What makes your brand voice? Is it a certain tone? A focus on particular topics? A distinctive way of phrasing your services? It’s all of these things, and more. Try our failsafe recipe to create your own delicious brand language.
Your recipe for a distinctive brand voice
-
Start by warming a large pan of research
Who are you? Who are your competitors? What are they saying? How are you similar? How are you different? How do your key stakeholders write and present? -
Mix raw ingredients into an organising idea
Taking what you’ve learnt about your brand’s points of difference, personality and attitude, uncover an organising idea that sits at the core of your brand. What we’re looking for is a simple but inspiring sentence that you can build on. -
Stir into a stock of phrases
At this point, it’s useful to flesh out your organising idea into a few paragraphs of text. Some call this a manifesto, others a brand story. In any case, what you’re aiming to create is a ‘treasury’ of words and phrases. Agreed ways of talking about your brand, service, and products, that you can dip in and out of, whatever you’re writing.
-
Chop into snappy lines
Now that you have an organising idea and long-form voice, it’s useful to create some pithier expressions of it, in the form of headlines that can be used in advertising, webpages, email subjects, or anything else you need. We find these are often the best way to bring to life a distinctive tone. Write loads and see what feels right and what doesn’t. -
Sprinkle adjectives
Now, stand back and see what it all adds up to. How would you describe the tone that’s emerged? Try and be original (everyone says ‘professional’, ‘approachable’, ‘friendly’). less familiar words like ‘zesty’ or ‘affectionate’ can really stand out, and inspire you to remember what makes your brand different.
-
Serve with a “do and don’t” list
What you don’t say is almost as important as what you do say. So think about those industry or sector clichés like “solutions”, “thinking outside the box”, “state of the art” etc. How can you say them in your own voice? How can you stand out in a world where so much language washes over you in a generic tide? -
Get the best people in the ‘kitchen’
Probably the most reliable way to develop a successful brand voice is to choose the best people to help you create it. Brand Voice Agency are skilled in getting under the skin of a brand very quickly, and working in a collaborative way to help you uncover your distinctive tone and language as painlessly as possible.
We’ve helped every kind of brand, from those needing a sensitive approach to men’s health, to those needing to add humanity to management consultancy.
Talk to Brand Voice Agency today, to uncover your distinctive brand voice. Email contact@brandvoice.agency
