The online world is growing every day. As a new blogger or business owner how do you stand out? How do you cultivate a strong brand presence when there’s so much noise and so much competition?
We recognise brands when we see graphical elements of that brand. We know that little turquoise bag is full of Tiffany jewellery, that our grande chai latte is waiting inside a store with the two-tailed mermaid logo and even our kids can spot the McDonalds Golden Arches a mile off!
What happens when these graphical representations of the brand can’t be seen. We then rely on the brand persona. This is the brand’s unique personality and ‘voice’. In reality all of these aspects work together to create a brand that is uniquely you.
It can be scary to fully embrace your brand persona. It is far safer to fly under the radar and to not really commit to being uniquely you. After all, in doing so you might put people off…. yes you might, but by not committing to a brand persona which authentically represents you, you’re also missing the chance to attract your true fans.
Your audience needs to be able to identify your content regardless of whether they can see a logo or a gorgeous brand colour palette. If they can’t, and the content could have been written by someone else, then what unique perspective or value are you adding to the conversation?
If you don’t do some work in this area to make sure you are always consistent with your brand voice this could result in a mismatch of tones and language styles, which makes your brand look inconsistent at best.
Why does having a consistent brand persona and voice even matter? In creating this consistency from the outset you are positioning yourself as a credible expert in your niche. People trust things and people who are consistent. There are so many people doing what you do online. The distinguishing factor is you. People will choose to read your content or buy your products because of you.
Let’s figure out your brand persona
Have a think about all the characteristics you possess. You might love and be proud of some of them and not that happy with others. That’s perfectly fine and totally natural. No-one’s perfect. Now, I want you to think about the characteristics you have which are characteristics you also like in others. Write these down. It might be that you’re fun and outgoing and you really love that in others too. You might be passionate and expressive when talking about the things you love. These shared characteristics will be the ones you want to make sure you put out there into the world via your brand persona. This means you will be attracting the right people to you.
Think now of all the characteristics you have that you’re not thrilled about. Do you find it difficult to focus or are you judgemental? You might be working on improving yourself in these areas and that’s fine. These are the things we don’t focus on in our brand persona. What we put out there is what we will attract. If you show up as a hot mess, you will attract other hot messes and if that isn’t who you’re trying to attract, it’s pointless. Don’t think of it as hiding parts of yourself, but as highlighting the parts you’re most proud of and that your ideal customers/audience members will resonate with.
When you’ve identified your brand characteristics are you need to put those out into the world. Telling your audience who you are, what you stand for. They will then align with you if they feel the same. Who do you want to appeal to, make sure how you present yourself is going to attract the people you want it to attract. If characteristics are important to you and really are ingrained in who you are then show those, but if they are a small part of you and not representative of you are a whole and those you want to attract then don’t focus on these.
How do you identify your brand voice?
1. Look at your existing content
You can look at blog posts, emails, social media updates, the works. Now think of what you want to embody as a brand. It might be that you want to be seen as a helpful best friend or as a teacher. Of these pieces of content which sound like your brand and which could have been written by anyone? This exercise will show you how well you are incorporating your brand voice into your content and how much work you need to do. It also might highlight that in a particular type of content this is easier for you. Maybe you always sound more ‘on brand’ in emails.
2. Summarise your brand voice
If your brand was a person who would they be? The cool best friend, the matronly aunt? Being able to do this exercise for your competitors also allows you to see where your brand can fill a need and fit in.
Which words come to mind when you’re thinking about your brand persona? Maybe you feel your brand is helpful, fun, authoritative, casual, passionate, quirky? Try to find 3 or 4 brand words and decide how you intend to show these in your content. Maybe you show your quirkiness through live broadcasts and in your unusual examples in written content. Perhaps you can show your passion through video content.
3. Create some brand voice guidelines
These guidelines become even more important when you have staff members or contractors who might be writing content or interacting with your Audience on your behalf. However even as a solopreneur I think these guidelines are important. Let’s be honest how often do we get distracted and forget things?!
This document should state your brand words, how you will demonstrate these characteristics and what you won’t do. Eg if your brand voice word is casual you might use contractions, but you won’t use slang. This document can then be shared with your team as and when you hire them, so your brand voice is maintained.
4. Keep this document up to date
As people we evolve and do it makes sense that our brands will too. With this may come changed in our brand voice. When this happens make sure your guidelines are up to date and your team is notified of a change.
When you feel you’ve nailed your brand persona and brand voice you need to commit to embracing it and incorporate both into everything you do. You’ll find doing this will take your business from strength to strength.
Do you struggle to focus down on your brand voice? Is you brand persona a little haphazard?
Comments 1
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