Did you know that it takes an average of 5-7 impressions for people to remember your brand?
Most successful and beloved brands have a consistent presence and build a personality that everyone can recognise across the entire marketing strategy.
Last week we discussed the importance of tidying up your content infrastructure through regular content audits. In this blog, we’ll explore a fundamental part of your branding strategy: your tone of voice (or TOV).
Typically, brands put a lot of effort to represent themselves via visual representation, but they often miss the importance of building the right tone of voice.
Your tone of voice encompasses everything from the words and language you use to the personality and image your marketing assets aims to invoke.
Join us and explore the importance of tidying your tone of voice, and learn the steps that help you find the optimal TOV to fit into your brand personality framework.
In a nutshell, TOV is the voice of your company, describing how you communicate with your audience and plays a massive role in how people perceive your brand.
Your tone of voice includes what words, phrases, structure and formality you use. Some brands may choose a more casual and playful tone, while others go for a direct and formal TOV.
While your TOV should stay consistent across all your media channels, from your website to your social media and emails, you can alter it slightly to suit different platforms and audience segments. For example, you might use a snappier tone for younger customers and more formal for older audiences. Or a simpler language for your social media channels than for your blogs.
But why is it so important to have a set brand tone of voice?
Attracting readers to your content, company, service, product, blog, or website, is easier said than done. Retaining their interest is even more challenging. With so much content out there, your content must stand out to cut through the white noise.
A clear and consistent TOV helps create a memorable image of your brand and helps build a connection with your audience. Presenting your brand consistently across your channels can increase revenue by 23%.
Defining your TOV and establishing clear guidelines is key to developing a content marketing strategy that is true to your vision and appears authentic to your audience.
Don’t know how or where to start defining your tone of voice? Follow these simple steps to find and enforce the style that works for your brand personality.
To determine what language style will work best for your company and your audience, you must first understand who you want to target. The only way to create laser-focused content that can pierce its way into your customers’ minds is to cover engaging topics using language they resonate with.
Use tools like Google Analytics to closely examine your audience to discover their age, gender, interests, job titles, and education. If you already have a content strategy, you should already have conducted in-depth audience research and created customer avatars representing your target audience segments.
Think about what interests your customers, what they fear, where they spend time online and examine what type of language they tend to use.
Did you know that 94% of consumers will likely stay loyal to brands that demonstrate transparency? Be honest when communicating your company’s values and speak clearly about your purpose as a brand.
You should also consider how you want to present your brand. Do you want to act as a supporting leader or a fearless innovator? A friend lending helpful advice or a professor teaching your audience new things?
Once you know your target customers, it’s time to define your brand personality and build a framework that helps you communicate your values.
Try answering these questions:
It’s also a good idea to examine your previous content to see how your brand currently sounds. Are you funny or serious? Formal or casual? Matter-of-fact or enthusiastic?
Gather this information in a spreadsheet to keep track and compile a list of the most relevant adjectives to your brand and industry. Then sift through these words and select the ones that encompass your personality and mission the best.
The final step is to create a framework of guidelines and rules that help your team write content for your company with confidence. Include a list of stylistic dos and don’ts, and list some positive examples to give content creators an idea of the tone of voice you strive for.
Only a quarter of brands have formal guidelines they consistently enforce. So having your employees follow the same TOV framework gives your company a competitive advantage over those that don’t.
At CopyHouse, we’ve worked with leading brands in the tech industry who have hit the nail on the head when it comes to TOV, including:
Global payments provider, Klarna, use a fresh tone of voice that makes their financial services like open banking feel engaging, innovative, exciting, and a little bit groundbreaking to be a part of.
Targeting both younger and more mature customers, their language is friendly and casual while clearly showcasing their experience and reliable, professional knowledge.
Innovators in their core, Modulr specialise in providing functional and convenient payment solutions to companies of all sizes. Despite the complexity of their industry, Modulr’s direct and professional tone leaves no question marks for the audience.
Being a healthcare provider, Cigna focuses on connecting with their audience. Cigna’s tone of voice is friendly and kind to make their members and prospects feel comforted and understood.
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