Have you ever read an email, social media message, or landing page and said to yourself, “Yeah, this brand really gets me!”?
It’s not a coincidence. Chances are that the brand in question has done extensive research and analysis to get your attention.
That’s where brand tone of voice comes into play. It’s all about the words a business uses to appeal to the right people.
Want to use brand tone of voice to help your business stand out?
In this article, I’ll explain the benefits of a great tone of voice, show you some fantastic brand tone of voice examples, and talk you through how to build your own.
Key Takeaways
- A dialed-in tone of voice builds consistency across all communication channels, making sure your brand is instantly recognizable.
- Your tone of voice should reflect your brand values and resonate with your target audience’s preferences and expectations.
- Defining specific tone traits, such as formality, friendliness, or humor, helps guide content creation and maintains a unified brand personality.
- Regularly revisiting and refining your tone of voice ensures it evolves alongside your brand and remains relevant in a changing market.
- Clear tone of voice guidelines empower your team to communicate effectively and consistently, no matter the platform or context.
Table of Contents
- Key Takeaways
- What Is Tone of Voice?
- Examples of Tone of Voice
- Why Is Tone of Voice Important?
- How to Develop Your Brand’s Tone of Voice
- FAQs
- Conclusion
What Is Tone of Voice?
Simply put, your brand voice is what you say, while your tone reflects how you say it. Brand voice is about understanding your brand’s personality and values and knowing how to convey them through your writing.
Tone of voice is how you communicate with your audience through word choice and style. It’s an integral part of your brand strategy.
For example, let’s say you have a 404 error page on your website. If your tone of voice is professional and formal, your page message might say:
“We apologize, but this page is not available.”
If your tone of voice is casual and funny, your message might say:
“Uh oh! It looks like you’ve taken a wrong turn!”
One page, written in two completely different ways depending on your brand voice.
Brand Voice vs. Tone: Is There a Difference?
Brand voice and brand tone are two halves of the same whole—they work together to tell customers who you are.
Brand voice refers to your brand’s personality—the character and values you convey through your overall messaging. For example, your brand voice might be fun, humorous, and confident.
Brand tone refers to how you express your voice across different marketing channels and to different audiences. So, while you might be informal and playful on social media, you might adopt a more formal and professional tone when sending press releases.
Examples of Tone of Voice
A well-defined, consistent tone of voice can elevate your brand and make people remember who you are. Here are three brand tone of voice examples to inspire you.
Example 1: Wendy’s
Fast-food chain Wendy’s has a funny, casual, and sometimes irreverent tone of voice—particularly on social media sites like X.
This appeals to a younger audience and helps the brand stand out from its competitors who are typically more formal online.
Example 2: Mailchimp
Email platform Mailchimp has a simple, friendly, but knowledgeable brand tone of voice. It wants to help people make the most of its email marketing platform without bombarding them with jargon.
Mailchimp has put a lot of thought into its brand tone of voice—even providing brand tone of voice guidelines on its website.
Example 3: Rolex
Watchmaker Rolex’s brand tone of voice is all about sophistication and elegance. Its formal, descriptive website copy shows customers that the brand is committed to luxury and the finer details in life. Phrases like “sparkling symphony” and “intricate finishing” convey Rolex’s commitment to artistry and craftsmanship.
While brand tone of voice concerns your copy, your design and overall online branding say a lot about you, too. For example, Rolex uses muted, neutral colors to demonstrate that it’s a classic, timeless choice.
Why Is Tone of Voice Important?
Why should you spend time developing a distinct brand tone of voice? Here are five reasons why it needs to be an essential part of your marketing strategy.
1. Builds Brand Recognition
When you have a specific, unique tone of voice that’s consistent across all your marketing channels, your audience will always know it’s you.
Think Old Spice’s humor and unexpected scenarios or Duolingo’s wit and persistence.
For example, Old Spice commercials often feature outlandish, sometimes risqué scenarios with unexpected (and usually unrealistic) twists—like a man riding a horse backward.
