unique indicators of your brand. Another important characteristic is a company’s tone of voice.
So, what exactly is a brand's tone of voice and why is it so important? How does a company’s tone of voice contrast with its voice?
Company’s voice vs. tone of voice: what’s the difference?
Your company’s voice represents its unique perspective and the values it stands for. Simply put, it is a company’s overall personality.
Your company’s tone of voice, on the other hand, refers to how a company communicates with its audience, which can include word choice, communication style, and emotional tone.
It is how your company sounds when you write. Your tone of voice is directly responsible for the impression you make on your audience through the words and expressions you choose to use. When people read your words, they should be able to tell that it's you.
It’s your attitude — and it can change as much as your attitude in real life, depending on the situation.
Your brand tone of voice plays a huge role in defining your brand's personality and setting you apart from your competition. With the right tone of voice, your brand can create a more personal connection with your audience and build a stronger sense of trust and credibility.
Why is your tone of voice important?
Your brand tone of voice is a key component of your brand identity and goes a long way in affecting your business success. Below are reasons why your tone of voice is important
It can help build a deep connection with your audience.
Having a consistent tone of voice builds trust, credibility, and authority with your audience.
It makes you more approachable in the eyes of your consumers.
It builds loyalty, and ultimately it gives people the confidence to buy from you.
It humanizes your brand.
It helps you stand out from the crowd.
The different tones of voice
It is essential for every company to understand its audience and find what tone works best for them. Here are some that you might be familiar with.
Authoritative tone
Positive and inspiring tone
Conversational tone
Free-spirit/Humor
Proud and aloof
Emotional tone
Bland
You can choose any tone to connect your brand to. However, in order to maximize the impact of your blog and other content, you need to make sure that your brand's tone of voice is consistent and reflective of your unique personality traits.
How to choose the right brand tone of voice for your company’s blog
Choosing the right tone of voice can help you communicate and engage with your audience on a deeper level. Below are our tips on how to choose the right tone of voice for your blog.
1. Define your company’s values and features.
The first step in choosing the right tone of voice is to define your brand's personality. Your brand's personality should reflect your unique style and the personality traits that set you apart from your competition. To begin, you should consider answering the following questions.
What makes your brand unique?
What does it stand for?
What kind of culture do you promote with your brand?
What are your target audience’s pain points?
What problem(s) do you help solve?
What is your strength?
Your answers to these questions are essential in determining your company’s tone of voice. They are the building blocks. There should be an alignment between your values, beliefs, and priorities. This should guide the way you speak to your audience.
2. Understand your target audience.
Who are they? Are they mostly the carefree Gen Zees or the older generation? Are they highly educated business professionals or semi-illiterates? You can dig further by classifying them into age groups, genders, interests, and other demographics.
If your audience consists of college students or younger people, a funny or more casual tone is best suited to communicate. On the other hand, if you have more older professionals, then you should consider a serious brand voice or a persuasive brand voice.
For every demographic, you can do your little research to understand how best to get their attention and communicate effectively. Knowing your audience helps in deciding what tone works best for them.
3. Create voice guidelines
Once you have a clear understanding of your brand's personality and target audience, it's time to create voice guidelines. These guidelines should outline your brand's tone and what you want to communicate through your content. They should also include specific examples of the tone you want to use and how you want your brand's voice to come across in your blog posts and other content.
4. Design a tone of voice guide for your team
In order for your brand's tone of voice to be consistent, it's important that all team members are aware of your voice guidelines and understand the importance of using a consistent tone in all of your content.
There should be an existing template that guides your entire team on your company’s tone of voice. Ensure this guide is easily accessible and includes details such as;
Punctuation usage
Grammar preferences
Your brand voice dos and don’ts
Writing style, etc.
Also, make sure your content team understands your branding, mission, and values so that even if they all carry different tones, they'll still exist under a unified voice.
Bottom line: Be consistent!
Your company’s tone of voice needs to appear in everything you do and should be consistent across all channels where your customers or prospects might interact with your brand. This includes your website, blog posts, social media, email marketing campaigns, etc.
A user should be able to visit any of your channels and instantly recognize your brand. Also if your business's logo, ads, and website are professional and restrained, then the words on them should not be goofy or casual as this would leave your audience a bit confused.
Make sure your tone of voice is also in line with other elements of your brand style (color, font, etc.).
These tips will help you build a strong connection between your brand and your target audience. Go out there and make a lasting impression!