Tone of voice and why it is important
Why is brand’s tone of voice important?
Brand voice is a foundation for relations between a company and audiences. Everyone wants to be heard, and Tone Of Voice participates in the formation of trust, image creation, building up from competitors, and conviction.
What tone of voice is
The tone of voice is, primarily, a specifically selected way to communicate with brands and clients. In this vein, communication means not only direct one and feedback, but also communication style, lexical “yes” and “no”, general verbal and visual stylistics.
All these elements influence the formation of an individual brand image and help to create a picture that will be attractive enough for a target audience. Below, briefly about several key (from my perspective) functions of the tone of voice.
Emotional bond
If to take you by surprise and ask about a brand that first comes to your mind, you are likely to think not only about an item or service but also about your feelings for a company you remember. It is the emotional bond I’m talking about.
Nike and their Just Do It, Michael Jackson in the Pepsi ads, “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Mastercard” — it is more than trainers, banking cards, or fuzzy drinks.
It is a certain image, impression, emotion.
Those brands that monitor compliance with a tone of voice and work on it, lead on competitors who do not pay enough attention to this instrument.
If it is a youth brand, the images will be corresponding: more friendly, informal, bright, maybe even bold. If we are talking about luxury, public communication is likely to be calm and restrained, like Queen’s greeting.
Tone of voice as a way to break away from competitors
Being in one niche, it becomes difficult to operate with new information: you and your competitors will apparently translate similar data. We face a logical question regarding how to stand out and attract the attention of potential clients.
The logic is simple: if the core of an offer and an information field are similar, individuality manifests in the form instead of content. And here Tone of voice comes into play.
It is the instrument that will not only become a distinctive feature of a company but also significantly influence the consumers’ perceptions about a brand, item, or service, it offers.
It is a chance to explain to a customer why he/she should address you instead of your competitors in a hidden manner.
Brand trust
Trust is one of the business fundamentals. It can be achieved through the correct creation of a tone of voice since it is used to show the values, beliefs, and ideas of a company. All this gives a consumer a more detailed image of a product and a chance to compare your ideals and those of a brand.
In the future, this client can more easily decide on purchasing, as trust implies that he is not forced to buy something, but the product or service contains a sense he understands and accepts.
Brand and personalization
A modern world with its abundance of possibilities makes a brand become faceless and get lost among competitors. And the tone of voice is the instrument that can help prevent it. Pay attention to the things you share, and how you do it.
Think over the greeting, considering the tone and style you’ve chosen. Use a single stylistic for your messages, and then the chances of developing an image and being recognized will increase.
Company’s goals and values
We should mention one more time that clients must understand the goals and values of your brand. And we are talking not only about commercial aims but also about non-commercial ideology.
If you plant trees, sponsor an orphanage, do not use plastic straws in the office, or support any other out-of-business ideology, it contributes to the creation of your image.
Even if you do not have a great mission, the combination of small things can create a vivid picture. Create a human face of a company, and clients will reach out.
Values and goals should be evident and shown both in external and public company work and within it.
How to correctly create tone of voice?
Much has been said about the importance of the tone of voice, but not a word about how to create, implement it, and what to pay attention to. Of course, no article can give you a 100% strict algorithm on how to do it. But I tried to outline the 8 points that should be considered.
1. Be sincere when selecting values
Share the ideas and values you believe in. They must be identified at the beginning and stuck to, instead of covering a bit of every up-to-date topic.
2. Spoken language on the paper
While communicating, write as if you talk in real life, using the words, phrases, and constructions everyone can understand in order to make the reading easy.
3. Style guide
This guide is required to clearly understand the communication style of your brand. It includes vocabulary (stop-words in particular), grammar, and other things you use and are going to use in advertising, articles, social media, etc. The guide is required to control a single stylistic in all spheres connected with communication.
4. Moodboard and a single visual image
Moodboard is a combination of colors, structures, and materials displaying the brand. This set of data will significantly simplify the work of people who participate in content creation and will standardize it in a way.
The use of a single stylistic will help to create recognizable content and save an audience from the effect of a patchwork rug — when every ad message, banner, and video is on its own.
Moreover, a single design system will significantly optimize and speed up the production and distribution processes. The implementation of a similar unification helps to preserve a single image even in situations when lots of people work on the material production.
5. Do not forget about TA
By any measure, everything is about the audience: every business exists because of clients. Therefore, you must understand who you create the tone of voice for and what emotions you want to provoke.
The better you know your client, the more targeted your ad messages and public communication will become. It influences the company’s image, its public face, and, of course, the volume of sales.
6. Your team is your face
Almost every business implies the contact of separate members of your team with clients. This communication also influences the reputation and image of a company. Meaning that the brand’s tone of voice also has a direct bearing.
Those members of your team who somehow interact with clients must have an idea of the brand’s values and mission, as well as be able to correctly show it.
Clients thus, while contacting any employee, will not experience the imbalance between the things a company shares and the impression of real communication.
7. Consistency in branding
Inconsistency always results in a sense of uncertainty, and consequently, unreliability. It is the reason your brand should have specific values, seen throughout the whole marketing.
Clients will thus have a chance to recognize a brand regardless of the format they faced.
8. Feedback
Even a high-quality tone of voice sometimes needs corrections. In this case, you should pay attention to feedback, both positive and negative, and make corresponding changes.
These changes may affect any product and process, and it’s okay, since development is impossible without movement. Only dynamic products survive, and rigid structures sooner or later are crushed by the milestones of the new era.
Conclusion
Without tone of voice, you are doomed to be like everyone else, the guy whose name no one at the party can remember. As a result, it will be extremely difficult to break away from competitors.
By building a single stylistic of communication, you will faster get the sincere disposition of clients. Dedicate some time to the development and implementation of ToV to give your company a chance to grow faster and increase the number of truly loyal consumers, interested in your product.
