Branding One Brand, One Voice: Why consistency matters more than you think Elizabeth Holloway Branding 6 mins read Aug 19, 2024 Today’s consumers don’t encounter or interact with brands exclusively through one channel. Whether it’s a Facebook ad, Google search result, or on TikTok, creating a cohesive brand voice is a must. This unified approach reinforces brand identity while building trust and recognition within your audience to increase overall engagement. But it’s more than just using the same logo or colour palette—it’s about conveying a consistent personality and tone that resonated with your audience across all touch points. If you’ve been scratching your head trying to figure out why your campaigns haven’t been meeting their KPIs, it might be the result of inconsistent brand voice. This can muddy your messaging, not to mention keep your brand from standing out in crowded markets. So, let’s take a look at what a brand voice is and what it can do for your company. What is a brand voice? It can seem like a nebulous term, but in a nutshell brand voice refers to the personality and tone a brand uses to communicate with audiences in a way that reflects its identity and values. Your marketing and content strategy likely spans across many channels. Brand voice is how you make sure all of your campaigns resonate as being distinctly your brand, even in highly saturated markets. Voice vs tone At a glance, it might seem like voice and tone are the same thing, but it comes down to scope. Brand voice takes the longview. It’s the consistent expression of brand personality over time and encompasses not just language, but logos, banners, ad content and other brand imagery. Tone of voice is how you tailor your messaging to suit different audience segments, personas or contexts. Your brand’s tone comes from the specific way it expresses its personality through language, tone and style. The power of brand voice With the decentralized nature of digital spaces, there is no way of predicting what a user’s entrypoint into your brand is going to be. That’s why maintaining a consistent brand voice across every channel is so vital to success. A consistent presence on all platforms can increase revenue by 23%, according to Forbes. Marketing across channels is something of a juggling act, with every platform having its own culture, but when you’ve established a clear and distinctive voice, that will act as the unifying factor that shapes brand communication and audience perception. Let’s talk benefits Brand voice is such an integral component of brand identity because it does a lot of the work in managing audience perception, recognition and trust. This is more than just lip service. Here are some concrete ways your brand benefits from having a strong brand voice: Consistency is key here. Your brand voice encompasses the tone, style and language you use across all channels. If you’re not presenting a unified voice, you can end up with fractured or disjointed messaging and poorly performing campaigns. The multi-platform challenge The internet does not leave us wanting for places to advertise and reach new audiences, but that presents its own kind of challenge. Each platform has its own trends, memes and sensibilities that you need to be mindful of if you want your content to hit its mark. But focusing too much on what works and doesn’t work across each platform is just as likely to trip you up. So, how do you thread that needle? The answer is in your brand voice. Social media provides excellent opportunities to showcase your brand’s personality—to give it that human touch people respond to. Brand voice is like your company’s idiolect, its distinctive way of speaking. Once you’ve got that down, you can start to play around with each platform’s culture and tone. Having strong directives for brand voice will also ensure that even when working with multiple content creators or social media teams, your brand presence stays consistent across the board. Multi-channel vs omnichannel There are two types of strategies for marketing across different channels: multi-channel or omnichannel marketing. These strategies take fundamentally different approaches to cross channel marketing. Multi-channel marketing involves using multiple channels, like social media, email and your website to reach consumers. The rub here is that you market to each channel in isolation. Meaning your approach is closely tailored to each channel, with each tending to operate in silos. Omnichannel marketing takes a more integrated approach. The idea is that all channels work together seamlessly to create a unified experience no matter the channel on which they encounter your brand. Brand voice plays a big role in omnichannel marketing. What’s the takeaway? Brand voice is how you present your brand identity and personality through language, tone, and branding assets like logos and colour palette. Developing your brand’s voice is a great way to humanize your brand while ensuring that your messaging stays on point. Presenting a consistent brand voice across every channel is the most reliable way to create brand recognition, build audience trust and increase engagement. Share This Article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
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