The First Steps in Creating Your Brand Voice
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•174 views
Find out more about Expressing Your Brand Voice, and teaching others to express theirs... http://ContentSparks.com/BrandVoice
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to The First Steps in Creating Your Brand Voice
Similar to The First Steps in Creating Your Brand Voice (20)
More from Sharyn Sheldon
More from Sharyn Sheldon (19)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
The First Steps in Creating Your Brand Voice
- 1. contentsparks.com/brandvoice The First Steps in Creating Your Brand Voice
- 2. contentsparks.com/brandvoice The Four Key Steps Step 1 – Perform Customer Research Step 2 – Identify Core Values Step 3 – Describe the Personality of Your Brand Step 4 – Identify Your Differentiators
- 3. contentsparks.com/brandvoice 1. Perform Customer Research • Aim to understand • Needs • Motivations • Pain Points • Triggers to purchase
- 4. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Look at data you already have 1
- 5. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Conduct surveys, look at comments, and examine testimonials 1
- 6. contentsparks.com/brandvoice 2. Identify Core Values An essential part of your brand consistency and expectations
- 7. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Examples include: • Commitment to quality • Innovation • Trust & accountability
- 8. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Strong values must be sustainable and personal
- 9. contentsparks.com/brandvoice 3. Describe the Personality of Your Brand Brainstorm a huge list of adjectives to describe your business
- 10. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Think of words to describe what your customers feel 3
- 11. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Narrow down and pick the top 3 that show your personality 3
- 12. contentsparks.com/brandvoice 4. Identify Your Differentiators Find a way to set your brand apart from competitors
- 13. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Discover what makes you different for each value or keyword 4
- 14. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Incorporate your differences into your tone and language 4
- 15. contentsparks.com/brandvoice Recap Step 1 – Perform Customer Research Step 2 – Identify Core Values Step 3 – Describe the Personality of Your Brand Step 4 – Identify Your Differentiators
- 17. Use our rebrandable, customizable course to teach others how to Express Their Brand Voice ContentSparks.com/BrandVoice
Editor's Notes
- Hey, it’s Sharyn Sheldon here from Content Sparks And in this video, I’m going to walk you through the very first steps you need to take in order to define a unique voice for all your content. Because, without a distinct voice, your content is going to get drowned out in the noise of a very overcrowded marketplace Now, your brand voice consists of the language, phrases, words and tone you use to communicate, through your content, who you are. Think of the first steps in this video as uncovering your brand personality and the different elements of your brand that you want to communicate to people. and after you’ve done these first steps, you’ll need to figure out how to embody your brand in the tone and phrases of the words you’ll actually use. So let’s jump right in…
- The first steps you need to take to define your brand voice are: Step 1 – Perform Customer Research Step 2 – Identify Core Values Step 3 – Describe the Personality of Your Brand Step 4 – Identify Your Differentiators Let‘s go into each one in a little more detail
- Start by performing comprehensive customer research with the goal of understanding your customers' needs, motivations, pain points, and triggers that get them to purchase you product or service. Try to discover what drives them to make their purchases, and how your products or offerings fit into this overall picture.
- You can start by looking first at any data you have on your customers already. Use data on customer demographics, customer purchases, and any interactions you've had with customers either directly or through online channels such as social media.
- In addition to data you collect passively and through casual customer interactions, you can also conduct more formal email surveys, install website pop-up questions, look at blog and social media comments, and examine your client testimonials. But whenever possible, seek out and ask for direct encounters with your customers (like face-to-face meetings and one on one calls), since these will give you the most authentic information and some real-world examples of language they use.
- Your next step is to reassess and identify your core values. Every business needs to know its core values so that you can reflect these in every aspect of your business operations. Core values are an essential part of the consistency of your brand and customers expect it to see and feel them in all your communications.
- Some examples of core values you might have are: Commitment to quality Innovation Trust and accountability High level of integrity Excellent customer service …or anything else that you feel strongly about and that drives all your business decisions
- when you’re identifying your values, remember that Strong core values have to be sustainable, constant, motivating, personal, and applicable. They shouldn't be abstract concepts or impossible ideals. Again, if you're not sure, look at how your business already operates. What are its strengths? What do customers come to expect from you? What sorts of values were in your mind when you first started your business?
- Now, step 3 is to describe the personality of your brand Start by brainstorming a huge list of adjectives that describe who you are as a business. Pick adjectives as if your business were an actual person you’d met and gotten to know a bit.
- A good way to brainstorm is to think of words or phrases that describe how you want your customers to feel when they encounter your brand or use your products. For example, if you consider your brand to be say ‘caring’, it’s about your customers feeling that you care about them personally. If one aspect of your brand personality is empowering, it might be about your customers feeling that they can achieve new things they weren’t able to before.
- Pick the Top 3 Words That Define Your Brand Personality Once you have a large list of descriptive words and adjectives, start narrowing it down to the top 3 that define your personality as a brand. Try out each word to see what image it suggests in your mind. Find the words or short phrases that really sound like you, but which also reflect the research you've done with your customers and the core values you defined. In other words, which of the key words or phrases most accurately reflect the feelings your customers report experiencing, and which ones reflect the way you WANT your customers to feel about your brand. Keep narrowing down and prioritizing your list until you’ve identified the top 3 adjectives or very short phrases that are the most important feelings you want to elicit in your customers. These will form the initial foundation for defining the specifics of your brand voice and tone.
- Finally, you need to uncover your differentiators. Now that you know the core values and personality you want to communicate to your customers, you need to find a way to make your brand voice unique and set it apart from your competitors. From all of your data and ideas, look for the distinct things that make your business different from others. Make a list that describes point-by-point your differences.
- The research you did on your competitors will be useful here. For each core value or personality keyword you identified, describe how it’s different from your competitors.
- You can incorporate your differentiators into the tone and language of your content in order to cut through the noise of all the businesses in your market and show that you are truly a unique person and a unique brand.
- As a quick recap All of the first steps I talked about – your customers, your values, your personality, and your differentiators – help you determine the voice you’ll use in all of your content. Now all you have to do is drill down into the specifics of the actual wording, phrases, and other language you’ll use (or avoid) in your content…. No matter where you publish it.
- If you’d like to learn more and teach others about expressing their own brand voice… We’ve put together a customizable, white label course that goes through all the steps for not only defining the voice of your brand down to the smallest language details and examples, but also making sure it’s used consistently in all your content.
- Just head over to this link to learn more. You’ll get all the materials you need to teach people a course on Expressing Your Brand Voice. In minutes, you can use our customizable, rebrandable content to create your own: list-building freebies Short course Email series Webinars Live presentations and workshops videos ….and more! Go to ContentSparks.com/BrandVoice to grab your copy now And let me know if you have any questions