Define (your) Brand Tone of Voice (ToV) – The first Step!
Defining your brand’s Tone of Voice (ToV) is a crucial first step in branding, involving establishing your brand’s unique personality, values, and communication style to build connection, ensure consistency, and resonate with your audience, often by creating brand voice guidelines with dos and don’ts for all communications. It’s about deciding if you’re formal or casual, serious or funny, and how you’ll sound across all touchpoints to create a memorable and cohesive brand identity.
I. Why it’s important
1. Builds connection: A consistent ToV creates an honest, relatable connection with customers.
2. Ensures consistency: It standardises communication across all platforms, even with multiple content creators.
3. Creates memorability: A distinct voice helps your brand stand out and be remembered.
4. Drives results: Consistent brands can see revenue growth, and a well-defined ToV supports marketing goals.
II. How to define your brand’s ToV
1. Define your brand’s personality: Think of your brand as a person – what are its traits (e.g., friendly, authoritative, playful)?
2. Know your audience: Understand their communication style and preferences to ensure your voice appeals to them.
3. Align with values: Your ToV must honestly represent your core company values.
4. Create a spectrum: Decide where you fall on scales like formal vs. informal, serious vs. humorous.
5. Develop guidelines: Create clear “dos and don’ts” for word choice, sentence structure, and overall style for all team members.
6. Consider perspective: Decide on first-person (“we”), second-person (“you”), or third-person.
III. Key elements of your ToV
1. Word choice: Specific vocabulary and slang.
2. Sentence structure: Short and punchy or long and descriptive.
3. Emotional tone: Humorous, empathetic, authoritative, etc..
4. Style: Formal, casual, irreverent, or enthusiastic.
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