Brand voice is your brand’s style of communication. It’s the way you speak to your customers; it’s the tone you use. Not just what you say, but how you say it. And it matters more than ever in today’s competitive digital landscape. Broad messages and vague mission statements just don’t cut it anymore. People seek authenticity in their daily, cluttered consumption of online media content. Who are the people behind the logos? What do they care about? What are people saying about them? One of the first steps I take when I hear of a brand is to look them up. With a quick Google search, anyone can find information about you and your company, can gauge what you stand for and can see how people are talking about you online. Knowing this, it’s important to think about your brand personality and how your brand voice affects and serves your audiences in order to build and maintain relationships, increase brand engagement, and ultimately make a positive difference and be successful. 

Here are three tips to do just that!

Share your story 

Sharing the personal backstory of your life or your company is a great way to establish credibility and authenticity to your target audience. People care about people, and are a lot more likely to connect to your brand if they can connect to you and your story. Thoughtfully establish your vision, mission, and values and engrain them in your communications. I know if I know more about a brand –– who they are, why they do what they do, what makes them different from the competition, etc. I’m more likely to remember them and therefore engage with them. Our emotions are the driving force behind our actions, online and offline.

Inspirational stories are incredibly captivating. Not only are they super uplifting, but you never know who could be going through the same thing you once were or still are, and how you might be able to help them by speaking out and sharing more. Depending on what your company is about, sharing all the details of your personal life may not be relevant to your audience. But sharing some personal details and standing by values will resonate with any type of brand or audience. From the perspective of an audience member, with these personal touches not only do I now know more about you, but I also have more context into my decision to further engage with your brand or not. 

Relate to your audience

Think about who you want to reach with your company. What’s their age group? What might they be interested in? Once you’ve defined who your audience is and have ideas of what they might like, take that into consideration in all of your content and communications strategies. Tone is everything. Depending on your brand, you might want to maintain a serious tone in your messaging, or maybe you want to be more playful and talk to them like you’re a friend just hanging out. This applies to language but also to images, because as we’ve all heard, “a picture is worth 1,000 words”, and images are a visual communication tool. Make sure that tone is confident and consistent too, in your social media posts, emails, letters, website pages, etc. to further strengthen your brand personality and stand out from the competition. 

Humans love to relate to other humans. At the end of the day, most of us want similar things: love, happiness, security, fun. Use humor, compassion and empathy in your messages to make that emotional connection and increase that engagement. In today’s climate (2020 has been an intensely rough year), it’s important to acknowledge what’s going on in the world so that your message doesn’t come off tone deaf. People might need some extra comedy or something comforting right now, but some jokes just might not be funny and could rub your potential buyers the wrong way. Make sure to be mindful of all of these things when crafting your messages.

You should also be thinking about your customer’s journey. You can be funnier and more kind than anyone else online, but if your messages aren’t relevant to your audience, they likely won’t engage further with you. 45% of people say they unfollow brands because of irrelevant content. If you know what they might be going through, or have envisioned how you and your services might actually help them where they are, that will really help your messaging and attempts to connect with them successfully. 

Relating to your audience might be tricky. If your brand is all about a specific activity, for example nature and activewear, chances are that you will attract the kind of people who also like those things, and so it should come natural for you to speak to them in a tone that is authentic and real. But sometimes, that’s not the case, and you might not know how to speak to them or what they might need. That’s when listening comes in. Pay attention to what people are saying online; watch your competitors and see what kinds of things people are responding too. Don’t copy things as you see them, but use these examples as a guide to help you figure out what your audience is looking for. You should always be thinking about what the audience might need or what they care about and how you can best serve them. 

An easy and free way to do this––especially when you are first starting your business––is through social media. Reply to people’s posts, comments and questions, make yourself available and approachable, post engaging questions, offer opportunities to speak with you or learn from you or from others you’re connected with, and always maintain a positive, energetic and helpful attitude, even with your competition!

You could also conduct email or social media surveys to ask your audience what they are looking for or for any feedback they may have. This is a great way to communicate directly to people and increase engagement. 

Show you care

You should always walk the talk. Don’t just write how much you care about your clients in emails and posts. You should also be doing actionable things to demonstrate this. As mentioned before, keeping a positive, customer service centric attitude is one of the best ways to do this.  49% of people say they unfollow brands due to poor customer service. Don’t be that company! If I hear from a close friend that they had a bad customer service experience at a restaurant, I am more likely to share that negative feeling even if I’ve never been there. On the flip side, if I hear of a brand with incredible customer service, I’m more likely to have a positive feeling towards it.

Honesty is key. Don’t have the answer to a question? Be honest and work with them to find it. Made a mistake? Admit it and do better. Went through a rough patch? Talk about it. People will appreciate the transparency.

Another great way to do this is by highlighting things you might be doing that benefit the community in a positive way. If I see a brand that’s involved in social justice initiatives, I’m more likely to have a positive feeling about them because I admire that action and relate it to my values, as opposed to a brand that may be doing nothing or is known to have bad ethics. 

Things are constantly changing, not just in the field of digital marketing and online businesses but also in your customer’s needs. So while it’s important to be consistent, it’s also important to be flexible. So, here’s one last tip: keep reading! It’s always good to do your research and pay attention to successful examples or not so successful examples. Sharing your story, relating to your audience, providing relevant content, listening and showing that you care are all ways to help retain your potential buyers, grow your audience and establish your brand voice in a confident, thoughtful and authentic way.

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