And if you’ve ever used the Duolingo app, you know just how persistent and funny the brand’s mascot, Duo the Owl, can be when reminding you to practice your chosen language.
Giving your brand a distinct voice makes you stand out and compels customers to engage with you.
2. Establishes Trust and Credibility
Credibility is everything in business, and customers quickly turn their backs on brands that they see as insincere or untrustworthy.
Eighty-one percent of consumers need to be able to trust a brand before they consider buying from it.
A well-defined, consistent brand tone of voice comes across as more authentic, which can help you build trust with customers.
3. Differentiates from Competitors
Sometimes, when you sell the same products and services as your competitors, your brand tone of voice can be what sets you apart.
When your brand has a distinct personality, it’s easier for customers to connect with you on an emotional level. This builds trust and loyalty, upping the odds they choose you over the competition.
A unique tone of voice also makes your brand more memorable. This helps your company stick in people’s minds, which in turn can lead to inquiries, leads, and sales.
4. Enhances Customer Relationships
People want a personal connection with the brands they buy from. They want to know that businesses understand their needs, concerns, and values. They also want to know that the brand will be there for them if things go wrong.
Speaking to customers on their terms and level makes you more authentic and relatable, creating stronger customer bonds.
When customers feel seen and heard, they’re more likely to stick around for the long haul.
5. Reinforces Brand Values
Your brand tone of voice should always reflect your values. For example, if you pride yourself on being a compassionate business, your tone of voice should be warm, friendly, and approachable.
Patagonia is an example of a company that’s outspoken about its values. Its commitment to environmental activism and social responsibility is evident in its straightforward, informative, and often activist-driven tone of voice across its website, social media, and even product descriptions.
This helps Patagonia—and other brands who clearly communicate their values—forge a strong emotional connection with its target audience. Incorporating values into tone of voice not only encourages your target audience to buy from you, but establishes strong brand loyalty.
How to Develop Your Brand’s Tone of Voice
Now that you know why a solid brand tone of voice is so important, how do you build your own?
Here are my top tips, alongside expert insight from NP Digital Copy Editor Jeff Caspersen.
1. Understand Your Audience
Before you create your brand’s tone of voice, really get to know your target audience.
Your tone of voice needs to resonate with the people most likely to buy your product or service. Imagine your brand is directly in conversation with them. Will they be interested not only in what you have to say but the way you say it?
Start by researching your target audience’s preferences. Think about their age, what they do for a living, where they live, and their hobbies and interests.
If you don’t already have a customer persona, tools like Google Analytics can help you identify the characteristics of the people who convert on your website.
2. Analyze Your Competitors
Research the brand tone of voice your competitors use. Knowing what they do will help you craft a tone of voice that’s unique and distinctive.
Take Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, for example. Both airlines offer similar services but have adopted their brand tones of voice to stand out from each other.
While Virgin Atlantic is fun and youthful, British Airways is more formal and luxurious.
“Get a real feel for the language and messaging your competitors use,” says Caspersen. “What words and phrases do they use? Who is your competitor’s biggest customer, and what are their pain points? How does your content solve their problems? And how can you best speak to them?”
3. Analyze Your Current Communication
The next step is to look at your current marketing materials to see if you have a brand tone of voice in place.
It might be that you already lean toward a specific tone. Or it might be that your use of brand voice and tone is inconsistent across your content.
Consistency is crucial when establishing your tone of voice. A business with consistent branding can experience 33 percent higher revenue and up to 20 percent more growth overall.
“Review everything from customer personas, existing pieces of content, creative briefs, and messaging hierarchies,” says Caspersen. “This will help you identify what’s working and what you need to change.
“Really study the language and phrasing and reflect it in your tone of voice guidelines.”
4. Clarify Your Brand Values
You need to reflect your values in your brand tone of voice. This ensures consistency and helps your tone of voice resonate with the right people.
If you already have a values page or a mission statement on your website, that’s a great starting point.
If you don’t have brand values in place, think about the characteristics that shape your brand identity. Here are some prompts to get you started:
- What purpose does your business have?
