How To Create Your Brand Voice
How To Create Your Brand Voice
Great branding is essential, especially if you are planning to start a career in media. By having an effective and strong branding, you will be more recognizable, catch people’s attention and build more trust with your audience.
But when people think of branding, the first thing that may come to their mind is the visual part — color scheme, font, aesthetic, etc. While these are indeed important, branding goes beyond just visuals. One of the elements that you shouldn’t overlook is the brand voice.
What Is a Brand Voice?
A brand voice is the “personality” a brand uses when communicating with its audience.
Think of it as people you know. Some may be more humorous, some more serious, while some may have a softer, gentler personality. All these people have a distinct tone when speaking, words they like using, or specific traits that make you associate that personality with them.
The same concept applies to brands. Tone, language, key phrases, and style — all of this make up the personality or voice of your brand. Your brand voice is the representation of what your brand will sound like if they were a person that can directly communicate with their audience.
Why Is Brand Voice Important?
Brand voice is important in making you stand out from the crowd. If you have a distinct voice, your audience will easily recognize and remember you. Your brand voice is also key in making you more relatable to your audience, making it easier for them to connect and bond with you. This will, in turn create stronger brand loyalty.
Best Practices in Creating Brand Voice
Here are some best practices to start creating your own brand voice:
Define your target audience
This is the first and perhaps the most important step in creating your brand voice. By knowing your audience, you can decide the direction that you’ll want to go in.
For example, if you have a younger audience, your voice could be more fun and relaxed. If you are targeting a more affluent audience, your voice should be more refined and elegant. If you have an older, more business-oriented audience, your brand voice should be serious, authoritative, and informative.
Do some audience research as well. Find out what your audience likes, what their interests are, what brands they usually buy, what brands they avoid, what kind of content they like, and what social media platforms they use. This will help you understand your audience better and in turn, figure out the appropriate brand voice to use.
Do some creative exercise
After coming up with your target audience, do a brainstorming session. Think of words or phrases that you can associate with your audience. Are you enthusiastic, warm, sassy, matter-of-fact, or serious? Think of personality traits and characteristics that can represent you as well.
You can also create a mood board or inspiration board, and fill it with images that relate to your brand. After all, your brand voice is a part of your overall brand identity. You need to take all the other elements of your brand into consideration. This includes your brand’s core values to the visual elements like logo design and brand colors. By doing all of this, it will help you get a bigger picture of your brand and come up with the best brand voice.
Compare with your competitors
By looking at your competitors, you’ll have a better feel of what brand voice is typically used in your field. In contrast, this will also help you in coming up with a voice that is different and unique from your competitors, which can help you stand out.
Create a brand voice guideline
After gathering information and inspiration, you should be now ready to create your brand voice. Once you settle on your brand voice, you should then create a brand voice guideline. This is to help you keep it consistent across different platforms or media.
Come up with rules or “do’s and don’ts” for your brand voice. For example, will you be using emojis or not? Will you use slang, or just stick to relaxed yet still appropriate language? Are you going for light humor, and not sarcastic wit? If you have a more serious branding, will you be using formal language in all of your marketing materials or not? By asking yourself these questions, it can help you further refine your brand voice.
Learn How To Create Your Brand
Whether you want to be a digital marketer, an influencer, or a podcaster, learning how to build a brand voice and brand identity is a fundamental skill to learn. Especially since branding and digital marketing are closely intertwined, having knowledge of these topics is key to your future success.
That is why at BeonAir Network of Media Schools, we developed a Digital Media Production program where you can learn all the skills and techniques you’ll need to start and succeed in this highly competitive industry. With campuses located in Miami, Chicago, Colorado, and Ohio, you’ll learn the ins and outs of branding, content creation, digital storytelling, and many more — and you’ll get to do it in a real-world, hands-on setting as well.
If you are ready to learn more about branding, reach out to our team today and get more information about our Digital Media Production program.
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