Build trust with authenticity
Consumers spend their money with companies they know well and feel good about. They want to interact with brands that do more than sell products or services: they want a relationship built on trust. In order to create a strong brand voice, you need to firmly establish who you are and what you care about; then, you can craft messages that directly relate to your audience.
Have you ever taken the time to dive deep on your own brand and consider how customers interpret it? Put yourself in your customers' shoes and envision how you sound to them. Think of words and phrases that you want to describe your brand and keep those top-of-mind when developing customer-facing content.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you want to say to people?
- How do you want them to perceive you?
- What is your brand’s style and personality?
- What do you value the most?
- How do you best serve your customers?
- What makes your brand unique?
Develop personas for your audience
Once you have a good idea of how you want your audience to perceive you, begin building out personas to send targeted messages. A persona is a type of person or group of like-minded individuals within your audience. Their differences may pertain to age, gender, interest, motivation, income, familiarity with your product, etc. You'll likely have a variety of personas to account for as a result.
Consider the following questions:
- What are they thinking and feeling day-to-day?
- What conversations do they have with friends and family?
- What information are they receiving from the media?
- Where do they get their news?
- How do they spend their time?
- What do they value most?
Consider Nani, a health and wellness brand focused on natural wellness products. Nani has a diverse audience of: natural product enthusiasts who shop regularly, individuals who purchase their products as gifts, and newcomers eager to learn more about natural products. These individuals may come from multiple regions, have varying levels of wellness experience, and are likely different ages. A great way to conceptualize who will engage with your brand is to build out personas that you can target with more applicable messaging.
Here are a few personas that Nani might develop to better communicate their brand voice to their diverse audience.
Wellness Willa
Willa is well informed and regularly buys products from Nani. They are motivated by new product offerings, discounts on their regular purchases, and supporting natural wellness brands.
Nani’s strategy for this persona is to:
- Target them with upsell opportunities that match their shopping behavior.
- Reward them for their frequent purchasing and encourage advocacy on social channels.
Gifting Gary
Gary has been shopping Nani’s website for deals on his wife’s favorite products. Gary is motivated by finding a good deal on products he knows his wife will enjoy.
Nani’s strategy for this persona is to:
- Gather information about who they are shopping for and target them with relevant product suggestions.
- Send targeted messages around popular holidays to encourage future gift giving opportunities.
Curious Clara
Clara is new to natural wellness products and recently discovered Nani through social media. She is motivated by learning more and finding products that she can feel confident in using.
Nani’s strategy for this persona is to:
- Send articles and newsletters that are informative and add value to your products.
- Target with surveys and product quizzes to help them better understand what products are best for them.
Need help building out personas? Download and complete the persona template to get to know your audience. Create at least 3 target personas, and consider building out a few casual and non-user personas as well.
Brand voice best practices
Brand voice is “what” you say, and brand tone is “how” you say it. Both are important as you build and refine your brand voice over time. Review these essential best practices to help you foster a healthy brand identity for your customers using what you say and how you say it.
Craft your mission statement
The heart of an authentic brand is a well defined mission statement. Your mission statement is a simple, 1 sentence statement that clearly encapsulates your goals, purpose, and values.
Your mission statement guides your brand in the decisions you make as a company and how you communicate with your audience. Customers want to know what you stand for and will judge your brand by how well you express your mission statement in your communications with them.
Craft a mission statement that:
- Clarifies your goals
- Communicates your purpose
- Conveys your values
This mission statement will help you as you make further statements about your brand and will set the tone of your communication with your customers.
For example, if you’re a cosmetics brand that cares about ethical treatment of animals and empowering women, your mission statement might look like this: Create quality beauty products and empower women without compromise.
Document your brand voice
Create a document to outline your brand voice and how it is expressed. Alongside your mission statement, write out a list of dos and don’ts, outline words that describe your brand and the emotions you want to convey, and get specific around how you use each of your channels to express your mission.
Document your:
- Mission statement
- Customer personas
- Dos and don’ts
- Descriptive words
- Words to avoid
- Communication strategy by channel
This is especially important as you scale your brand and when you share the responsibility of expressing your brand with other team members. Nurturing a trusted relationship with your audience will take consistency over time. Having a centralized document for you and other contributors to reference is crucial for maintaining your brand voice throughout all of your marketing communication.
Stay consistent
Create a cohesive experience across all of your channels. Your relationship with your audience hinges on the consistency of their experience with your brand. Ensure that the communication, tone, and voice of your brand comes through the same across channels (e.g., emails, SMS, push notifications, webpages, social media accounts, etc.).
As you express your brand across channels, be sure to:
- Focus on the intended audience
- Question if your message is necessary
- Adapt your message to each channel’s strengths
- Ensure your brand message doesn’t conflict across channels
Keep your messages focused on the action you want your audience to take. Make it clear and easy for your recipients to engage with your brand regardless of channel. Before you craft the message of each send, plan out who the message is for and what action you want them to take. Once you have this in mind, you can leverage your brand voice to create compelling messages that express your brand and drive your known audience to purchase.
Appeal to your persona's motivation
Keep your personas front of mind as you make decisions related to how you build and express your brand. Build on what motivates your personas as a foundation that will guide you in navigating any scenario. Be prepared to express your brand in a way that resonates with your individual personas, planning out what, where, when, and how you will respond to various circumstances.
Think back to your work developing your personas and ask yourself:
- What issues do they care about?
- What topics are they interested in?
- Where do they seek out information?
- How do they like to communicate (channels and frequency)?
When you make decisions based on what motivates your personas, you’ll be able to navigate more sensitive or unique experiences that arise as you manage your brand. Thinking this way will root you in the “why” of your brand and will ultimately delight your audience.
Test and iterate
Once you establish your voice and build a brand community, don’t slow down progress by getting too comfortable. Rather, pick up the pace, try new things, and iterate on success! Reach out to customers in new ways and through new channels.
As you continually express your brand voice, consider:
- A/B testing small differences in your language, timing, or visuals to see what currently resonates with your audience.
Note: Only test 1 element at a time to accurately measure success. - Conducting customer interviews to stay on top of industry trends and customer sentiment.
- Building a word cloud for your audience and trying new language or ways to express your brand in the future.
If you find your groove in 1 avenue, test out another as well to reach new people. Be careful not to let that take away from what is already succeeding, but if you have the capacity and momentum to explore ideas, don’t let the opportunity pass you by. Always consider new ways to expand the reach of your voice to progress your brand further.