Finding Your Brand's Voice: Branding, Consistency and Speaking Up
Finding Your Brand’s Voice
How do you know who your audience is? You know because they fit a certain demographic, a profile for your business. You know the age, location and interests of your typical customer, as you cater for them on a daily basis.
But how do they know that you’re the right company for them?
That’s exactly why a brand voice is so important. It expresses not just what you do, but who you are.
Brand voice is the heart and soul of your communications. Even beyond specific words and phrases, it’s the tone you use to speak, connect and engage with your audience. Your brand voice has to be unique and recognizable.
Your voice conveys personality, values, and trust. It mirrors your core beliefs, and communicates your firm's personality. A brand voice is extremely crucial when building a relationship with your audience.
A recent study by Forbes revealed that up to 43% of millennials focus more on authenticity than content. In essence, they have to trust the brand before they'll even read its content. A human, comprehensible and authentic brand voice is the key to winning your audience’s heart.
Brand voice is incredibly important in Hong Kong, where endless businesses all compete for the same clients. Your voice can single you out and bring loyal customers to your business. Hiring a Hong Kong copywriter can help harness that voice, but finding your own voice is something every business must do from day one.
So, before you create your blog, tweet your first tweet or craft content for your site, you'll want to define that voice.
Defining and Differentiating
It's tough to build a relationship on an unstable personality. The same is true with brands.
A strong, distinctive brand voice is built on the foundation of a company’s values. These values are the heart of your business. If you took a little stroll down memory lane, back to the conception of your business, what would your younger self be talking about with passion and vigor?
Once you’ve defined your brand’s voice, consistency is key. Your company will need to look, feel, and sound the same across all platforms. Printed copy, web content, blogs, social media, even email communication.
Consistency is something that resonates with humans on a cognitive level; we’re all creatures of habit, after all. People form long-held preferences for famous and familiar brands, based on recognition. We’d all like to believe that we make rational, practical consumer choices. But the truth is, humans are reassured by familiarity.
Think about McDonald’s in Hong Kong. Is it the best meal for your health? Of course not. Is it the best-priced fast-food option on the market? Far from it. But despite all that, when many of our city’s office workers think about lunch, they think about McDonald’s.
That’s because its brand voice, both in English and Chinese, is unmistakably consistent. McDonald’s didn’t just hire a Hong Kong copywriting company to find that voice. It’s been there since the very beginning. It’s the family-friendly American Dream, served up in a quick, tasty and affordable meal.
That idea makes our habit-based neural reflexes happy. Consistency is critical. If there ever is a mismatch in your company’s tone, your audience will pick up on it.
Consistency, Consistency, Consistency
Work out how you want to be perceived by your audience. Picture your brand as a living personality. Do you want to be Fun? Authoritative? Helpful? Reliable? Quirky? Are you going Formal or Casual? These values will be the foundation of all your future writing.
If your brand’s values consistently come through across all channels, you’re on the right track. If you feel that your branding lacks a distinctive voice, revisiting your original values is a great way to refocus your efforts. The trick is to harness those values and allow them to naturally come through.
Keep it clear. Keep it simple. And of course grammar, punctuation and quality of English are essential to conveying your brand’s tone of voice.
Speaking Up
Everyone’s an entrepreneur these days. The copywriting and marketing worlds move at an eye-watering pace, and endless competitors all vie for the same piece of the pie. To stand out, your business needs to separate itself from the masses.
That’s why your brand’s voice can gain you so much traction. Your voice comes down to values and consistency. A Hong Kong copywriting company can help define it, but finding your own voice is essential.