3 reasons to develop a brand voice

A consistent and recognizable brand voice calls your audience to connect with, engage in, and most importantly, believe in what you do. No matter how brilliant or revolutionary your personal brand is, an unclear or inconsistent voice will fail to communicate the value and importance of your mission and your message to your audience.

Working on an authentic voice for your brand does require effort and introspection on your part, but there are three game-changing reasons to do just that.

1) Your energy is magnetic to the right audience.

We all want to do work that motivates and inspires us as well as helps our ideal clients. If you are putting out words with a muddled message and an inauthentic tone, you will not attract the people that would most benefit from your unique perspective and way of working. It is like placing the wrong type of battery in your child’s favourite toy. The essential elements are all there, but the result will not power the vehicle or serve the user. Injecting your energy into your copy allows you to reach those who would be the best fit for you, allowing you to do your best work and your customer to achieve their best outcome.

2) A consistent brand voice builds trust.

An effective brand voice is directed to your target audience, and it communicates the style of your brand and sets certain expectations. Whether your brand voice is playful, authoritative, bold, or compassionate, your audience will sniff out inconsistency and feel cheated or disrespected by a discordant tone. Just as you have likely felt cheated opening the box of a new purchase to find it is not as large, colourful, or stylish as pictured on the outside of the packaging, your words create a similar expectation for further interactions with your brand. Finding an authentic voice for your copy brings a consistent tone and recognizable message that your audience can come to rely on and feel comforted in knowing that the person behind the voice is just as they imagined.

3) Writing from an authentic place is easier.

There is so much copy to write for our businesses: the website, the social media content, the blog, the email campaigns, the brochures, the presentations, the course content. It can feel never-ending and demotivating. There is so much external pressure that comes from looking at what others are doing and trying to impress and captivate readers with something new and surprising. In actual fact, the best copy is simple, clear, and concise. Once you have spent time clarifying your vision for your business and understanding how your product or service really impacts others, it becomes easier to express it with passion and purpose and come up with content ideas that inspire you as well as your audience. Brand voice is less a grand process of creation than a gradual process of refinement. Connecting with your clients and customers is easier, quicker, and more meaningful all around when your words come from you and are not diluted or confused by the thoughts and ideas of others.

This all sounds great, but difficult! Where do I start? Start by asking the right questions to begin teasing out aspects of your brand voice.