Establishing a unique and consistent brand voice is crucial for companies looking to stand out from the crowd and connect with their target audience. Your brand voice encompasses the tone, style, and messaging that represents your brand across all channels. When done right, it can become an invaluable asset in developing brand loyalty and recognition. This article will explore tips on developing and maintaining a consistent brand voice, especially when working with white label content providers.
Define Your Ideal Customer
The first step is getting crystal clear on who your ideal customers are. Understanding their demographics, challenges, goals and psychographics will inform the brand voice that will best resonate with them. Create detailed buyer personas that capture your ideal customer’s perspectives. What messaging and tone will your personas best respond to? Your brand voice should align with your audience and stir their interest.
Conduct a Brand Voice Audit
Take an inventory of all existing content you have published across channels. This includes your website, blogs, social media, ads, newsletters and any other materials. Analyse the language and tone used across these assets. Is there consistency or does the voice fluctuate? Are there any gaps or opportunities for improvement? An audit will reveal if you need to pivot or refine your brand voice for greater cohesion.
Establish Your Brand Voice Guidelines
From your audit and buyer personas, develop a brand voice guideline document to reference going forward. This should outline specifics to encapsulate your unique voice such as:
- Brand personality – Use descriptive words like fun, daring, prestigious.
- Tone – Casual or formal? Witty or earnest? Academic or conversational?
- Point of view – First person? Third person? Team focus?
- Language style – Industry jargon? Simplified? Clever phrasing?
- Content format – Stats heavy? Story focused? Lists and tips? Q&A?
- Imagery – Colour palette, stock photos, custom graphics
- Mission statement or slogan
Having written guidelines provides a playbook for your team and any white label content writers to align with your voice.
Look at Brand Voice Examples
Study how other brands effectively wield their own unique voices across content types. Take note of specifics around word choices, tone, imagery and formats leveraged. Popular examples include:
- Mailchimp’s conversational content full of wit and humour.
- Lyft’s uplifting, community-driven language and visuals.
- GoPro’s action-packed, adventurous style.
Seeing strong brand voice examples can provide inspiration on nailing your own. Look to brands targeting an audience similar to yours.
Test and Iterate
Have your guidelines reviewed by key team members to ensure alignment across stakeholders. You can also hire an external content agency to assess if your established voice resonates based on their outside perspective. Then, test run some new content using your outlined voice, whether through blogs, social posts, newsletters or other assets. Examine the reception and impact of these initial tests, collecting feedback from your audience. Tweak the voice as needed to fine tune based on learnings before scaling production.
Maintain Consistency In-House
Get internal team members onboard with your brand voice style guide. Host a training workshop walking through the guide, giving examples and answering questions. Encourage consistency by having teams access the document before creating any new materials. Appoint an owner to monitor content across departments and ensure alignment. Offer feedback when pieces veer off voice. Consistency takes discipline, but pays off exponentially.
Vet External Content Creators
If leveraging an external blog writing service, content agency or freelance writers, thoroughly vet providers to find ones capable of adhering to your voice. When sourcing and interviewing, have candidates review your guidelines and submit previous work showcasing brand voice capabilities. Test writers out on a small scale before assigning them anything high volume. Be highly selective, only working with those demonstrating a knack for aligning with your brand style. Ongoing monitoring is still required to catch any deviations.
Evolve Thoughtfully Over Time
While consistency is key, also leave room for your brand voice to thoughtfully evolve as your business grows or new products are introduced. Occasionally revisit your guidelines, refreshing persona information and making tweaks where your current voice needs to adapt. Know when to hold steady amidst trends, versus when shifting your tone could connect better with audiences. Change is inevitable, so build in flexibility to gracefully evolve your voice on your brand’s terms.
Developing a distinct, authentic brand voice requires upfront strategic work and continued diligence. But the payoff can set you apart while resonating strongly with your customers. Defining detailed guidelines and keeping your voice consistent wherever your brand is represented will maximize results. At Ink Elves, our team can deliver expert content that seamlessly aligns with your brand’s unique voice and needs. Contact us today to learn more about our white label content and blog writing services.