5 Tips for Keeping Brand Voice Consistent
Across campaigns, across media, across platforms, across the years, it’s important to keep a brand’s voice consistent. This helps you build and maintain relationships, because audiences will start recognizing the voice and everyone gravitates toward what’s familiar. On the other hand, a brand that feels like it lacks stability can challenge their trust.
But preserving consistency is not always easy. Depending on the size of your company, its level of turnover, and how many campaigns or deliverables are being produced on a regular basis, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks.
Here are five tips to make this a little easier:
1) Establish voice guidelines. There should be one internal guide and one that’s more external-facing, in the event you need to share it with content partners, contractors, and others.
2) Assemble a portfolio of samples. For some people, descriptions aren’t as useful as direct examples. When you have great samples of your brand’s voice, add them to a reference sheet so that they can inspire future work that aligns as closely as possible.
3) Review your audience segments. Although we know it is important to customize your message to the specific audience you are speaking to, it is just as important to have a consistent tone and personality to those messages, in case people are seeing your content in more than one place.
4) Work around silos. If you have departments that work more independently, and they’re all producing various deliverables, make sure they have regular touchpoints in place to connect with regard to consistency—as well as generally staying abreast of one another’s work.
5) Have a clear brand voice. Of course, this is the most important thing: First, you need to distinguish your voice. It should be something you can pin down and describe, something you can recognize and define. Your voice should feel unique but authentic. It should align with your overall point of view, mission, values, and the rest of your public-facing messaging. By knowing your own voice well, it will help you to maintain and enforce it.
For more advice on how to establish, reinforce, and promote your brand voice, please feel welcome to schedule a consultation with the experts at Mad 4 Marketing.
