When customers see the same message from a business or organization over and over again, they will begin to associate a visual and written voice with that company. As a result, that organization will become more memorable and top-of-mind for a particular product or service. That consistent messaging across all your print, video, web, and social media is called a unified brand voice. Here are three ways to create one:
Be Sure Your Brand Voice Reflects Company Values
If you think of your brand voice as how you portray yourself as a company to your target audience, you want that business persona to reflect your values and mission as an organization. It’s important to hammer out those big-picture questions before defining a brand voice.
Once you understand what values you want to portray as a company, you can define your brand voice as professional, witty, edgy or confident. That voice should be consistent across your communications efforts and be unchanging regardless of who is saying what on which platform. Tone, on the other hand, may vary within a brand voice, depending on the particular message or communication.
To communicate your brand voice to your contributing employees, contractors, executives or content creators, you may want to create a cheat sheet with style requirements, adjectives, definitions, examples and questions.
Speak to an Individual
Trusted business relationships may be the hallmark of successful organizations. Relationships are not between companies but between individual people. When you’re refining your brand voice and associated messages, you want to be sure to craft them in such a way that they are from one person to another.
Consider your target audience carefully and think about one representative individual in that audience. Focus your message to address that person’s pain points, questions, challenges, and problems with your communication. By doing this, you can create marketing and communications pieces that have truly desired content instead of publishing empty fluff and noise.
Hire a Brand Manager
Ideally, you have one individual responsible for managing your brand voice. This manager would be responsible for working with the different people who speak on your company’s behalf including executives, employees, contractors, industry bloggers, or other business partners. Although a style guide and training can be helpful at some level, the reality is that everyone tends to write and speak a little differently.
If your brand manager can serve as a gatekeeper before your message is published on your web site, released to the media, or uploaded to social media, that manager can ensure that your voice is consistent across the board. This may require some editing and rewriting skills to ensure voice and style are uniform across all marketing channels.
Need branding assistance? Contact GYC Vegas. This PR company in Las Vegas brings years of experience to the table. Whether you’re looking for a consultant or agency to manage your brand voice, GYC Vegas is the public relations firm Las Vegas positioned to help.