The Biggest Mistakes you can make with your Brand Voice (and how to avoid them)
Your brand voice is like the personality of your business—it’s how you communicate with your audience. Whether you’re playful and quirky, or professional and formal, it’s crucial to get your brand voice right, and to keep it right. Sounds simple, but the road to brand voice brilliance can be fraught with pitfalls…here are five of the most common Brand Voice Blunders out there, and how to avoid them…
1: Inconsistency: The Silent Killer
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is being inconsistent with their brand voice. This happens when the tone or language changes across platforms or even within the same content. For example, being friendly and casual on social media but stiff and formal in email communications can leave your audience confused.
How to avoid it: Create a brand voice guide, even if it’s just for you. This is a document that outlines your brand’s tone, style, and personality, and it should be shared with everyone who writes for your brand – or even just for you to refer back to, and amend as your brand evolves. Consistency across all channels builds trust and helps your audience feel like they’re getting to know a real, reliable business with real people behind it.
2: Copying Competitors
It’s tempting to mimic what your competitors are doing, especially if they’re successful – but that’s not you. Copying someone else prevents you from showing what makes you stand out in the marketplace. If everyone in your industry sounds the same, customers have no reason to choose you over someone else.
How to avoid it: focus on what makes your brand unique. Think about your core values, mission, and what you want people to feel when they interact with you. Customers appreciate originality and authenticity, and will be seeking it out – so make sure you give them yours.
3: Ignoring Your Audience
Your brand voice should resonate with your target audience – that’s who you want to reach. But do you know who that is for you – what do they like? What business are they in? What are they worried about, and how can you solve that for them?
Your brand voice should be tailored to what they need to hear, and the language and vocab that appeals to them. Using jargon-heavy language for people who aren’t specialists, or a too-casual tone for a professional audience, are examples ways you can go wrong. When your voice doesn’t match your audience’s expectations, it creates a disconnect that is confusing and off-putting.
How to avoid it: know who you want to talk to, and what they respond to; take time to research their preferences, pain points, and communication styles. Once you have a clear picture of your target demographic, adjust your brand voice to match. You don’t need to sound like them exactly, but your tone should feel approachable and relevant to their needs.
4: Being Too Rigid
While consistency is key, some businesses take it too far by being rigid with their tone. A brand that’s always overly formal or strictly professional can come across as cold or unrelatable in the more informal networking or social media settings. On the other hand, a brand that’s too casual in serious situations may seem unprofessional.
How to avoid it: Your brand voice should be adaptable. Just as you’d speak differently to a friend than you would to a client, your brand’s tone should shift slightly depending on the context. For example, you can maintain a fun, light-hearted tone on social media while adopting a more respectful and serious tone in customer support or during crisis communication. As long as it’s coming from you, and upholds the values at the heart of your business, it’s fine to have a little flex.
5: Overcomplicating Things
Some businesses fall into the trap of trying to sound too clever or sophisticated, when all your customers really want to know is whether they can trust you to deliver. Complex language or industry-specific jargon can make messaging hard to understand, rather than impressive – and you may come across as unapproachable too.
How to avoid it: keep it simple. The goal of your brand voice is to communicate clearly and build a connection with your audience. Don’t overthink it. Use straightforward language that your audience can easily understand. A clear, accessible voice helps create a strong and trustworthy brand.
Find Your Voice
Your logos and images make the first impression for your brand – and your copy is what underpins it all, and does the selling. Your words, in your brand voice, are one of the most powerful tools you have to connect with your audience. Stay consistent, be authentic, know your audience, and keep your message simple.
Do that, and you’ll build a brand voice that resonates with the right people, keeps them loyal to you, and helps your business grow.
Next Masterclass…
This month’s masterclass is all about your brand voice, with a visiting expert: Natalie Murray, of The Edge Brands. It’s on Tuesday 8 October at 10am, online via Zoom. My masterclasses are free of charge for my Writing Club members, and £25 for a one-off visit – book your ticket here: Next Masterclass
