Phil Webster

Give your brand a voice

If a brand is to achieve real stand out in the marketplace, then everything about it, from its services to how it behaves, must be different — and that includes how it ‘talks’.

How you say something is just as important as what you say. Saying things in the right manner — in a way your customers understand and can relate to — can influence brand trust and loyalty. This is what we call Tone of Voice.

Every business has a brand; and every brand has a tone of voice. However, if your business is one of the many that does not actively manage its brand, then that tone of voice is likely to belong to whoever happens to be in charge of knocking up that month’s newsletter. You have to ask yourself, is that the voice you want your customers to hear in their heads whenever they think of your business?

Well-managed brands do it differently. Take a couple of giants like Apple and Innocent, the smoothie manufacturer. The way they speak to us is an integral part of everything they do. When they get it right, we warm to them. We become familiar with their voices, and whenever we hear or see their words, a connection is made. It’s emotional.

It’s not by accident either. These brands have spent time thinking about how they want to be perceived. They understand the importance of getting it right — and they have internal people who police every official piece of brand communication. That’s how much it means to them.

However, you don’t have to be a giant before you start thinking about your brand’s tone of voice (in fact, I’d argue that unless you think about it while you’re still ‘small’, then you are unlikely to reach those heady heights). Business of all type and sizes are already doing it. They know that if they talk to their customers in unique and engaging way, the chances of those customers responding positively is dramatically enhanced.

So, you remember all that time/money you spent thinking about how your brand should look? Now it’s time to do the same on how it sounds.

A skilled copywriter can help you establish your brand’s tone of voice from scratch, based on its values (I’ll talk about these in a later post). He or she will then be able to develop a tone of voice guide, specifically written for your brand, for other writers to follow. Alternatively, you can ask the copywriter to audit the language you already use and determine where improvements can be made.

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