How To Find Your Brand’s Voice and Create A Compelling Message

Establishing a cohesive and clear brand identity is key to everything that your business does; it helps steer you to market effectively in a way that is true to your business.
Here at Designflair, branding drives everything that we do and we’re here to help your business grow.

What is your brand voice?

Your brand voice is an element of your branding that determines the way in which you communicate to your audience. Namely, your brand voice is the tone and style in which you express your business through marketing media. Your brand voice is employed through your website content, email marketing, blog posts, landing pages, and social media content.
There are many different ways to describe your brand voice. We find it most beneficial to choose a set of adjectives that determine the way you communicate about your business.

How do you define your brand voice?

Determining your brand voice can be daunting. So let’s break it down.

First, write down your business’ values.

• Think about your mission statement.
• Gather your employees and settle on shared values that influence your business.
• Brainstorm the values that drive your business’ interactions.

 

Secondly, make a list of adjectives that those values.

• Grab a thesaurus and check for some related words.
• Be creative and think outside of the box.

 

Lastly, take that list and narrow it down.

• Look over the list of words you collected and circle the ones that pop out to you.
• Determine which ones are consistent with your business, what you do, and why you do it.
• Select three adjectives and stick with those to establish your brand voice.

As an example, let’s take a look at the branding for the company Life is Good. Under their About Page, you will find their Purpose (or mission statement).  While their business name itself really tells us what they are all about, their Purpose is even more specific; their mission is “spreading the power of optimism.”

So taking this mission statement, we could easily generate a list of adjectives to help direct and guide all the content that is put out by this business. This list is then used to establish their brand voice.

Simply starting with the word “optimism” we could then think of adjectives such as cheerful, hopeful and encouraging.
The branding of Life is Good shows that they are optimistic. They have a campaign to “spread optimism” through social media, allowing them to engage with their target audience. The bright yellow used consistently in their branding is uplifting and cheerful, reminiscent of the sun.

This is their “Stories of Optimism” page where they share inspiring stories from around their world. On this page, you’ll find updated stories about people who are spreading happiness and fun posts about topics such as gratitude. Life is Good and the content they produce as a business is a great example of a cohesive brand voice.

Another important aspect about identifying your brand voice, is to continually consider your audience. Think about topics that they are interested in. Listen to what they are talking about and figure out what they are concerned with. This will help you think of content for your business to be generating, whether it’s through blog posts or webinars or email marketing.
Did you hear about REI’s recent campaign #OptOutside?

REI will be closing all their stores on black friday this year, encouraging their customers to head to the outdoors. This marketing campaign is brilliant because it speaks to their target audience: it’s adventurous and goes against the grain. It is also shareable, a key ingredient for an effective marketing campaign. By encouraging their customers to do what they love, REI is gaining lots of traffic and attention to their business.

Designflair: A Design Firm’s Voice

We are lucky in Designflair that we are also in a creative industry where unique ideas and creativity are allowed. We use a more casual, informative tone because we like to build relationships with our clients and audience and provide value to their lives. When we help a client’s business grow, we are improving the impact their business makes, the quality of their life and also the quality of their employee’s lives – all from doing what we love.

Alyssa, founder of Designflair, explains, “I love what we do because we provide value to our clients – marketing, SEO, web design and even graphic design can be intimidating. Then we come in, make recommendations and  implement solutions for our clients that solve their problems and bring in new business. When I triple a client’s business, I am ecstatic for them as it means new possibilities for what they can do with their business and their lives!”

At Designflair, we make sure to consider our clients in everything we do. Before writing our blog posts, we think about how we can help our audience and provide them with tools that they need. Our goal is to help you and your business succeed. Considering your audience also allows you to be approachable in your branding strategies.

With the new year just around the corner, it’s a great time to be evaluating your business during these next few months. Take time to pause and ask yourself some questions. Are you achieving what you set out to do as a business? Are your clients and customers familiar with your brand? Does your marketing speak to who you are?  

Designflair exists to help your business succeed. Set up a time to chat with us about your brand identity. We can help you determine what makes your business stand out from the rest!