Finding Your Brand Voice: Six Easy Steps

Before you sit down to craft cute quips about your company, make sure you have gone over these easy questions of brand identification. After you have honed in on your product, your audience, and yourself, the writing will come much easier to you. These are steps that we, as creative marketing professionals, take for our clients whether the text is for a blog, social media, or any form of marketing. So, ponder these points, follow allow with suggested exercises, and deepen your brand identity.

(You’ll need a pen/paper or digital notepad for best results.)

 

What is your product?

Laptop and notebook

Do you provide a service or create a physical product? Write it down. Seriously.

List all of the concrete and/or physical characteristics of your product/service. (Examples: “Complimentary delivery” or “hand-whittled wood furniture” or whatever you provide.)

Jot down all of the “fluffy” words that you would like other people to use to describe your business and your product. By “fluffy,” I mean nice-sounding adjectives! (Examples: “Timeless,” “glamorous,” and “full-service.”)

 

These descriptors will be used EVERY time you write about your product. Refer to your list often and mix and match as you’d like.

 

Who is your audience?

Who is your audience

Note that I didn’t say “Who is your intended audience.” Your actual audience and your intended audience can be different.

When you are first launching your marketing or social media campaign, your audience will most likely consist of clients (past, current, and prospective), colleagues/contemporaries, and—let’s face it—family members. These are the people, your actual audience (that pay regular attention to your company page), that you hope will support your efforts and spread the good word to your intended audience.

Your intended audience are the folks that you want to pay attention to you. Would you like to have a more high-end clientele? Are you hoping to reach a different age group? Whatever your intended audience is, write that down too. You’ll need to be reminded of your goals as you craft your content.

 

Research other companies that you admire, even if they are far ahead of you. For example, I am inspired by marketing campaigns by Starbucks and Coca-Cola, both of which are HUGE organizations, even though BeatCreative is a small business.

 

Who are you?

Who are you

Know yourself—or who you want people to think you are. This question goes along well with targeting your intended audience.

You need to decide what kind of image you want to project for your brand. As you write text and select photos to represent your company, ONLY choose what will support your image.

 

Write down your ideas.

 

You’re ready!

 

Now that you have the basics to get you started on your brand identity (in written form), you must make sure to fine-tune your content as you go along.

Three quick points to consider as you continue:

Follow up

keyboard and mouse

Make sure you receive feedback from your audience. Whether this comes from comments on your blog, posts to your Facebook page, or replies to your e-blast, take the response of your audience into consideration.

Test run

Typing on keyboard

Try new things. Inspiration is everywhere, from your contemporaries to brands in completely different fields. If you see something you like that you think will fit your identity, give it a shot.

Make adjustments

Team in office

As you listen to your audience and try out new ideas, know that you will constantly make tweaks to the way you approach writing about your brand. Be flexible, you’re growing!

 

I wish you easy, happy writing about your firm, but malleable, brand image!