How Brand Voice and Tone Impact Messaging and Marketing
Before we dive into the content of this post, I want to note that the following discussion is an excellent example of how having a good grasp of branding fundamentals will help improve your organization’s overall marketing efforts.
Brand Voice and Tone
Let’s define what brand voice and tone are. Brand voice is the way you speak, shaped by your brand’s personality and values, and brand voice is communicated consistently across all communication channels.
Brand tone is how you convey the brand personality through specific word choice and style in different contexts. It’s the intentional way the brand speech is adjusted based on who is being addressed, the topic being discussed, and the method of communication being used.
In short, brand voice always stays the same since it communicates the brand personality and core messaging. Brand tone shifts based on the context of the communication while staying true to the overall brand personality and voice.
Examples of Brand Tone
Casual
Comforting
Elegant
Friendly
Irreverent
Playful
Quirky
Uplifting
A nonprofit supporting women’s health might have a brand voice that is empowering and professional, while its tone is comforting and caring when addressing patients in the office and is friendly and conversational on social media.
A female-led accounting firm might have a brand voice that is experienced and supportive, while its tone in email campaigns to clients is calm and encouraging during tax return preparation season and charismatic and funny when connecting with potential clients at networking events.
To better understand how brand voice and tone work, I recommend checking out posts from popular corporate social media channels such as Wendy’s, Beyond Meat, TSA, National Park Service, and Calm. Look at their content on multiple platforms to see how the brand tones may change based on the platform being used while the overall brand personality still comes through consistently. Wendy’s is known for being witty and irreverent and often “roasts” other corporate accounts, competitors, and followers via social media posts and responses to comments. Calm generally uses a reassuring tone, though the tone may change to match what their audience may be feeling due to current events, politics, etc.
How to Connect Voice and Tone with Your Marketing
Step 1: Define Your Audience Segments
When building your marketing strategy and creating your marketing pieces, it’s important to understand who your audience segments are and know how they prefer to be communicated with. Most organizations will have more than one target audience, or there may be multiple audience segments within a larger, overarching audience demographic. The nuances of each segment are important to consider because those nuances will inform how your organization will create connections with each audience segment.
Think about your ideal customers or supporters. What are their values, challenges, and communication preferences? There is plenty of research available (through some searching on the Internet and databases) to provide insight on the generational characteristics that your audience(s) embody.
Step 2: Test and Adapt Your Messaging
There may be a little bit of a trial and error period in which you test some voice and tone messaging strategies to see which ones work best. An A/B testing strategy works well when experimenting with communications. Simply create two versions of a similar publication (such as an email campaign), with each version written in a different tone, and track engagement rates for each campaign to see which one resonated more with your audience.
Step 3: Document Your Brand Voice and Tone Guidelines
Once you have a good idea of what resonates favorably with your audiences, create a set of guidelines that help others in your organization understand how to communicate your brand’s personality through voice and tone. This information should be included in your brand guide, and updated as needed, to ensure consistency across all brand communications.
There will be occasions when your brand tone may change slightly depending on the communications channel you’re using and/or the specific audience segment you’re speaking to. It’s important for your team to understand the nuances of adjusting brand tone to match a specific communication channel, audience segment, and/or topic that is being discussed.
For example, LinkedIn generally carries a more professional tone than TikTok or Facebook. A printed and mailed letter may have a more formal tone than a social media post or email newsletter.
Being Intentional with Brand Voice and Tone
A clear understanding of your brand’s personality helps you determine how to adjust your tone based on your audience and the communication channel. This ensures your messaging feels both authentic and consistent, strengthening your brand’s credibility and deepening connections with your audience.
When you’re able to credibly connect with your audience, deeper connections between the brand and audience will be created and nurtured. This will help differentiate your brand from that of your competitors and increase brand awareness with potential customers (or, for nonprofits, the people you serve and the donors who support your mission).
Now that you understand the role of brand voice and tone, take a few moments to reflect on your own brand’s voice and tone.
Is your brand voice reflective of the brand personality and used consistently?
Is your tone appropriate for the communication channels and messages you’re currently sharing?
If not, it might be time to review your brand guide and update the brand voice and tone guidelines.
Was this article informative? Please share it with others who would enjoy it too!