Brand Voice and Tone

 What Is Brand Voice?

It’s really important that you develop a consistent brand voice and tone in order to build trust, connect with your audience and stand out in your industry, and it’s more important now than it ever has been in the past because of AI.

Ai is a great tool.

It is an opportunity to be able to speed up your processes, the strategies that you have in place within your business, those SOPs that you have put in place.

Although AI also can be limiting in the fact that, if you are using it for your content creation, like others, it can often leave out the brand voice and tone, and this is the opportunity that you have to set yourself apart from everyone else out there.

You want to make sure that you are really being specific about what your brand voice and tone is going to sound like.

What is brand voice? It’s the unique personality, values and perspective expressed through your brand’s communication with the engagement that you have in your audience.

You really want to make sure that you understand the key characteristics of your brand.

What is it that you want people to understand with your brand values and mission?

What is it that you are trying to bring into the world?

How are you trying to impact more people and how are you trying to help them solve their problems?

You need to make sure that that is very clear your core values, what it is that sets you apart and makes you different.

For example, I always talk about the fact that I’m a former inner city school district teacher.

It makes me different than any other business coach that is out there, because I know how to teach and I can teach it for all different types of learners.

That’s a way in which it sets me apart from anyone else out there that’s trying to teach you about how to grow your online business.

When it comes to that brand voice, you also want to make sure that you have consistent messaging throughout the different types of platforms that are out there, whether it is social media, your email, your website.

You want to make sure that it’s very consistent and allows people to know exactly what they can expect to get from you.

What Is Brand Tone?

Let’s switch and look at brand tone.

Brand tone is the emotional inflection or attitude of your brand’s voice, adjusted for specific situations or audiences.

Tone is going to come across in the way that you speak to people, in the way that you write your content.

Are you someone who’s going to use language that might be different than what others may be using?

For example, I am not one that cusses.

I know that I have listeners that listen to my podcast in the car, and it’s also not something that I feel necessarily appropriate to be putting out there when people are first meeting me.

Because of that, my tone, the language that I will use, does not include anything explicit.

When I am very excited with working with a mastermind group or one-on-one client, a cuss word might sneak out every once in a while.

Your tone is going to change based upon who you are using, who you are talking to and who you are working with.

You want to make sure that you are keeping it consistent throughout your sales funnel.

When you are trying to build awareness, there should be certain aspects of your tone that you are staying consistent with.

Then, as you get into potential people that have come into your realm and have decided that they’re onto your email list, your tone may change a little bit more in your email.

It may become a little bit more casual with them.

This is something to keep in mind and that’s the same thing.

As you get more and more of that person further down in your funnel, you may notice that your tone kind of shifts, because they understand you and what it is that you are trying to get them to learn and solve as far as their pain points.

You really want to start to think about what is your tone that you are trying to set with your audience and how will it shift as you take them down your funnel.

Everyone’s tone is going to shift.

You may stay very specific and very formal, depending upon who your audience is that you’re speaking to, or you may be more casual and more laid back, because that is who you’re speaking to and that’s who you’re trying to attract.

These are all things to keep in mind. 

Why Brand Voice and Tone Are Important

Why exactly are brand voice and tone important?

It’s really important because it is going to help build trust.

That consistency across platforms is going to foster credibility with your people.

The more that they see you on different platforms with the same tone and voice, the more they’re going to understand who you are and what you are all about and decide whether or not you are a good fit for them.

It is also going to give them an opportunity to connect emotionally.

Telling your tone creates stronger relationships with your audiences.

When I speak in my podcast, I am very off the cuff but at the same time, I’m making sure that I’m staying within my realm.

If you are an unhinged listener, you know that I am a little bit more raw, a little bit more real, and give you the opportunity to really see what I do in my Insiders program, because it is an opportunity to just get the raw, the real and what is actually on my mind and what I am thinking, because, again, it is further down my funnel.

You have already built awareness.

I have built that with you.

You know who I am.

You’re listening to this podcast and it’s a little bit more formal, more lighthearted, whereas once you get into my programs I am become a little bit more of a stricter teacher, trying to make sure I’m holding you accountable, understanding more about your business and giving the specifics that are going to be able to help you.

That voice and tone is going to change with it. 

Steps to Define Your Brand Voice and Tone

Identify Your Brand’s Core Values:

The first thing that you want to do is you want to identify your brand’s core values.

