Defining Your Brand Voice: How Your Business Communicates

Your brand's visual identity—your logo, colors, and fonts—is what people see. Your brand voice is what they hear. It's the distinct personality and tone that your brand uses in all of its written and spoken communications.

It's not just what you say, but how you say it.

Defining a clear and consistent brand voice is a crucial part of building a strong brand identity. It's what makes your brand feel human and relatable. A consistent voice builds trust, fosters a deeper connection with your audience, and helps you to stand out from competitors who all sound the same.

Brand Voice vs. Brand Tone

These two terms are related but distinct.

• Your Brand Voice is your overall, consistent brand personality. It does not change.
• Your Brand Tone is the emotional inflection that you apply to your voice in different situations. Your tone might change depending on the context.

For example, your brand voice might be "helpful and friendly." Your tone when writing a celebratory social media post would be excited and upbeat. Your tone when responding to a customer complaint would be empathetic and serious. The underlying friendly and helpful voice remains the same, but the tone adapts to the situation.

Why is a Consistent Brand Voice So Important?

• It Builds Trust and Recognition: A consistent voice makes your brand feel reliable and familiar. Over time, your audience will come to recognize your content by its style alone.
• It Humanizes Your Brand: A distinct voice gives your brand a personality that people can connect with on an emotional level. It makes you more than just a faceless company.
• It Differentiates You: In a sea of generic, corporate-speak, a unique and authentic brand voice can be a powerful differentiator.
• It Attracts Your Ideal Audience: Your voice will naturally attract customers who resonate with your brand's personality and values.

How to Define Your Brand Voice

Step 1: Look at Your Company's Mission and Values

Your brand voice should be a direct reflection of your company's core values.

• What is your "why"? What do you stand for?
• If your company values are "innovation and boldness," your voice should not be quiet and conservative.

Step 2: Understand Your Target Audience

How does your target audience communicate? What kind of language do they use?

• Your voice should be authentic to you, but it should also be relatable to the people you are trying to reach.
• You want to speak to your customers in a way that makes them feel seen and understood.

Step 3: Describe Your Brand as a Person

This is a very effective exercise. If your brand were a person, what would they be like?

• Brainstorm a list of adjectives. Are you playful, serious, witty, inspiring, formal, casual?
• Choose 3-5 core adjectives that best represent your desired personality.

Step 4: Create a Brand Voice Chart

To make your voice tangible, you can create a simple chart. For each of your chosen characteristics, define what it looks like in practice and what it doesn't.

Characteristic	We Are...	We Are Not...
Friendly	Approachable, warm, conversational	Overly familiar, silly, unprofessional
Knowledgeable	Helpful, expert, insightful	Arrogant, jargony, condescending
Direct	Clear, concise, straightforward	Abrupt, blunt, robotic

How to Implement Your Brand Voice

• Create a Messaging Guide: Document your brand voice chart and other messaging guidelines in your brand style guide.
• Train Your Team: Ensure that everyone who writes on behalf of your brand—from your marketers to your customer service reps—understands and can apply the brand voice.
• Be Consistent: Apply your brand voice consistently across all of your channels, including your website copy, blog posts, social media, emails, and ads.

Conclusion

Your brand voice is the soul of your communication. It's what makes your brand feel consistent, authentic, and human. By taking the time to consciously define your brand's personality and tone, you can build a stronger, more memorable connection with your audience and create a brand that truly stands out.