MENUMENU
  • Services
    • Services
      • Search Engine Optimization
      • International Search Marketing
      • Local Search Marketing
      • Pay Per Click Advertising
      • Social Media Marketing
      • Email Marketing
      • Conversion Rate Optimization
      • Public Relations
      • Website Design & Development
      • Reporting & Analytics
      • Amazon Marketing Services
      • Digital Marketing Strategy
      • Franchise Marketing
  • Case Studies
  • About Us
    • About Ignite Visibility
      • Our Story
      • Clients
      • Our Values
      • Diversity & Inclusion
      • Our Team
      • UCSD Extension Courses
      • Careers
  • Thought Leadership
      • Our Blog
      • Podcast
      • SEO: The Movie
      • Social Media Marketing: The Movie
      • Book: The Forecaster Method
      • Attend Our Next Digital Marketing Event
  • Contact
  • 619.752.1955
Home / Blog / How to Define a Brand Voice That Attracts Business

How to Define a Brand Voice That Attracts Business

October 8, 2019 By John E Lincoln

The larger your company gets, the more important the messaging and brand voice becomes.

Here’s how you can define a brand voice that attracts business for your brand and reaches your target market in a more direct way.

Brand Voice

What We’ll Cover:

  • What it is
  • What it is not
  • Examples in marketing
  • The steps to defining your own
  • An outline for uncovering your brand voice

When you first start out, brand voice doesn’t come up all that often. You’ll talk about what you do and how you’re unique, but often without a definitive strategy for how you’ll express yourself in the context of an omnichannel strategy.

As your company grows and begins to develop a following across multiple channels, the more important it is to define your brand’s voice.

That means, from your web page copy to what your employees are saying to your blog to social media, it should all align.

When done right, it becomes a powerful tool for connecting with “your people,” bringing in more business and helping your company build a loyal following. On the flip side, when brands don’t quite get it right, their voice can cost them serious business.

In this article, I’ll walk you through some examples, as well as go over some ways you can find one that matches your brand values and resonates with your target market.

What is a Brand Voice?

Brand voice refers to your brand’s personality and use of emotions across all communications, as well as how those communications align with your core values.

Voice comes through primarily through writing style, tone, and word choice, and successful brands keep these factors consistent across all channels.

Our core values are Relationships, Responsive and Results, or as per Co-Founder Krish Coughran, “The 3Rs”

We also have a clear mission statement and values. All of this plays into our brand and lets consumers know who we are.

You might try defining your brand strategy by using a chart like this one below, which can help you break down who you are and who you’re not.

How to define your brand voice

Define Brand Strategy

It is just one part of your brand’s personality, but it’s an important one. Customers will also experience your brand through your logo and your digital presence online, but it’s your voice that comes through across all of these elements.

What a Brand Voice is NOT

It has nothing to do with grammar or spelling. Nor is it defined by your preference for AP style over Chicago.

It also should not be confused with “tone of voice.” It is consistent across channels and situations, whereas your tone shifts based on who you’re talking to, the channel, and the emotional landscape.

Things like whether or not you use slang, abbreviations, or off-book punctuation can impact how it is perceived, but ultimately, doesn’t define it.

For instance, a brand voice that’s targeting millennials may not be as concerned with traditional grammar rules as one that’s targeting an older demographic. It’s up to you to decide what yours isn’t, and that will largely depend upon the demographic you’re targeting.

Check out this ad for Forever 21.

Notice the language? It plays directly into the brand. “Best prices since like… Forever”

When a younger audience reads something like this, they identify with the style and voice and it attracts them, equaling sales.

Ad Forever 21


Examples

Here are a few different examples that you may have seen. Keep in mind the style that each of these brands uses and the emotions they evoke with their communications.

DiGiorno Pizza

DiGiorno pizza: humorous, subversive, and at times is extremely clever.

During a live telecast of “The Sound of Music” back in 2013, DiGiorno filled their Twitter feed with tweets like this:

How to Define a Brand Voice That Attracts Business

DiGiorno Pizza Example

Notice how they’re clearly targeting millennials with these tweets because they’re adopting the nomenclature of that age group with “smh” (shaking my head)

Their tweets are funny and timely, and they obviously know their target audience quite well. Think, who buys take-home pizza? I tell you who, I did! But that is when I was back in college at UC Santa Cruz. Not today. Although it does sound good right now.

Nike

Everyone knows Nike for its brand slogan “Just Do It,” which has become a staple of American culture.

How to Define a Brand Voice That Attracts Business

Nike Example

Nike’s is inspirational, it’s almost pushy, and it forces you to want to improve yourself (motivation, I love it! Makes me want some new Nike shoes to run in). This particular Instagram ad shows a photo that inspires people to want to keep their workouts going. Not coincidentally, Nike advertises its products subtly in the caption.

