The Importance of Your Brand’s Tone of Voice

Tone of voice can lead to all sorts of trouble.

We’ve all been there.  You have received a text from someone and been left slightly confused as to what the sender means. Are they angry or being confrontational?  Tone of voice is very easy to misunderstand or be misunderstood regardless of whether you are sending a work email or posting as a business on social media.

Why is this?  Because there is no cadence, no facial expressions, or any other contextual clues to help you decipher its meaning. This is why tone of voice is so important – especially when it comes to writing content for your business. Tone is what adds colour to your copy, and helps your customers gain a better understanding of the purpose of your campaign and who your business is.  This affects their gut instinct about your business and like with so many things, consumers buy with their gut.

Your businesses tone of voice is one of the factors that makes up your business’ personality. When you can create a cohesive and appropriate voice for your brand you humanize your business and in doing so gain the trust of potential customers. Its also one of the things that makes your business unique, creating familiarity. No other business will ‘sound’ exactly the same, and over time your marketing strategy and your businesses tone of voice will be something that your customers come to recognise.

Having a cohesive voice is essential. You don’t want to create confusion where it seems like a different person is talking in every piece of content you post out. If you want to develop a marketing strategy that embraces a consistent business tone of voice, you have to have a clear idea of how you want to come across to your customers. You need to know exactly what you are trying to say.

And like so many things in marketing, consistency is key.  It’s a good idea to have a ‘dictionary’ of words and phrases that align with your brand and talking style which you can use consistently in social media marketing, print design and on your company website design and content. This way, if there are multiple people writing content, the results won’t be too varied and your brand tone won’t seem inconsistent. Granted, if you only have one person handling the social media marketing for your brand, that tone of voice will be more consistent – but what happens if they leave?  How will you continue that consistency with future social media marketing?

Deciding on what your brands tone of voice is

When it comes to your brands tone of voice is, it’s important to have a clear idea of how you want your business to be perceived. You have to know who your customer is and tailor your words to that target market. This means you have some big decisions to make when it comes to deciding on your brands tone of voice.  Do you want to have a fun and friendly quality to your voice, or would a professional style be more appropriate. Consider why your customers are coming to you, what problem are you solving for them, how are they feeling about this problem and how would you talk to them if you were talking to them in person.

When talking to your customers its incredibly valuable to be authentic and emotive. Show that you care about them and about your business. This will help gain the trust of new customers and grow the trust of your existing customers.

Anything else?

Another important thing to consider is the things you don’t respond well to as the reader. What do you not like when you are the targeted customer? It could be certain language that you feel is too pushy. Does the social media posts have too many CTAs (that’s Call To Actions) or a tone that is far too serious for a light-hearted topic.

A word of warning – Your tone of voice can enhance your brand identity but also hurt it. It’s important to get it right so that the content you are spending time writing is actually benefiting your business. If you know your who your reader is, it’s much easier to talk directly to them, and talk in a way that makes them want to listen. By taking the right tone with your customers you will gain their trust, and hopefully their business.

Find out more

You may have good intentions to handle your companies social media marketing and develop your brands tone of voice but like so many things, trying to handle your companies marketing on top of actually running the business can be a near impossible task. At Lundie Media, we provide online marketing services covering everything from daily posting on social media to weekly and monthly advertising on a variety of online platforms including Facebook and Linkedin. These are powerful online marketing tools that can provide specific targeting to reach the potential customers that you want to talk too. If you have previously spent money on print based advertising and were left frustrated at the lack of return or results then you should consider online marketing. It can produce real, measured results for a relatively small amount of capital.

If you want us to take over the social media marketing work that you have already got up and running then we can take over and work to your set Brand Tone criteria. If you don’t have one, we can help you to develop one that best works with your branding strategy and company values. At Lundie Media we are here to help your business in what ever way you need help.  If we are what you are looking for in a local design company to help you with branding and social media marketing then the next step is to get in touch. Whatever you are looking for, we are always here to help you with generating more sales and strengthening your brand.