A 4-step method to create a compelling brand voice

Your brand voice encapsulates the personality of your brand. It’s the unique way in which you communicate with your audience, and a crucial factor in building trust and recognition. But how do you create a brand voice that’s not only distinctive but also easy to implement across all your communications? This blog post will guide you through a simple yet effective 4-step method to develop a brand voice that resonates with your audience and remains consistent across all touchpoints.

Step 1: define your brand values

The foundation of your brand voice lies in your brand values. These are the core principles that guide your company’s actions, decisions, and communications. To define your brand values:

1. Brainstorm a list of words that describe what your brand stands for.
2. Consider your company’s mission, vision, and long-term goals.
3. Think about the ethos, character and personality you want your brand to embody.
4. Narrow down your list to the five most important and relevant words.

These five words will serve as the essence of your brand, informing every aspect of your communication strategy. For example, a climate tech startup might choose values like “innovative,” “ambitious,” “empowering,” “transparent,” and “collaborative.”

Step 2: define your tonal values

Once you’ve established your brand values, the next step is to define your tonal values. These are the specific characteristics of the language your brand uses to communicate. It’s really about how your brand sounds. To define your tonal values:

1. Select three adjectives that describe how you want your brand to sound.
2. Ensure these adjectives align with and support your brand values.
3. Consider how these tonal values will resonate with your target audience.

For instance, our climate tech startup might choose tonal values like “warm,” “courageous,” and “authoritative.” These adjectives reflect the brand’s commitment to making bold moves in sustainability while maintaining an approachable and knowledgeable demeanour.

Step 3: write a brand voice checklist

With your brand and tonal values in place, it’s time to create a practical tool for implementing your brand voice: the brand voice checklist. This list of rules will guide anyone creating content for your brand, ensuring consistency across all communications. To create your checklist:

1. Analyse how your tonal values translate into specific language choices.
2. Consider sentence structure, vocabulary, and overall tone.
3. Include both “do’s” and “don’ts” to clarify your expectations.
4. Make sure each rule supports your brand and tonal values.

For our climate tech startup, the checklist might include rules like:

• Do use clear, jargon-free language to explain complex concepts (supports “warm” and “transparent” values)
• Do incorporate data and research to back up claims (supports “authoritative” and “innovative” values)
• Do use an active voice and direct address to engage readers (supports “courageous” and “collaborative” values)
• Don’t use alarmist language when discussing climate issues (supports “empowering” value)
• Don’t use overly formal or academic language (supports “warm” value)

Step 4: create copy examples

The final step in developing your brand voice is to create concrete examples of how it should be applied. This step is crucial for two reasons:

1. It allows you to test and refine your brand voice checklist.
2. It provides clear models for others to follow when creating content.

To create effective copy examples:

1. Write sample content for different audiences (e.g., customers, investors, partners).
2. Create examples for various content types (e.g., social media posts, email newsletters, website copy).
3. Ensure each example adheres to your brand voice checklist.
4. Provide annotations explaining how each example embodies your brand and tonal values.

For instance, our climate tech startup might create:

• A tweet announcing a new product launch
• An investor pitch opening paragraph
• A customer-facing FAQ about their technology
• A team member recruitment post

By providing these diverse examples, you’ll demonstrate how your brand voice can be adapted to different contexts while maintaining consistency.

Implementing your brand voice

With this four-step framework in place, you’ve created a powerful tool for maintaining a consistent and compelling brand voice across all your communications. Here’s how to ensure successful implementation:

1. Share your brand voice guidelines with all team members involved in creating content.
2. Conduct training sessions to familiarise everyone with the new guidelines.
3. Regularly review content to ensure adherence to the brand voice.
4. Be open to feedback and willing to refine your guidelines as your brand evolves.

Remember, a strong brand voice is not static. As your company grows and the market changes, you may need to revisit and adjust your brand voice. However, by following this method, you’ll have a solid foundation that can easily be adapted to meet new challenges and opportunities.