Brand voice consistency is important because it helps to establish a brand’s personality and ultimately ensures your business is recognisable. It not only creates loyalty and trust with customers, but it also helps you to stand out from competitors. In fact, having consistent branding across all platforms has been shown to increase revenue by up to 23%. Having a unified brand voice across digital platforms allows you to reach different audiences but reinforces a single brand story that is consistent and resonates with all audiences.
What is a brand voice?
A brand voice is the personality of the brand. It’s the way in which a brand presents itself through different channels, such as social media, website, blogs, newsletters, email marketing and ads. Although a variety of platforms will be used where content will need to be adapted for that specific channel, the core of the brand’s personality should remain consistent and it should be clear and obvious that it is the same brand being seen across the channels. It’s important that the brand voice aligns with the business’s values through its language, tone and imagery. This is essential for brand identity because it creates familiarity and ensures you stand out amongst your competitors. Familiarity breeds trust, and your consumers are more likely to buy from you again if they know you are consistent and deliver against your values. A good example of a company that has a strong brand voice is Pandora. The brand values are centred around craftsmanship, diversity, inclusivity and is all about expressing love through jewellery. Whether you visit the website, see an advert on tv, or receive an email from Pandora, the brand is consistent with its values and brand story. You will even notice that these values are conveyed in their marketing campaigns, such as one of their recent ‘Be Love’ campaigns, which brings to life their brand purpose of giving a voice to people’s loves.
Setting the tone of your brand
Choosing the right tone is crucial when it comes to presenting your brand. Customers remember how they are spoken to and treated, so how you communicate with your customers is key. The tone of your brand is mainly about how you sound. This could be friendly, informative, formal or casual. It’s important to firstly know your audience such as their age, gender, interests and values. This will help you to find a tone that resonates with them. Different tones can be used for different occasions, but they should always align to your brand voice. For example, if your company values sustainability, you might use a passionate tone when talking about eco-friendly packaging, even though overall your company has a down-to-earth tone of voice. It’s best to find a tone that fits your brand best and resonates with your target audience. For example, if you are a clothing brand whose primary customers are students, you may want to be more laid back in your communication style.
How to adapt your brand voice for different channels
Being able to adapt your brand voice allows you to maximise channels whilst maintaining consistency. Firstly, it’s important that your whole team is clear on the brand voice, the tone, and guidelines. This will ensure that different teams are able to use the brand voice appropriately for their channel, whilst still maintaining consistency. Different channels will have different requirements and purposes, for example, social media platforms have character count limits which offer audiences a chance to engage with the brand.
In email marketing, you might be limited to how many words you can use in an asset. You can utilise your subject lines and body copy to reflect your personality and values. Email marketing is great for nurturing relationships, so it’s important that it provides a consistent experience that resonates with your subscribers and strengthens their connection to our brand.
Websites are usually the front window to your business. So it’s important that your pages reflect your brand voice consistently. For example, if your brand voice is professional, then you could use concise language that expresses trustworthiness. On a website, you might be limited with the number of characters you can use on assets, so it’s important that you use your words sparingly and ensure your audience can skim through your pages and still capture the key message from your website.
Using a consistent tone, language and style across channels, whilst tailoring the content to the type of channel you are using will ensure your key message is cohesive across all platforms.
Creating guidelines
Brand guidelines or style guides have everything you need to manage your brand. They provide designers, copywriters, sales teams and other team members with everything they need to talk about your brand confidently and consistently. It includes:
- Colour palettes, brand tone and voice, logos, and visual identity.
- Typography
- Corporate information such as your mission statement and brand values.
- Brand’s do’s and don’ts such as which words and phrases to avoid
A good example of a business style guide is Uber. It includes helpful tools and conveys the brand story. It shares the logo, colour, composition, iconography, illustration, motion, photography, tone of voice, and typography, as a one stop shop for teams and partners.
Conclusion
Creating a consistent brand voice will ultimately help you to build trust with your audience. As they see, hear and come into other forms of contact with your brand, it will be clear to them that you have a specific set of values that you stand for. This creates loyalty with your customers and will ensure that they return, as long as you consistently deliver the same products, services or experience.