A guide to building and defining your authentic brand voice!

The Ultimate Guide To building and defining your authentic brand voice!

Going digital and launching your brand can seem overwhelming at first since the times have changed and everybody is pivoting their business to digital. The common fear that we all have is “not being able to stand out.” It’s easy to fall into a sea of sameness in your niche. However, it all starts with something crucial, and that’s defining an authentic brand voice. 

Nailing an authentic brand voice takes time, practice, trial and error. The most critical factor is that your brand voice must align with your brand’s core values, visuals, and guidelines; otherwise, your audience would be able to spot a disconnect easily, and it can be deemed as inauthentic. 

If you are ready to start defining your brand voice. Here are our top tips for building a voice that is strong and, most importantly, true to your brand’s core values. 

What is a brand voice? 

A brand voice is a distinct and recognizable way your brand speaks and positions itself to your potential customers and audience. Your brand voice can be used on multiple platforms and in different formats. An ideal brand voice should be identifiable and inviting to create two-way conversations between you and your potential customers. Whether it be through your customer support messages, your e-mail campaigns and, copywriting, your customer should be able to recognize its voice as if they’re speaking to a friend or family member. 

The most authentic brands have strong voices that anybody can resonate with and encourage your customers to engage with the people behind your brand. Your brand voice should be able to capture your audience through meaningful storytelling. Think of your brand as a novel that keeps its readers compelled through exciting narratives, and this is why a brand voice is an essential factor when building long-lasting customer relations and purposeful content. 

Understand your audience 

To craft consistent messaging and positioning in everything you do, you must understand who you’re speaking to. In everyday situations, the way you talk to your best friend isn’t the way you’d say in a corporate setting. You must keep in mind that a brand voice isn’t going to appeal to all markets. 

Create an audience or customer persona to help you guide you through the first step in crafting your brand voice. Start with basic information about your ideal target audience, such as: 

• What is your ideal target audience’s gender?

• How old are they?

• What are their motivations or goals?

• What industry do they work in? 

• What are their needs and challenges?

• What are their common interests?

After you do some market research on your ideal target audience and finish building a few customer personas, find the middle ground and write down lines of messaging that would resonate with these archetypal customers. These examples are a general idea of who you’re going to be positioning your messaging to. 

Tell Your Story

Consumers and social audiences engage with brands that nurture and create genuine connections with them. Authenticity starts with personal knowledge and experiences. Like many brands, you also have competitors that might be selling similar products or services to yours, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Chances are, the subjects and topics you’re publishing have been spoken about before, but personal experiences will always be unique and different. Remember, your brand’s voice doesn’t have to mirror your own voice, but you can incorporate personal experiences that align with your brand in your messaging. Tell a story that your audience can take home and resonate with. Authentic brand voices are relatable and empower your audience to have a conversation with you. 

Make it engaging, give your brand a personality. 

Let’s face it; nobody wants to hear a brand that sounds robotic. When promoting a business, it’s easy to get into essay mode when talking about your product or service. It’s easy to sound like your cold-selling, which can quickly turn your writing into one-sided conversations. Instead, create conversational messaging that you’d want your ideal target audience to engage in. When reading news articles or gossip magazines, readers will read till the end because it’s conversational. Keep in mind the sense of professionalism; after all, you’re still running a business. Read your message out loud, humanize your brand’s voice, and steer it to sound how you’d like to read it. 

Consistency is key.

Figure out if you’re speaking to your customers in first person or third person on all your platforms. Ideally, if you’re referring to your business as a whole (we prefer the first person) and engaging our customers, we speak in the third person! If you’re working with a team, ensure that all messaging is consistent and carry it throughout your messaging platforms. 

Less is more

Keep it simple and avoid over-complex messaging that your audience won’t understand or relate to. You want your audience to get your point across and digest the information you’ve provided them with. Include commonly understood phrases and simple sentences that offer your readers a sense of clarity when engaging with you. When speaking to your customers when they have inquiries or comments on your content, you don’t have to mimic the way to talk, but it’s great to give them comfort by using the same terminology that they can resonate with.  

Give em’ perspective!

Voicing your opinion doesn’t have to be negative. Don’t be afraid to share your perspective to give your audience some food for thought to humanize your brand. Not everybody might agree with you, but your audience will be more open to sharing their opinions back, which is a great advantage to hear constructive feedback and ideas from key opinion leaders in your niche!

As mentioned earlier, nailing your authentic brand voice won’t be easy, but it will be a breeze to speak to your audience and potential clients that you’d want to include in your community once you do. Like many aspects of your brand, your brand voice has lots of room to grow and evolve as you flourish in your business. An authentic brand voice is a voice empowered to help others and create messaging to solve their challenges firsthand. 

At RAVEN + CO., we specialize and dedicate our time working with brands to create authentic approaches in their messaging and content. Your personal branding is of utmost importance, and we strive to craft purposeful storytelling that helps you build long-lasting relationships with and every one of your customers. It all starts with knowing who you are as a business and aligning your content and messaging with your core values. Have you given thought to the brand voice you want? If not, it’s time to unleash that authentic brand voice of yours. Book a discovery session with our brand experts (It’s free of charge), and we’ll guide you through the process. 

www.ravenandcompany.com/consultation