But the emotions this ad generates in the followers is the real story here. It’s almost impossible to look at this, or any Nike ad for that matter, and not feel compelled to both get off the couch and swap your old sweatpants for some sleek, performance sportswear.

Warby Parker

Warby Parker is notable for their sophisticated, almost high-brow brand voice. But they’re also notable for their ability to make their target audience feel like they’re a part of the conversation.

How to Define a Brand Voice That Attracts Business

Warby Example

Warby Parker makes you feel like you’re being spoken to directly. They make you feel like, no matter what, your opinion matters to them.

Much of Warby Parker’s social media (especially on Twitter), makes use of polls, open-ended questions, and user submissions in order to get their marketing messages across. The result is a customer-focused brand that uses an inclusionary brand voice to get their point across, without sacrificing any marketing messages. You always know when you’re reading a Warby Parker ad, but it doesn’t feel like an ad.

Sephora

Sephora caters mostly to millennial women. Their brand strikes an educational, informative tone. Users are given tips, tricks, and educational content that helps reinforce their brand while subtly advertising their products:

How to Define a Brand Voice That Attracts Business

Sephora Example

Sephora’s content provides followers with the information they can actually use and has cultivated an online community where members review products and share their own tips, tricks, and photos.

How to Define Your Own

Here are all the steps to follow when you define your own brand voice:

1. Identify Your Target Audience—And Learn Everything About Them

By figuring out who it is you’re trying to sell your products to, you can better hone the voice and tone you’re using for your brand.

For instance, if you decide that your audience is mostly professional women in their 50s, using a voice that’s filled with millennial lingo will likely isolate you from your core audience.

Instead, you’ll need to have a clear idea of what it is your target market wants, needs, and feels. What kinds of things are they interested in? What are their demographics? How do they communicate online? Where do they spend time online?

Action Item: Create 3 customer personas and use those to model your messaging. 

2. Audit Content to Uncover Your Voice

You won’t find your brand voice by focusing only on the mission statement. Look at the full picture—assessing things like your tagline and the image it conveys, the language you use in direct mailers and email campaigns, your social media personality.

Write down some thoughts—do you come off as quirky, subversive, helpful? Do you demonstrate expertise, authority? I also recommend asking colleagues and friends on the outside to do the same, so you can find out if you see your brand the same way that others see it.

From there, you’ll want to dive into your website content and look for the following:

  • Is the voice consistent?
  • What kind of language comes up?
  • Does that language reflect your branding? Your goals? Your core values?
  • Which posts and pages perform best?
  • What do your top posts have in common?
  • Which pages are linked to driving the most conversions?
  • Do some pages have a significantly higher or lower bounce rate than average?

The point is, you likely have one hiding in all that content. Assessing what seems to work—or not—can point you in the right direction.

Action Item: Perform a full audit of your top-performing content. What about it sticks out? Write down any adjectives that come to mind when describing it. That will help you uncover the kind of voice your brand has already developed.

3. Look at Social Engagement

After reviewing your website content, the next step is taking your search to the socials. Here, you’ll want to look at posts and paid ads, as well as your engagement metrics and the way people interact with you on social platforms.

Again, check performance stats to see what kinds of content works best with your target audience.

Areas to review:

  • CTAs
  • Captions
  • Direct messages
  • Hashtags
  • Visuals
  • Bios
  • Replies

It’s also important to make sure you’re responding to incoming inquiries.

According to Oracle, 43% of social media users only interact with brands on social media to quickly get answers to questions or concerns. As such, make sure that your support-related communications are on-brand and be sure to use social help requests to identify the language your audience uses to describe problems or ask questions—there could be an SEO opportunity hiding in plain sight.

Action item: Perform an audit on your social channels. Do your official posts and responses to customer inquiries or posts align in terms of style of voice?

4. Decide What You Want Your Audience to Walk Away with

Consider what you want your audience to get out of your content.

Do you want to make them laugh or help them learn something new? Do you want to promote body positivity or sustainability? Or maybe your thing is that you’re really clued-in to the hottest trends before everyone else. You get the idea.

But, taking it from a vague idea to a consistent communication plan means you need to have a goal.

Knowing what you want to accomplish will help you build a strategy around your personality.

Even if you’re creating content in many different places, a solid understanding will allow you to show the same consistency throughout every aspect of your marketing.

Action Item: Get input from the entire company on who you are. Take that and match it up to your customer pain points. Make sure your voice reflects your defining features. For Ignite, for example, that means creating content that shows relationships, responsiveness and results to how we approach digital marketing. 

5. Make Brand Voice Official (and Scalable) with a Style Guide

By taking all of these things into account and compiling your very own brand style guide, you can effectively influence the marketing messages that your team uses in the future.

A style guide exists to help you and your team understand what is and isn’t acceptable for your brand.

