When building a brand, most people tend to focus on how it looks — logo, font, colors, photography, and other assorted design features. Equally important, however, is defining how your brand sounds.

Many of your marketing efforts will likely rely on written words — emails, social media posts, a website — so taking time to craft your brand voice is critical. Here are five ways you can develop your brand voice to help make it distinctive and to better attract customers and clients.

#1 – Think of your brand as a person

This is perhaps the simplest and most effective way to develop your brand voice. Is your brand funny or serious? Free-spirited or fancy? Energetic or calming? Thinking of your brand as a person will provide perspective on how to write and talk like them. It will also help attract your ideal customer, as people tend to gravitate to brands that reflect their values and style.

#2 – Separate your voice from your brand’s voice

While it’s helpful to think of your brand as a person, be careful to not make that person you. Sure, there’s obviously a lot of your passion and character poured into your business. But your brand should be unique, with its own style and attitude. When writing for your brand, stop every so often, reread what you wrote and ask, “Is this how I’d say it or how my brand would say it?”

#3 – Create consistency

You’ll probably find yourself using certain words or terms quite often — from descriptions for your product to explanations on how a service works. While you may feel tired of hearing the same words over and over, your prospects aren’t. It’s better to keep repeating the same phrases. Identify and write down these phrases so you — or anyone else who writes or speaks for your brand — use them correctly and consistently. This will help create an association between those words and your brand in the mind of your consumer.

#4 – Think beyond words

Modern communication is so much more than the written word. Think of how you text or email with friends and family. Animated GIFs, emojis, and memes are all common ways to communicate ideas and emotions, especially among younger generations. Of course, only use them if it fits your brand. A heart eyes emoji may make sense for a candy company, but probably not for an accountant.

#5 – Take a cue from the competition

Make a list of your brand’s competitors — both local and national. Subscribe to their newsletter, follow them on social media and visit their website. Not only will this provide voice examples in your industry, but it will also help you discover a way to stand out. Does the competition all sound the same? What aren’t they doing? How can you sound different?

Branding Compass: A tool to develop your brand voice

Developing your brand voice isn’t something that happens instantaneously. It could take many emails, social posts, and countless revisions before you get it right. Plus, because the way we speak and write is constantly evolving, so too should your brand voice.

Using Branding Compass is an excellent way to build the foundation of your brand voice. Branding Compass provides 3 tools to ensure that you are attracting the right people to your brand:

• The word cloud will show you what words you’re currently using
• The brand alignment graph shows you what words you should start using
• The key messages chart makes suggestions for the best type of content to develop for your website copy or social media marketing.

Begin developing your brand voice by clicking here to start your workbook.