20 Ways to leverage brand voice
What is brand voice?
Many businesses still believe that the most essential brand component is the visuals. Fonts, logos, colors, etc., are a big piece of the brand, but how could you correctly choose those pieces without having a solid brand voice first.
Think of the brand voice as the company’s personality.
Why is it important?
Brand voice is what helps set you apart from digital chatter. Expanding your company and delegating marketing & other communication tasks would be extremely difficult without a solid brand voice. It’s so vital for us to have these pieces in place for consistent messaging across all platforms and build that brand trust.
How to define it?
Defining your brand voice might take some reflection and possibly someone else to help pull it out of you. We are sometimes too close to our brands/businesses to do all this work independently. We help our clients with this inside of our programs, and there are so many “a-ha moments”!
I would personally start by:
Develop/re-visit your mission, vision, and core values.
Define your content pillars
Define your ideal avatar
Review previous copy and find common words, phrases, emojis, formatting, etc., that align with your brand.
Here are 20 ways to use your brand voice:
Captions/Copy
This is probably the most apparent space your brand voice is used. If you’re going to show up on social media multiple times a week, you want to make it impactful. Using your brand voice will help your writing stay consistent and on-brand when your audience reads it. You will find your audience will start using your language back to you. The goal here is that no one would be able to directly copy/paste your content and make it make sense for them. That’s how prominent your brand voice should be.
2. Conversations
Conversations are one of the few true income-producing activities. Conversations are the heartbeat of consistent revenue, whether you’re communicating directly in the DM’s or indirectly via content. We are talking about conversations in the DM’s and using consistent emojis, keywords, phrases, and even punctuation matter. Repetition and frequency are the two top drivers of sales. Showing consistency and giving people a consistent feeling will take you much further. People like knowing what to expect from you.
3. Client/customer experience
Yep, even after you close the sale, brand experience matters. Whether it’s a coaching call, a thank you/confirmation email, or an onboarding session, your brand voice matters here. You want to give the same energy and terminology you used to get them there. In doing this, you will achieve client/customer experience resulting in higher retention and referrals.
4. Email Marketing
When leveraging Email marketing, we rarely use pictures or videos of ourselves, unlike social media platforms. This is why we need to amplify our brand presence through our writing to bring humanness into our Email marketing efforts.
5. Collaborations
Similar to client/customer experience, every single process of the collaboration should remain consistent from the pitch, the prep, and the delivery of the partnership. When someone invites you to be a guest on their podcast or to speak on their stage at their event, they have a certain expectation in mind, and we need to keep that same brand voice and presence throughout the process.
6. Conversion events
Conversion events are events you host to convert sales and help your audience make buying decisions. You’ll most likely be on video for these. An example of brand voice on video: if you use the praise hands emoji, raise your hands on camera! If you use the clapping emoji, clap on camera.
7. Text Marketing
Similar to Email marketing, staying on-brand via text can be tricky. A few tips for you: use your branded emojis, sign off in a signature way (I always use Cheers, Steph), and make them purposeful.
8. Website copy
Your website should be the mothership of your brand voice. Every piece of content you produce should be modeled after the website. This is a place where there is no room for fluff.
9. Podcast
Podcasts are an interesting marketing channel because it is one of the few places your brand voice and tonality are the only communication components. In other words, you can’t rely on body language such as those “paise hands” and “clap” we discussed earlier.
10. Sales/strategy calls
It’s no secret we want to close more sales. Your content and conversations are the reason they are on that strategy call in the first place. Even though you’re chatting one-on-one, they expect to talk to that same person!
11. Print collateral
Your thank you cards, invitations, and anything else you get printed for your business should have the same messaging and familiarity as the rest of your marketing. I also sign these “Cheers, Steph.”
12. Speaking arrangements
This is considered a collaboration, but the interesting thing about speaking arrangements is that the first exposure to a new audience, meaning that when you bring those people back to your social media - it should be on-brand with who they saw or met in person.
13. Leading your team
Recently, I opened up a team meeting with our company’s vision and the vision I had for each of my team members. My team is terrific with the brand voice; I genuinely believe it’s because we have the brand foundations in place. Staying on brand even behind-the-scenes will help you take your company reach that vision.
14. Blogs
Many entrepreneurs use blogs for SEO purposes, which can be tricky when leveraging brand voice. For instance, one of our brand-isms is “Champagne Avatar,” which probably isn’t searched too often. However, describing the meaning the first time you use it in the blog will teach your audience and help SEO!
15. Reels/Tiktoks
Oh, these are so fun. You can leverage brand voice in the text on the video, in the audio you use, or in the caption itself!
16. Live video
Similar to conversion events, using your body language is your biggest tool. Smiling, clapping, and using your brand-isms and keywords is how you achieve brand voice in video!
Pro tip: Think of a name for your audience and consistently use that. At The Weber Co., we say “rockstars” throughout, and our audience uses it back to us!
17. Networking events
When meeting new people, your first impression should be the ideal brand experience. How do you want to make them feel? How do you want to be perceived?
18. Story-telling
We have a blog teaching the seven types of brand story (we teach more within our programs).
19. One-liner & positioning statement
Your one-liner and positioning statement sum up what you do, who you do it for, and why the heck it matters. Using your unique verbiage here will separate you from the many entrepreneurs who have extremely similar ones.
20. Social media bio
Inside of your bio, you should have your one-liner, brand emojis, and other keywords that make your brand recognizable and distinct.
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