Users can reference your style guide to inform their approach with any kind of marketing content that they produce in the future.

Action Item: Create a clear one sheet that has all the dos and don’ts.

  • This is our main message
  • We always try to reinforce this
  • We never say this
  • Etc.

Connect Your Brand Voice to Emotions

One of the most powerful ways to use it is to tap into specific emotions that trigger a response with your customer.

In doing so, your brand can generate a feeling which is associated with the value your product or service provides. It’s up to you to figure out what that emotion is depending on your industry and niche, but you can see the power of this effect in an example like Nike.

Nike’s marketing forces you to feel something and the way you feel about those ads compels you to satisfy that urge specifically by purchasing Nike products.

A Great Brand Voice is Informed by its Target Audience

I think the best way to create one that attracts business is to thoroughly understand the target market you’re trying to sell to.

That’s the only way you’re going to be able to create something that works and helps your target market trust you. Without an authentic brand voice, you’re just a website selling products.

Remember, it is your opportunity to make a great first impression and nurture a loyal fan base.

Define Your Brand Voice Now

Sit down and write it down on a piece of paper using this outline:

    1. Create three personas
    2. What is your core company message?
    3. What is your company’s mission?
    4. What are your core products to promote?
    5. What tone of voice do you use in your communication?
    6. How do you want to interact with customers?
    7. How do you not want to interact with customers?
    8. What things should your company never say (specific words, phrases, promises)?
    9. List some examples of content that is approved and on-brand

Good luck with creating a brand voice that brings you the success you’re looking for!

About John E Lincoln

John Lincoln (MBA) is CEO of Ignite Visibility (a 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Inc. 5000 company) a highly sought-after digital marketing strategist, industry speaker and author of two books, "The Forecaster Method" and "Digital Influencer." Over the course of his career, Lincoln has worked with over 1,000 online businesses ranging from small startups to amazing clients such as Office Depot, Tony Robbins, Morgan Stanley, Fox, USA Today, COX and The Knot World Wide. John Lincoln is the editor of the Ignite Visibility blog. While he is a contributor, he does not write all of the articles and in many cases he is supported to ensure timely content.

You may also like:

  • PMax: Performance Max Campaigns
    How to Start with Performance Max Campaigns
  • Unlocking the Power of Bottom of Funnel (BoFU) Marketing
    Unlocking the Power of Bottom of Funnel (BoFU) Marketing
  • What is a Whitepaper
    What is a Whitepaper?

  • Ignite Visibility Takes on Equity Investment to Fund Growth

Search Here

NEWSLETTER // SIGN UP NOW

About The Editor

John E Lincoln, CEO

John Lincoln is CEO of Ignite Visibility, one of the top digital marketing agencies in the nation and a 6x Inc. 5,000 company. Lincoln is consistently named one of the top marketing experts in the industry. He has been recipient of the Search Engine Land "Search Marketer of the Year" award, named the #1 SEO consultant in the USA by Clutch.co, most admired CEO and 40 under 40. Lincoln has written two books (The Forecaster Method and Digital Influencer) and made two movies (SEO: The Movie and Social Media Marketing: The Movie) on digital marketing. He is a digital marketing strategy adviser to some of the biggest names in business. John Lincoln is the editor of the Ignite Visibility blog. While he is a major contributor, he does not write all of the articles.

LEARN MORE ABOUT JOHN

Contact Us. Let’s Chat!

  • Hidden

Marketing Guides

SEO In 2020: How To Prepare For Major Disruption

"SEO: The Movie" - Have You Seen Our Film? Watch Now

"Social Media Marketing: The Movie" - Have You Seen Our Film? Watch Now

Amazon Seller Central vs Vendor Central

Listen To The Podcast Featuring The Best Minds In Marketing

John Lincoln Interviews Global Director of Digital Marketing & Strategy at Qualcomm, Jessica Jensen

Check Out 227 Free Online Marketing Classes

The 2020 Guide To Dominating SEO With Advanced Schema

Learn More About Our Digital Marketing Agency

Learn More About Our SEO Services

Learn More About Our Paid Media Services

SELECT CATEGORY

Become A Contributor

Interested in writing for Ignite Visibility?

APPLY NOW

Services

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Pay Per Click Management
  • Conversion Rate Optimization
  • Website Design & Development
  • Social Media Company
  • Public Relations
  • Amazon Marketing Services
  • Franchise Marketing
  • International Services
  • Digital Marketing Agency Services

About

  • Our Team
  • Our Values
  • Clients
  • Reviews
  • UCSD Extension Courses
  • Careers
  • Tools & Resources
  • Sitemap

Contact

4250 Executive Square, Suite 100
La Jolla, California 92037

619.752.1955

Join The Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest from Ignite Visibility.

google parther logo

©2023 Ignite Visibility. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy