Brand language: how to find your voice

In business branding, we often start with visual elements such as a logo, colour palette, style of imagery and the overall feeling of your design style. But it is also important to think about the non-visual elements of your brand such as language and voice.

The ‘voice’ of your brand needs to feel authentic to who you are and what you do. Think closely about your ideal customer and how you would speak with them if you were face to face.

What language should you use and how familiar or formal should you be? For example, the voice of a heathcare provider would be very different to a pop up shop selling colourful jewellery to teenagers. Are you looking to sell a lot of products quickly, or is your approach more gently paced for a longer duration sale?

Brainstorm characteristics of your brand and think about how you’ll entice people to buy your product. Develop a short list of keywords to focus on using and think about how to weave these into your messaging.

Think about contractions and make a decision which you stick with consistently. If you want to be formal and professional, then you may prefer to avoid contractions. If you want to be more relaxed and get straight to the point then it’s better to write as you’d speak.

Listen to your ideal customer and hear what they say. What problem do they have, what words do they use to say it, how does your product fix it for them, and what words can you use to best communicate this?

Understand your competitors - what do they say and how can you make yourself sound different?

Unless you would naturally use buzzwords, slang and jargon in your speech, don’t use them in your business messaging (and even then, beware). Slang risks isolating your customers if they do not understand it, and because buzzwords move on so quickly, you can risk sounding dated which will damage the credibility of your message.

Avoid words like ‘very’ and ‘totally’ which don’t add value, and words like ‘just’ and ‘only’ which actively devalue what you are saying. For example, ‘I just think...;’ or ‘we only wanted to say…’.

If you are aiming for a direct and decisive persona, avoid using the phrases ‘in our opinion’ or ‘could possibly be’ which make you sound unsure of your own viewpoint.

Once you have found your brand voice, keep it clearly in mind when creating any type of content, whether articles, social media posts, emails, leaflets or any type of written or spoken message.

To learn more about creating content for your business, read our article on ‘Content Marketing’.