- What problems does your business solve?
- What are your long-term goals?
- What characteristics do the people who work for your business share?
- What qualities do your existing customers say define you? Check out your previous reviews for some valuable insight.
5. Define Your Tone
Now for the fun part—it’s time to identify your tone of voice!
Using the data you gathered in the previous stages, choose four or five adjectives that best describe how you want your brand to sound. For example, here’s how I’d describe the tone of voice at NP Digital:
- Authoritative: We always speak with knowledge and confidence.
- Conversational. We want to engage in a dialog with our readers and encourage them to ask questions.
- Optimistic: We always focus on the potential of digital marketing and believe all businesses can make an impact.
- Informative. We want our readers to come away with lots of actionable information they can apply to their businesses.
If you’re stuck, this chart from Semrush can help you identify the most appropriate characteristics.
6. Create Brand Tone of Voice Guidelines
Brand tone of voice guidelines help with consistency. That way, your team knows how your brand speaks across different scenarios and platforms.
Guidelines are also useful if you work with a third party, like a digital marketing agency. This helps anyone who creates content on your behalf use the right tone of voice.
Your guidelines should include specific examples of your brand tone in action, as well as how you don’t want to sound. Check out this example from Brand New Copy:
Your brand tone of voice guidelines can be a stand-alone document or a part of your company style guide.
7. Test and Iterate
Once you’ve determined your brand tone of voice and revised your content, you need to make sure it drives the right results.
The best place to start is to look at your engagement rates. For example:
- Are you getting more shares, likes, and comments than before on social media?
- Are you seeing increased website traffic or longer dwell times on your pages?
- Are you getting a higher click-through rate on your email newsletters?
If the answer’s yes, it’s a sign that your new content aligns with audience expectations.
Also, ask your customers what they think of your content—you can do this through a short feedback form. They can advise if your new brand tone of voice clicks with them and offer advice on how to make it even better.
Don’t forget to audit and update your tone of voice. I recommend doing this annually. If your target audience changes or your local rival updates its brand tone of voice, you need to evolve to stay relevant.
FAQs
What is a brand tone of voice?
Brand tone of voice is how you connect with your target audience through your choice of words, writing style, and emotional tone.
What is the difference between brand voice and brand tone?
Simply put, your brand voice is what you say, while your brand tone reflects how you say it. Brand voice is about understanding your brand’s personality and values and knowing how to convey them through your writing.
Your brand voice is how you communicate and depicts your personality It shouldn’t be a case of brand voice vs. tone—you need to establish both to provide the best experience to customers.
How to create a brand tone of voice
Here are the seven steps to creating an effective brand tone of voice:
Implement your new tone of voice and get feedback.
Research your target audience.
Look at your competitors’ brand voices.
Review your current content.
Understand your core values.
Define how you want your brand to sound.
Create brand tone of voice guidelines.
Conclusion
Just like people, brands have different, distinct personalities.
Developing a brand tone of voice that’s consistent, aligned with your values, and in tune with your ideal customers can help your brand get noticed.
I’ve detailed how to establish a well-defined tone of voice, but one final thing before we go: Don’t be afraid to lean on generative AI to help with the process.
Caspersen says, “AI is a powerful tool for helping you determine your tone of voice if you’re unsure. Feed your tool of choice brand collateral and prompt it to help identify your brand tone of voice.
“It’s a good idea to use paid plans that don’t train their models on your input so you’re not exposing sensitive or proprietary information.”
I hope this guide helps you find a brand voice that truly resonates with your target audience. Now, go out there and find your voice.
See How My Agency Can Drive More Traffic to Your Website
- SEO - unlock more SEO traffic. See real results.
- Content Marketing - our team creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.
- Paid Media - effective paid strategies with clear ROI.
Are You Using Google Ads? Try Our FREE Ads Grader!
Stop wasting money and unlock the hidden potential of your advertising.
- Discover the power of intentional advertising.
- Reach your ideal target audience.
- Maximize ad spend efficiency.
