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If your company doesn’t have a brand voice, you are not sure what that represents for your business, or why you might need one, maybe it’s time to take a look at your messaging. When people interact with companies they are interacting with an entity. It’s easy to think a business doesn’t really have a “personality”. After all, it’s not a sentient being – even with AI.
But think about your favourite brands. The big – and small – companies out there that come to mind immediately. You know what they stand for. You recognise them from a distance, and not just from their logo or colours. They way they communicate will be familiar: they have a certain “personality”.
A brand voice is like a personality
This personality, or brand voice, is what helps one business stand out from another. And it’s not just for huge corporates with large marketing departments and even larger budgets. Any business can have a brand voice. Get yours right and it will help attract people who are aligned with what you stand for and “get” how you communicate. It will help people connect and engage, and it builds trust and credibility.
People are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer if how you communicate resonates with them. But a brand voice is more than just how formal your language is, or the way you approach things. And it needs to be consistent, across all your messaging. Otherwise it’s not really a brand voice – it’s a confusing mishmash of “stuff” and no one will really know who you are and what you stand for.
What does a brand voice do for a business?
There are various benefits to having a brand voice. It:
Builds a brand identity
– Having a brand identity makes it easier for people to recognise you when they come across you.
Builds familiarity
– You become familiar – more quickly – and we want to deal with businesses we know, like, and trust. Familiarity can lead to a stronger sense of engagement and connection.
Differentiates you from others doing the same thing
– A brand voice is one way in which you can stand out in a crowd. It should resonate with your target customers and help them understand you are the right company for them.
Builds trust and credibility
– Consistency and reliability make it easier for people to trust in your professionalism. Large, well-respected companies with established brand voices give the impression of being professional, trustworthy, and credible. Something as simple as having a consistent brand voice can make smaller companies seem just as professional, trustworthy, and credible.
Makes things clearer and easier to understand
– If you have clear and consistent messaging, you’ll reduce confusion and ambiguity. Without it you risk frustration and disappointment: which doesn’t help your brand.
How do you get a brand voice?
It’s likely you already have the beginnings of a brand voice, even if it’s not been nailed down by a brand identity expert along with logos, fonts, and colours, and immortalised in your brand-identity guidelines booklet.
A copywriter will help you create and maintain your brand voice. We work with you to establish what you stand for, who you want to appeal to, and exactly how you wish to come across in your written messaging. Then we will help you ensure this stays consistent across the board.
Your website and your brand
Your website is your shop front. It showcases who you are and should target the people you can help. To do this you need SEO-friendly website copy that speaks to your potential customers and is engaging, consistent, and professional.
Imagine a company website where each department has written their own copy. Let’s take a car manufacturer as an example. You’d get the factory workers to write about anything to do with the manufacturing of the cars. The sales team would write about the cars they were selling and the HR department would talk about the people and the company itself – and so on. Imagine the different styles, language, messaging, tone, focus, and everything else you would end up with.
Be better than average
You don’t always have to imagine: you sometimes see this. Maybe not quite as obviously, but there is still often a lack of cohesion and it doesn’t make you look like you’re running a professional company or make it easy for people to get to know you.
It’s particularly obvious on “Meet the Team” pages where everyone has written their own bio. Some are long, some are short. Some are funny, some are not. Some are casual, some are very formal. Some are well written, some aren’t. Some are in the first person, some are in the third person. Some talk about their careers, some talk about their hobbies. And so on.
A copywriter would take all the information from each person (and ask for more if they needed it) and create something that was consistent and in the house style. This doesn’t mean boring, same-y, repetitive, or dull. It means consistent, professional, engaging, and “on brand”.
Your website risks being like a bad meet-the-team page without a brand voice. And then there’s all the other written communication that’s going out into the world. It can help build up a picture of your business as professional, trustworthy, and relevant, or it can confuse and fail to engage.
Do you need help with your brand voice and making sure your messaging is doing what it’s designed to do? Why not book a chat? I work with companies to create SEO website copy that helps them grow their voice and their brand. Get in touch!