4 steps to help you develop your brand tone of voice

Your brand should be consistent on social media and across all platforms. Your brand should have a personality, it should paint a picture. If your brand was a celebrity who would it be and why? A large part of this is your tone of voice which is why we are sharing 4 steps to help you develop your tone of voice.

01 Identify your Brand Values

Start by identifying your brand values.

• What does your brand stand for?
• What is your mission statement?
• What are your values?

Your brand tone should reflect your company values. If you don’t know what your brand values are how do you expect your staff and customers to know? You should be on brand and on message – your brand values should come through in what you do.

02 Create a User Portrait

Once you have your values, paint a picture of your user/customer. How would you describe a key/core member of your audience?

If you create content for everyone – you create content for no-one. Create a Customer Persona (if you haven’t already) and give them a name and an image.

Your brand tone should be familiar to and understood and used by your user/audience/customer.

03 Think about How you Speak

What describes the personality of your business/brand?

This will be a mix of your brand (or your) personality. Think about how you speak and what you say. Is this on brand / on message? If not what tweaks should you make so that your tone is on brand but reflective of your personality?

04 Choose your words

Finally, create some guidelines for the words you will and will not use. Do your market research. Create a list of words. Getting it right takes time, so put in the time and you will get more engagement.

Remember you need to write for goldfish!

• Write something that is going to provoke a reaction.
• Writing a subject line? Write something that is going to be worth opening.
• Writing about a product? Focus on benefits for your customers (not the features).

Finally and perhaps most importantly –  Use clear and simple language. Avoid complicated language in your copy (avoid technical terms, internal language, jargon, acronyms, flowery language and unnecessary words).