How can brand voice and tone help you connect with your audience?

Brand voice is what your brand says, and brand tone is how it says it. In other words, Brand voice is the overall style and personality of your brand's communications. Brand tone is the mood or emotion you convey in your messages to your audience. Example: Brand voice: Apple's brand voice is innovative, creative, and user-friendly. Brand tone: Apple's brand tone is minimalist, elegant, and aspirational.

Developing a brand's voice and tone is crucial for connecting with the audience. It starts with establishing a consistent voice that reflects the brand's personality and values. Tailoring the tone to match the context and emotions of the audience fosters relatability and trust. Creating audience personas is a helpful strategy to guide messaging effectively. I agree that authentic brand communication enhances audience engagement. Consider Apple as an example, known for its clear and friendly voice in product descriptions and a supportive tone in customer service. These elements create a strong emotional connection with customers.

I like to think of brand voice and tone as “how do you speak to your audience?” Are you a playful, cheeky friend, or perhaps a polished professional? 🤔 The way you speak will set the tone for how your audience interacts and speaks back to you.

A strong brand voice and tone can help you to: 1. Build brand awareness and recognition: When your brand has a consistent voice and tone, it becomes more recognizable to consumers. 2. Differentiate your brand from competitors. A unique brand voice and tone can help you to do this by setting you apart from your competitors. 3. Connect with your target audience. People are more likely to connect with brands that have a personality that resonates with them. 4. Build trust and credibility. When consumers trust and believe in a brand, they are more likely to do business with it. A consistent and authentic brand voice and tone can help to build trust and credibility with consumers. Examples: Check brand voice & tone of Tata Salt and Amul Milk.

People buy from people and if your audience isn’t resonating with how you speak to them, they will simply throw you in the bin 🗑️(figuratively of course). We can all appreciate a brand that speaks like us and laughs at the same things we do. So, add a little 🌶️ or ✨where appropriate!

Write a couple lines that state what your voice and tone is e.g. warm, friendly, refined. Write down some Don’ts - “we don’t use the word babe and we never use negative language.” Create a table of on-brand words/phrases, I like to do about 20. This will be a great help to your team and any new team members that need a little extra help understanding what is and is not your tone of voice.

Make sure your team understand! And I mean every single team member, not just the marketing team. Your brand voice/tone are portrayed in every phone call answered, customer enquiry responded to, face-to-face customer encounter, on your packaging, and so much more. It’s a whole team effort! 🙌🏼