The overproduction of content in the online sector is omnipresent. Millions of posts and articles are written and published every day. In just one minute, users post almost half a million tweets on X, and content on Instagram is also liked millions of times. As you can see: The competition in the battle for brand awareness is fierce, and trying to get your target group interested in your content and keep them interested is more difficult than it was a few years ago - but not impossible. Standing out, being remembered - these are the goals to pursue in the jungle of online media.
Find out how your personal brand voice can help you achieve these goals in the following article.
Brand development usually focuses on the visual elements of a brand. Unfortunately, the brand voice is often forgotten. This is a shame, because the interplay of visuals and voice shapes your brand even more strongly. See the brand voice as a personality that you give your brand. A personality that takes on and adopts your textual communication. It is a guide to your communication style. When creating a brand voice, you should always imagine a person to whom you ascribe various attributes. What personality traits would your brand voice have? What formulations and stylistic devices would it use? Answers to these and other questions create your brand personality. With this consistent voice, you speak to your target audience - whether in newsletters, social media posts, in articles or on posters.
In addition to uniformity, they also create emotions, regardless of whether your voice is playful, academic or serious, they give your brand identity a personality that touches people and thus arouses interest and, in the best case, even binds them to you. If this feeling and a clear connection to your brand are missing, you are wasting the potential to become unique.
Simply to stand out even more from the crowd: Stories and relevant content are more important than ever to be remembered. The visual elements of a brand are only part of its public brand personality. Its textual content needs the same attention and consistency for a comprehensive, effective brand presence. This is especially important if you want to take content and social media marketing seriously.
In a study by social media management platform SproutSocial, 40% of respondents said that they follow a brand because of its memorable content, they feel it has a distinct personality and it tells compelling stories - keyword storytelling. Without a recognizable brand voice, there is no recognizable brand personality.
First, you should analyze who the relevant people and stakeholders are who will help or influence the development of the brand voice. Whether you want to realize it internally or with the help of agencies, copywriters or content strategists - everyone should have strong analytical skills, copywriting confidence and a willingness to change and innovate. In addition, they should have a deep understanding of the brand, its mission and values. If your brand has not yet been defined in terms of content, now is the time to define it.
Take a look at your current communication: Don't evaluate individual measures, but analyze social media posts, newsletters, website articles and presentations. Also pay attention to how your target groups speak to you. What are the voice characteristics of your most powerful means of communication (posts, newsletters, etc.)? Does the style of communication match your values, is the architecture of the content consistent or does the content reflect your brand's guiding principles really well?
Get to know your target groups even better. If you have already defined persona models, compare the assumptions here with as much data as possible. If the target group is younger, for example millennials, try to convey information and messages as easily as possible, for example with playful memes. If you define the baby boomer generation as your target group, dialog formats are often effective. If you want to narrow down your target group regionally, you should pay attention to regional characteristics. At all times, a comparison should be made with your own ideas and, of course, with the previously defined core values of your brand. Direct questions to existing customers, such as what excites them most about your brand, can help here. Find out where and what else your target groups read. It is important to avoid being inspired by more than just your competitors - no competitor copying, your own voice is needed.
Once you have audited your existing communication, got to know your target group and defined relevant channels, you are well prepared to start an effective brainstorming session. You can use various formats here, for example a simple mind map in which you can collect the characteristics that your brand should convey to the outside world. This quickly results in internal core values that should be reflected in the type of language used.
Dos-and-don'ts lists help with an initial classification of the voice with which you do not want to be heard. In combination with the company's vision and core values, this can be used to develop an initial direction that allows for further detailing.
Tonality is the way something is said and can change depending on the situation. Brand voice, on the other hand, defines what is said and conveys the personality and positioning of a brand. It is therefore the core of a brand. For example, the tone of voice at a product launch will differ from the tone of voice when responding to a customer complaint. Identify the important scenarios and try to categorize them.
Once you have found your voice, defined and documented the important parameters, scenarios and tone of voice, you can test them. Test or ask your customers about your initial content and check the effect and recognition of a consistently used voice and tonality. If you do not achieve the desired effect, feel free to adapt and refine your brand voice guidelines.
Either way, language and communication behavior continue to evolve. Creating a brand voice is not a one-off challenge, but part of ongoing brand management. Aspects should be reviewed and further developed at set intervals, otherwise you risk becoming outdated and no longer in the current relevant set of your target groups. In order to support your partners and employees in the implementation of your communication work and, above all, to enforce a consistent brand image, meaningful, comprehensible documentation on the implementation of your brand voice is crucial. This documentation or guidelines can be prepared as a clear one-pager or as interactive online documentation.
Your brand voice not only helps you to make your brand more distinctive and identifiable, but also to address your customers more directly and effectively and to build a community. Consistency and flexibility are important in order to be effective in different communication scenarios. In a complex world of communication, a brand voice is an indispensable component of a strong brand identity.
What experience do you have with this topic? Uhura has developed brand concepts and brand voices at different levels of production for large companies and start-ups. Contact us if you need help!
