How to create an authentic brand voice

Your brand voice is one of your business’ most important assets, and that is true now more than ever. During the lockdown, customers have been consuming brand content in new and different ways, with more time to digest the information and voices that they are presented with. Authenticity during this time, and at any other time, is a number one priority for customers when it comes to choosing which brands to affiliate themselves with. But being authentic is often easier said than done. That’s why we’ve put together a handy how-to to help you develop your brand voice.

What is brand voice?

For the purposes of this section, think of your business as a person. What are your brand’s key characteristics? What is its personality? Your brand voice is essentially the combination of these traits that create a persona. This persona can then be applied to all forms of communication, from social media posting to email writing.

Keep it consistent

The number one key to being authentic when creating a brand voice is to keep it consistent. Your voice should be believably yours, and something that your audience can relate to. Even though the tone may change, depending on what you’re saying, the underlying personality should always be there and instantly recognisable as your brand.

Be yourself

Authenticity is synonymous with truth, so your brand voice should be true to your business. In other words, the first rule of brand voice is to be yourself. It’s fine to glean inspiration from brands you aspire to be like, but at the end of the day, your voice should still feel like yours, not theirs. Understand what and who you are, and equally, what you’re not. Ask yourself these questions:

• What are you providing?

• What characteristics define you?

• How do you want to be perceived?

Revise and revisit

Just like a person, a brand can change and adapt over time. Defining your tone of voice now doesn’t mean you have to communicate that way from now until the end of time. As your business grows, revisit the above questions and make changes, if necessary, to your tone of voice. These don’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, big groundbreaking changes, instead, they should be natural shifts in the way you interact that epitomise your brand in its most current state.

Listen to your audience

Whilst you might be pulling the strings behind the scenes, your audience is a bigger part of your brand than you might realise. For many of the most successful fashion companies, the audience is the brand, so listening to them and even including them is vital. Pay attention to customer behaviour both in terms of their purchasing habits and in terms of the way they interact with your content. If there’s a certain type of content that seems to be resonating more with them, make sure you acknowledge that when it comes to defining who you want to be as a company. Equally, take some time to look into what they’re posting and what else they’re interacting with as this could play an important part in helping you to realise what it is that drew your customers to you in the first place.

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This post was created by Pure London editor Emma Wilder