To connect with your target audience in today’s competitive marketplace, you need to have a strong, authentic brand voice. At Smylie Creative, we specialise in helping brands find and refine their unique voice to ensure they are speaking directly to their audience in a way that resonates. In this post, we’ll share key insights on how to develop a brand voice that reflects your personality, connects with your customers, and strengthens your brand.
1. Understand Your Audience
The foundation of any great brand voice begins with understanding your audience. After all, your brand exists to serve them – whether that’s through products, services, or experiences. To speak their language, you need to understand who they are, what they care about, and how they communicate.
At Smylie Creative, we start by helping you dive deep into your target audience’s psyche. We conduct research into their preferences, pain points, and behaviours to better understand how they perceive your brand and how they communicate with others. This understanding allows us to shape a voice that speaks directly to them in a way that feels personal, relevant, and authentic.
Key Questions to Consider:
Who are your ideal customers (age, gender, location, interests, etc.)?
What problems do they need solving?
What words, phrases, or language do they use in everyday conversations?
2. Define Your Brand’s Personality
Your brand’s personality should reflect the core values and mission of your business. Whether you’re aiming to be professional, friendly, humorous, inspiring, or innovative, your brand voice should align with the overall character of your business.
Smylie Creative can help you define your brand’s personality through careful thought and creative collaboration. We’ll work with you to determine key characteristics that define your brand and use those traits to create a consistent voice. This process ensures that every message you communicate, from a tweet to a blog post, stays true to who your brand is.
Key Questions to Consider:
How do you want your customers to perceive your brand?
What words or phrases best reflect your brand’s core values?
What emotions do you want to evoke when people hear from your brand?
3. Consistency is Key
Once you’ve established your brand voice, it’s important to maintain consistency across all platforms and communication channels. Consistency builds recognition, trust, and credibility. Whether you’re posting on social media, updating your website, or responding to customer inquiries, your brand voice should be consistent and easily recognisable.
At Smylie Creative, we help you create a brand voice style guide that ensures consistency across all communication touchpoints. From tone and style, to vocabulary and sentence structure, we’ll ensure that your voice stays cohesive whether you're crafting a newsletter, a social media post, or an email campaign.
Key Elements of a Brand Voice Style Guide:
Tone: Is your brand voice friendly and approachable, or formal and authoritative?
Vocabulary: What words resonate with your audience? Are there industry-specific terms or casual phrases that make sense for your brand?
Grammar and Structure: Do you prefer short, punchy sentences or longer, more descriptive ones?
4. Speak in a Way That’s Relatable
Your brand voice needs to be human and relatable, not stiff or robotic. Your audience wants to feel like they’re connecting with a real person, not a faceless company. To do this, you need to focus on creating an authentic dialogue that’s both engaging and approachable.
We can guide you through the process of writing and communicating in a way that feels genuine and natural. We work with you to ensure your brand speaks to your audience in a tone they can relate to, whether that means using humour, storytelling, or empathetic language that reflects your understanding of their needs.
Key Questions to Consider:
Does your voice reflect your audience’s concerns, desires, and emotions?
Are you offering solutions in a way that feels personal and real?
Is your language warm and welcoming, or is it more formal and transactional?
5. Adapt Your Voice for Different Platforms
While consistency is important, you should also be flexible enough to adapt your voice for different platforms and contexts. The way you speak on Instagram will differ from how you communicate on LinkedIn, and your website messaging may differ from your customer service responses. Understanding how to adjust your tone without losing your brand’s essence is essential.
At Smylie Creative, we help you adapt your brand voice for different communication channels while maintaining the core elements of your personality. We take into account platform nuances, audience expectations, and the nature of the content being shared to tailor your voice appropriately.
Key Platform Considerations:
Social Media: Should be conversational, engaging, and shareable.
Website: Clear, concise, and informative.
Email: Personalised and action-oriented.
Customer Service: Empathetic, helpful, and solution-focused.
6. Evolve and Refine Your Voice Over Time
Your brand voice isn’t set in stone. As your company grows, your audience’s needs change, and therefore your brand voice may need to be refined. Continuously assess how your voice resonates with your audience and make adjustments as needed.
We work with you to monitor how your voice is performing over time and adjust it based on feedback, new trends, and shifting market dynamics. This ensures that your voice always feels fresh, relevant, and in tune with your audience.
Let Smylie Creative Help You Find Your Brand Voice
Developing a brand voice that speaks directly to your audience is an ongoing process that requires insight, creativity, and a deep understanding of your customers. With the right approach, your brand voice can become a powerful tool that connects, engages, and builds lasting relationships with your audience. At Smylie Creative, we’re here to guide you through every step of the process. Let us help you speak your audience’s language and stand out in today’s crowded marketplace.
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