When branding your small business, you will not only have to decide on brand colors, logos, and images, but you will have to create a brand voice in which you will speak to your audience.

Your brand voice can be defined as the personality your brand takes on in all its communications, be they on your website, your social media, or your marketing materials.

The easiest way to do this is to think about your brand as a person and decide how they would speak if they were in front of an audience. Would they be friendly, calming, upbeat, upscale, or have any other definable characteristics?

What Goes into the Making of a Brand Voice?

You will want to define your mission, your values, and all the factors that make you different from your competitors.

Why Is It Important to Have a Brand Voice?

The most important thing is to be able to stand out from your competitors and become the brand that consumers want to identify with.

How Will You Develop Your Brand Voice?

• Identify your target audience first. Is your audience young and hip or older and affluent? Where do they live? Are they male or female? Gather all the demographic information you can. You will tailor your brand voice to speaking in a tone and using words that will appeal to your demographic.
• Think about the mood you want to convey – happy and upbeat like a soft drink, determined and powerful like an athletic shoe, soothing and flattering like an upscale automobile. You want your audience to become emotionally invested in your brand and your message.
• Think about what you don’t want your brand voice to be. When you take stock of all the negatives that you do not want to be associated with, often you can come up with a positive statement.

What Are Power Words?

Power words are words that are persuasive and push an audience to take action, whether it’s to make a purchase, sign up to your mailing list, donate, or contact you.

The advertising industry has spent billions researching the psychological impact of images, colors, and words on the psyches of consumers. While you want to be authentic and not manipulative, you also need to learn how words can inspire, excite, or cause someone to buy your product or service or take the next right action.

As a website designer and content creator, I specialize in search engine optimization – that is, the kind of keyworded content that gets you found on the Internet. I use a program called RankMath to help me achieve my goals successfully. RankMath has put together an outstanding list of power words that I refer to repeatedly when I am writing.

Additionally, there are certain words or phrases you will use to communicate your message. For example, a green brand would use terms such as holistic, authentic, clean, healthy, environment, and natural to appeal to an audience looking for an environmentally friendly product that is free from chemicals and additives.

What Should a Brand Voice Encompass?

A Brand Voice Should Be:

Complementary: All of the elements that make up your brand identity should be cohesive with one another.

Consistent: Whether you’re publishing a blog post or posting on social media, your brand voice should be at the front and center of your content.

Distinct: Your voice should be unique to your brand and bring something new to the table.

Identifiable: When your audience reads your content, do they know it came from your brand?

What Is a Brand Tone?

A brand tone is the emotional inflection behind your message. While your brand voice is consistent, your brand tone can be changed to suit the message.

Learn by Example

As a sole proprietor, I am responsible for marketing my brand. Often, I run out of ideas as to what to write in my marketing pieces. It’s then that I look to famous brands for inspiration.

Nike, for example, is known as an inspirational brand. Their slogan, ‘Just Do It’, is a motivator for both athletes and aspirational couch potatoes to pursue their goals. There is nothing wrong in learning by imitation, as long as you don’t plagiarize.

Review Your Brand Voice

Once you have your brand voice down, you are going to need to test it in front of an audience and see how they respond. Remember that your brand is a work in progress, and you will have to tweak your brand voice if it’s not working or if you need to pivot in any way.

Do you think your small business has an established brand voice? How did you create and market it? What factors did you take into consideration when developing your brand voice?