Together, the tone and voice of your content is how your audience will ‘hear’ your brand in their head. The tone and voice you choose needs to be consistent with your brand and the message at hand and be in line with your product or service offering.

BRANDS WINNING IN THE VOICE DEPARTMENT

Stacks of brands are getting it right. Here are just two (albeit very different) brands that have a very distinct brand voice and have nailed consistency.

The Betoota Advocate– A satirical news source, these guys have chosen a very tongue in cheek tone. When I read their posts, I hear a very sarcastic, non-apologetic man speaking to me.

See the Betoota Advocate post from this week, following the Australian Federal Election. This post ticks all three boxes; being relevant (the country has just voted ScoMo in as Prime Minister), being informative (Scott Morrison has just backflipped on one of his strongest election promises and obviously, being entertaining.

Apple – Noone does simplicity and confidence like the most valuable company in the world, Apple. From their billboards through to their stores, their messaging and brand voice is always clean, simple and confident.

With a brand as renowned as Apple, granted, you don’t need to say much, but they do it so well! Note the use of the old time test pattern, combined with their Apple TV logo to promote Apple TV. Simple. Confident. Brilliant.

SO HOW DO YOU DECIDE ON YOUR BRAND VOICE?

FIRST STEP…

Define your audience. Are you talking to tired mums? Hardworking tradies? Or stressed out students? This will be key in ensuring you choose the right voice to ensure your content resonates.

NEXT…

Sum up your brand voice with a clear description that can be easily explained to anyone. According to the Content Marketing Institute, a great way to easily define your brand voice is to sum it up in three words.

Here’s a few great examples of a three word brand voice guideline, from Uxdesign:

· Conversational, but not casual.

· Professional, but not patronizing.

· Educational, but not instructional.

· Quirky, but not bizarre

THEN…

Write down exactly what your three-word definition means. For example: we will use formal language, but not jargon as we don’t want to be patronising or speak down to our audience.

Once you’ve decided on your brand voice, summed it up in three words and defined it in a paragraph, you’re ready to start planning and creating your content.

AS ALWAYS, APPLY THE CONTENT SNIFF TEST

Remember, for every bit of content you create, run it through our sniff test to make sure it’ll resonate with your audience!

1. Is it in your defined brand voice?

2. Is the tone relevant to the subject matter?

3. Is the content relevant and/or informative and/or entertaining?

If you’ve answered yes to all three questions, it’s ready to share. If not, rewrite, reshoot or re-record it until it meets the requirements of the sniff test!