Your brand voice is the personality of your brand. Your customers need to see a consistent voice in all of your communications that speak directly to them in order to successfully build a relationship with them.
Here are five common mistakes you could be making with your brand voice.
No Clear Message
Just like your personality in everyday life, your brand voice needs to tell people who you are. It should deliver a message that conveys your organisation's core values.
If you’re a business whose core values are innovation and bold risk-taking, your communications with your customers need to say that.
If the main core value you want your audience to resonate with is security and reliability, this is what your tone and voice should say. Make sure you have a clear value to communicate.
Assumptions not Observations
In order to define and craft language that really resonates with your audience, you need to know your audience well. Too many organisations rely on their assumptions rather than on objective and observable data. You may think you already know your audience, but make sure you get out there and talk to them and gather their feedback so that you know for sure.
Lack of Consistency
If your voice isn’t consistent, cracks might begin to appear in your branding. Your audience won’t perceive you with the same feeling of trust you want them to have.
Make sure that your voice is consistent across every channel that you're using to communicate with your audience, whether it’s your website, a YouTube video, a conference speech or an outbound calling script.
So What?
Even with solid core values based on customer data as well as consistency of expression, there's still the chance you might suffer from a lack of originality. What good is a well-crafted brand voice if you just sound like everybody else?
You need to make sure your voice is unique, just like the different aspects of your personality make it uniquely yours. This is how your brand will stand out from the crowd.
Too Rigid
Finally, your brand voice will crash and burn if you don’t pay attention to the changes in your market and update your brand voice accordingly.
It takes a great deal of work to define and implement a brand voice, but it also requires occasional review and, if necessary, updating. Maintain good two-way communication with your audience and watch your competitors and the market for changes. This is how you keep your voice relevant and your brand vital.
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