Building a strong and unified brand voice is a paramount goal for businesses striving to stand out and connect with their target audience. Having a consistent voice is the cornerstone upon which a compelling brand is built, however, it remains one of the most underestimated aspects of branding.
Below, 18 Forbes Business Council members share crucial steps to build a solid and consistent voice for your brand and how this can help forge a lasting connection with customers.
1. Know What Information Is Disseminated Through Your Team
Creating a strong brand voice heavily relies on what’s disseminated through your team. Through either customer service or the product, your team is constantly interacting with customers. It’s important to make sure everyone has a clear understanding of the brand voice and works together to uphold it. – Arthur Bretschneider, Seniorly, Inc.
2. Provide A Fresh, Unique Perspective
Consistency, uniqueness and a good mix of contemporary and historical thought create a strong brand. Providing a fresh and unique perspective to your audience, relative to your company, can build a sense of trust with your prospects and clients. If your branding is dull and boring, you will be seen as another number. – Blake Fortune, Hamilton Capital Partners, LLC.
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3. Develop The Ability To Listen
The art of creating a unified brand voice has a lot to do with the art of listening. Knowing what your clients need and always aiming to deliver and meet their highest standards is definitely a business strategy worth following. Try helping people remember your brand as the one that nurtures and offers quick and effortless problem-solving. – Ivan Popov, Vipe Studio
4. Ensure Cohesive Messaging Across Channels
Ensuring cohesive messaging across all communication channels is a vital step in establishing a strong and unified brand voice. Whether it’s your website, social media, emails or offline materials, maintaining a consistent tone, style and message helps reinforce your brand identity and reinforces a clear and recognizable presence. – Amber Brown, Grant Cardone Licensee
5. Get Everyone On The Same Page
One of the most important steps is to ensure that everyone is on the same page. To be truly unified, every member of your organization must fully comprehend and back the vision behind the brand voice. The level of involvement should not be limited to the business’s leadership but should also extend to each arm and function. Be intentional about brand education at every level. – Kent Ingle, Southeastern University
6. Develop A Brand Guideline Document
One essential step is to develop a comprehensive brand guideline document. This should outline the company’s mission, values, target audience, tone and messaging pillars. By establishing and adhering to these guidelines, all communications—from marketing materials to social media posts—will reflect a consistent and recognizable brand voice, fostering trust and reliability in customers’ eyes. – Andrei Neacsu, HyperSense Software Inc.
7. Make Sure Your Team Understands The Mission And Vision
If you hire the right people in the first place, you will naturally have a unified brand voice across your business as the entire team will naturally be aligned. However, it’s also great to work together to produce an official set of brand guidelines for the company. This ensures that everyone understands the mission and vision of the company, what sort of interactions we want to be doing online and how we speak. – Sabrina Chevannes, Complex Creative
8. Document What Your Brand Is All About
It begins by understanding and documenting what your brand is all about, who you’re aiming to reach and the way you want to communicate. Define your core values, target audience and how you want to talk to them. Share this with your team and make sure everyone’s on board. This uniform approach across all channels helps your brand’s identity stand out and leaves a lasting impression. – Dustin Lemick, BriteCo
9. Link Actions To Your Corporate Purpose
Link every action to your corporate purpose to build a unified brand voice. Always remember to ask yourself why you do what you do and what impact your company has on its employees, customers, community and the world. Every single employee has an impact on how others view your brand through every interaction, every experience and every communication, so education is key to fueling alignment. – Andreea Vanacker, SPARKX5
10. Define Your Brand’s Messaging And Colors
Businesses must understand their target audience while creating a unified brand voice. Plan your messages in a consistent manner of language or tone and make sure you have defined your brand colors. – Raj Maddula, Global Squirrels
11. Embrace Cultural Influences
Instead of adhering to a single traditional brand voice, consider embracing cultural fusion by blending elements from different cultures that resonate with your target audience. It’s not only distinctive, but also showcases your openness to different perspectives and a wide range of people. – Mark Snell, Polestar Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning
12. Implement Standard Operating Procedures
Craft your foundation by solidifying your brand’s audience, mission and objectives. Implementing standard operating procedures and regularly checking these guidelines will build a solid and unified brand voice that resonates with your employees, stakeholders and audience and will consistently support your business objectives. – Myrtle Anne Ramos, Block Tides
13. Ensure All Leaders Are On The Same Page
Leadership is the key. Leaders create a vision that inspires people and develop the systems to empower the execution of a strategy. All the rowers need to row in sync. A unified brand voice is more than messaging; it’s the collaborative and proactive support of one another that transforms workers into a true team and tells customers that they can depend on workers to deliver on the company’s promise. – Jerry Cahn, Age Brilliantly
14. Develop Specific Voice Attributes
Break down your brand personality or target audience into specific voice attributes. For example, if your brand is professional, its voice attributes might be “formal,” “respectful” and “informed.” On the other hand, if you’re targeting software developers or creatives, for example, the attributes might be “casual,” “helpful” and “educational.” – Jeremy Bradley-Silverio Donato, Zama
15. Identify Personality And Values
Creating a strong brand voice is crucial to stand out. Start by identifying your brand’s personality and values. With a clear understanding, you can create a voice that reflects these traits. This establishes a consistent tone across all marketing channels, creating familiarity and connection with your audience. Remember that your brand voice is not just about what you say but how you say it. – Michael Shribman, APS Global Partners Inc.
16. Align Hiring With Company Values
Company values should be incorporated into the hiring guide. Interview candidates to assess alignment. While it’s not a test, the brand voice should connect with their personal values. After assembling a strong team, document the brand voice to provide clarity for all, including vendors. – Neena Pandey, The String Code and Indie Roots
17. Focus On Your Ideal Demographic
A business needs to focus on its ideal customer and consistently engage that demographic. Be politely ruthless. Every business needs to be a marketing machine, so focus and consistency are the bedrock of success. – Joe Crandall, Greencastle Associates Consulting
18. Maintain A Consistent Tone
In our experience, consistency has been our guiding light. All communications, including internal, external and social media, must convey a consistent tone, style and message. This allows your customers to recognize and trust your company. Intentionally and consistently utilizing the same voice, tone and message will assist your team to align their communication effectively. – Francisco Ramirez, The ACE Group (TAG)
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