You’re going to start to think about what are the things that are most important to me.

Do I want to be trustworthy, loyal, respectful?

Does it have to be about equality?

Does it have to be about trying to affirm their values or their beliefs?

What are your core values for your business and what are the goals that you have for your audience?

Understand Your Target Audience:

And the next second step is going to understand your target audience.

You have to know what their pain points are and what their preferences are.

Where do they want to get information from?

What type of information do they want?

How do they want to consume it?

What sort of solutions are they looking for?

Are they going to listen to a podcast?

Are they going to go through a workshop?

You want to understand this piece and be able to apply that when you are using your brand voice and tone.

Analyze Competitors:

Third you want to analyze your competitors.

You want to find opportunities in which you can actually differentiate your voice in that marketplace.

How can you set yourself apart?

What is going to make you a little bit different?

If you’re looking at my business, I have the two different podcasts.

One is Naturally Found.

It is the podcast that you are reading right now Influencer Entrepreneurs and then I also have my premium podcast.

It is Unhinged.

It is a paid podcast for members that are wanting to get the raw, the real, and they’re getting it three times a week.

For members that are wanting to get the raw the real, and they’re getting it three times a week.

It gives you an opportunity to come further into my world and get more of me at a level that you’re ready for.

You need to understand how your competitors are doing and what is working for them.

I was able to look at other coaches and see how they were doing things and found a happy medium for me where, yes, I’m making sure that I’m finding people in the awareness stage, but then I can also bring them further into my world by having that premium podcast for them.

Create a Brand Voice Chart:

The fourth step that you want to do is to create a brand voice chart.

I want you to actually sit down and list the do’s and don’ts for your language tone and messaging.

What are the things that you absolutely do not want to do, what kind of tone do you want to have with them and where are you looking to go with your overall business?

How are you looking to solve their problem?

And that’s going to come across in your messaging, and your messaging, very well, could shift as your audience and potential demographics can shift.

If you’re doing this in a point where you’ve been working on your business for five years and you’ve noticed that you’re starting to shift a little bit in your audience, your messaging most likely will shift with it as well.

Develop Guidelines:

The next step is then going to want to develop guidelines.

You’re going to actually create a document that outlines your specific voice and tone and the rules for it within your business.

Where is it being used?

What sort of tone and voice are you having on social media, in your email, on your website?

What is the messaging that you want to get across, so that, once you are growing your team, you are able to pass this document on to them so that they can also understand the voice and tone.

This way, if you hired a VA and they were working on the social media aspect and they were working on the copy, they’d have this document to be able to implement almost immediately.

Plus, you can use this as you better understand it, and give it to AI in order to incorporate it into the content that it is helping you create.

Adapting Tone for Different Platforms

One of the most important things that you’re going to want to make sure is that you’re adapting the tone for different platforms.

We talked a little bit about this already, but it’s important that when you are looking at the different platforms, where are they within your funnel?

If I’m looking at social media, they are top.

They’re just I’m trying to build awareness there.

I’m not necessarily looking to actually get any conversions or bring them further into my world.

I’m just trying to make them aware that I am here.

What is it going to sound like?

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The last piece of this I really want to talk about is the common mistakes to avoid.

You want to make sure that you are not having inconsistency across any channels, because it’s going to confuse your audience with mixed messaging.

You don’t want to say one thing on Instagram and then another on Pinterest or another on TikTok.

You also want to make sure that you’re not ignoring audience preferences.

You want to make sure that you’re speaking in a way that does resonate with them.

If they are telling you certain aspects, if they’re engaging on certain platforms, understanding what they’re engaging with and why, and you also do not want to overuse trends, it is going to.

By overusing the trends, it is going to lose authenticity because you are chasing just what’s popular.

This is extremely true on social media, where it changes so quickly and can easily make your audience feel as if you don’t know what you’re talking about or that you’ve kind of shifted what you’re doing.

This is why, when Reels first came out and people started dancing and it had nothing to do with their business, but they were trying to go viral.

It didn’t make any sense because, again, it’s not the messaging that’s in line when you’re dancing.

How does that have anything to do with what you’re trying to teach your people?

I’m really hoping that you have a better idea now of how you can go about defining your brand voice and tone.

It’s going to be really important, as AI continues to be essential in our world and helping us continue to grow our businesses. 

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