How to get your brand noticed in a noisy world

Did you know that your brand only has seven seconds to make a great first impression? Or that you’re 3.5 times more likely to create better brand awareness when you’re consistent with your branding?

Great branding is critical to business success – and we’re not just talking about what your brand looks like, but also how your brand sounds. In this article, we explore why voice is such an important part of your brand.

Brand voice? What’s that?

Brand voice is exactly as it sounds — it’s the vocabulary, language, words, values and emotions of your brand, and it’s a large part of your brand personality.

Think of your brand as a human being: You wouldn’t talk to people or act like multiple different people in front of them — and you have unique characteristics. The same goes for your brand when you’re communicating with your audience.

Shout it from the rooftops

The above statistics give you a measure of how important your brand voice can be to your business.

You can also add this amazing stat to the collection: If you consistently present your brand regardless of the platform, it can increase revenue by up to 23 percent.

Along with other elements of your brand, such as your logo, images and color palette, your brand voice contributes to your company’s bottom line. A strong brand voice can help ensure your message gets through to your customers, create a good impression and set you apart from your competitors. It’s important that it does so consistently across all your marketing and sales content.

How to find your brand voice

Follow these four simple steps to find and develop your brand voice:

#1 Take a look at your existing content

Gather together a good cross-section of your existing marketing content — everything from website landing pages, videos and social media posts to brochures, blog posts and customer letters.

Review it critically. Think about how consistent the pieces are with each other and whether they truly reflect your brand personality — or they could just have easily come from a competitor.

Check which pieces perform best as this is the content your audience responds to. Your aim is to find a selection of content that really reflects your brand personality, values and purpose, and does so consistently.

Use this to inform the work you do on getting everything else to the same level.

#2 Truly get to know your customers

There are two things you can do here.

First, it’s important to understand your target audience. Think about your buyer personas — the fictional representations of what your target audience looks like. Your sales and customer service teams will have great input on who your personas really are. This will help you align on exactly who you are marketing and selling to.

Second, contact your existing customers and ask them questions about your brand. Ask them how they would describe your brand: if your company were a person, who would it be and why, and whether your brand resonates with them.

What you’re looking for are commonalities across your audience. Do they use similar words to express what they think about your brand? This outside perspective will help you see your brand from the eyes of your customers.

#3 Get descriptive

Brainstorm all the words you’d use to identify your brand voice and again look at the commonalities — and also the words which convey the values you want to convey.

Whittle them down to the three most important, then take this a step further by thinking about how they will be used when you create content.

For example, let’s say the three words that represent your brand are friendly, compassionate, and honest. You might expand this out as follows:

• Friendly – helpful, sincere, engaging
• Compassionate – heartfelt, expressive, understanding
• Honest – trustworthy, authentic, genuine

#4 Lock your brand voice in

If you follow steps one through three, you should know what your brand’s voice sounds like. But how do you ensure that everyone, from marketing and sales teams to freelancers and agencies, can consistently convey it?

Enter the brand voice template. Use this simple template to show each of your brand’s characteristics, and how you both use and don’t use them. It’s a simple but effective way of ensuring that anyone producing content for your brand — or even talking to your customers — uses the same brand voice.

About the Author

Brandee Johnson is a Thinking Bigger Foundational Partner.

Brandee is the owner and CEO of LimeLight Marketing. After a 15 year run in corporate America, working for leading brands Deluxe Corporation and LEGO , Johnson followed her long-time dream of starting her own company and founded LimeLight Marketing, a digital marketing agency that helps brands foster customer trust and grow market share.

Since then, the agency has grown rapidly to serve companies across the US.

Reach Brandee at:
brandee.johnson@limelightmarketing.com
Phnone: (620) 308-6998
or find her at limelightmarketing.com