How to Develop a Unique and Strong Brand Voice (+Examples)

To create a brand that resonates with customers, you have to develop a strong brand voice, this post includes clear examples and instructions on how to do just that.

Image Source: Vecteezy

 

 

A strong brand voice will help you stand out in a crowd, become more recognizable online, and connect more deeply with your target audience. It will help you position your brand as unique, trustworthy, and highly professional. 

 

How do you develop this voice, though?

You’ve seen so many brands do it well, but what’s the trick? And more importantly, how do you ensure that you hit just the kinds of notes your audience wants to hear? 

Speak the Language of Your Customers

In order to develop a strong brand voice, you need to align it with the language your customers are expecting you to speak. 

 

No matter what industry you are operating in, there will be certain expectations imposed on you. There will be a lingo, so to speak, that your customers understand and fluently speak, that will help you identify as one of them. This is partly what defines them as a group. 

 

For instance, if your target audience is the outdoorsy type who loves to go camping, eat clean food, and have a regular workout routine, you need to align your voice with these traits. If they are serious, committed, and focused, you need to sound like that too. 

 

Let’s take a look at ATH and their brand voice. They understand that their audience: 

• works out regularly, often religiously
• understands how muscle growth and fat loss works
• is familiar with more niche terms regarding fitness and sports nutrition
• knows how to spot a good supplement product

Source: athsport.co

 

This is why they use a fitness-specific and motivational voice. Their audience is able to trust them because they’ve demonstrated their expertise. Potential customers are able to identify with them because they sound like people who go to the gym too. 

Use a Voice That Relates to the Nature of Your Business

You should also consider using a voice that specifically aligns with the nature of your business and the way you want to be perceived by your target audience. 

 

Let’s say you are a team of lawyers. While you may be quite a fun bunch to be around, you want to sound professional and trustworthy. Your clients don’t want to hire a clown; they want to hire someone who can argue their side in court. 

 

There are, of course, instances where choosing a voice that is purposefully different from the industry standard works. However, there is a risk involved here. If you’re able to read the room well and reliably predict how your extraordinary voice might be perceived, you can try to be different. 

 

Let’s look at Menlo Coaching, which decided to stick to what their audience is expecting of them. They are professional and reassuring. They exude experience with their copy, the video, and their resources. 

Source: menlocoaching.com

 

Since this is a brand that wants to be known as an expert in the MBA prep field, their voice perfectly aligns with this goal. Had they gone for something witty, it would have been jarring, as that’s not who they are. 

Align It with Your Personal Voice

Speaking of the importance of being who you are, you can also choose to craft your brand voice around your personal one and align it with your personality. 

 

This option will work if there is a dedicated brand face — a representative you want to associate with the brand and whose online presence is somewhat synonymous with it. And it obviously works for personal brands, where you and the business are one and the same. 

 

A brand that does this is Mint Mobile, one of Ryan Reynlods’ companies. You can see his influence in a lot of the copy the brand features on their website, but it’s easily spotted on social media, where you have the benefit of also seeing Ryan’s head doing the talking. 

Source: mintmobile.com

 

Needless to say, you don’t have to be a mega-celebrity to adopt this tactic. You can do it even if you are yet to build a name for yourself but want to tie the company directly to your own presence and personality. 

Align the Voice with the Content’s Purpose

You can, of course, choose to align and slightly alter your brand’s main voice to the purpose you’re trying to achieve. 

 

Do note that this does not mean you can create a new “persona” for every piece of content you are producing. This would only cause confusion and effectively wipe out your actual brand voice. 

 

What you are doing instead is adjusting the voice to the situation — just like you’d adjust your personal voice. You speak differently to friends, clients, and strangers, and the same principle can be applied to your brand voice. It should always retain its core personality while taking into account what the content means to achieve. 

 

Take a look at this post on the top mattresses of 2023 by Eachnight. Its main purpose is to provide information and to help readers choose a product. The voice of the post is thus easy-to-understand, and the given info is professional and written from an expert’s point of view. Other posts by the brand are more casual and conversational when the topic demands. 

 

They have, however, retained their core personality: reliable, helpful, and useful. 

Adapt to Your Customer’s Awareness Level

 

Another important consideration to make is how much your audience already knows about your product. Are they experts, or are they just getting into a certain niche? Do you need to provide a lot of information, or can you speak to them as equals? 

 

Understanding your sales funnel and customer cycle is vitally important here. It will help you understand the jargon (or lack thereof) you can use in your writing. You may need to create different landing pages for different segments of your audience, and direct traffic accordingly. 

 

It will also depend on how niche your product is. Selling something everyone knows how to use will be completely different from marketing a brand-new solution. SaaS products are most heavily tasked with finding the right balance between speaking to experienced professionals and first-time buyers. 

 

Let’s look at Kopi Luwak Direct. It’s not a SaaS brand, but nevertheless, they’re selling a niche product. They’ve found a great way to explain what their product is to both those who already drink Kopi Luwak and those who have yet to try it. They use niche-specific terms but still ensure that everyone can understand them and the value of their product. 

Craft a Brand Personality First

Finally, let’s just remind you of the importance of creating a brand personality before choosing to create the brand voice. 

 

The personality will help you choose the right website design, too, and you will better understand what voice it would use. It’s a more holistic way to approach personalization and branding. 

 

Take a look at Thankbox for a good example. They decided that they want to create a fun, witty, easygoing brand before they decided that the voice they want to use is a casual and friendly one. This has allowed them to tie the entire website together exceptionally well, down to the GIFs and the references to Sir David Attenborough. 

Source: thankbox.com

 

They were also able to ensure that the voice is uniform throughout their online presence, which makes them recognizable and more credible. 

Wrapping Up 

Now that you’ve taken a look at these great brand voices, start considering how you can improve or alter your own. 

 

If you are an already-established business, make sure to take into account all the data you have so far gathered about your customers. This will include everything from feedback to website behavior. 

 

If you are just starting out, take some extra time to get this step right. It will make all the difference in the long run.