How your brand sounds is just as important as how your brand looks. Finding your brand voice and knowing how and what to communicate with your clients is essential for any personal brand and service-based business owner. 

Your brand voice is the expression of your personality, beliefs and values through your written and spoken word. 

In an ideal world, your brand voice should be so recognizable that you can be identified by your written or spoken word alone – without your brand’s logo, images or colors. That’s something to work toward…but for now, let’s start with the basics of finding your brand voice.

Know Your Personality

Your personality is what influences your brand’s tone of voice – the temperament behind your words. Is your brand’s tone of voice edgy, playful, practical, nurturing, soothing, formal, or intense, just to name a few examples.

When you have a personal brand, your brand becomes a direct reflection of your personality. So, discovering your own personality and tone of voice is going to make creating your brand voice much easier. 

There are, of course, many ways to discover your voice, but in terms of branding, two of my favorite tools are the Power Profile and the Brand Archetypes. 

Power Profile

Color plays an important, yet often unconscious, role in how we're perceived by others. And therefore, in branding, the strategic use of color is your secret to being perceived and remembered the way you desire. The foundation of the Power Profile is an in-depth assessment, based on Color Psychology, designed to help you discover and unleash your authentic brand personality. 

Discovering your Power Profile results sheds light on: your brand personality; words and terms to use in your marketing copy that will resonate with you AND your audience; which colors to use in your branding; the general look and feel of your brand; your strengths and weaknesses as a leader and entrepreneur; the impact your brand has on clients and community; your brand values; and SO much more. 

Brand Archetypes

Brand Archetypes are at the core of how we understand the world. When you infuse the power of archetypes into your brand, you create instant familiarity and emotional connection with your audience. Although they may not realize it, they trust you more because they understand who you are and what you stand for. 

There are 12 primary archetypes, and while you probably have many at play within your personality, when you take my Brand Personality quiz, your results will provide insight into how to infuse your archetypes into your brand personality, messaging, visuals and client experience so you can create trust that inspires action.

Point of View

Knowing your Point of View and where you stand on important topics related to your work and your industry, is not only vital for you to know, but it's helpful for your clients too! Your clients want to know your Point of View - it helps them trust you, feel aligned with you and know if they want to work with you.  

As a business owner, getting clear on your Point of View and courageously sharing it is one of the most important branding lessons you can learn. When you don’t share your opinion, it leaves people in the dark about where you stand. They wonder if they should trust you. Some might even lose respect for you.

When you don’t share your opinion, your tribe stays small with lukewarm followers because you haven’t given them a reason to stand behind you. Worst of all, when you don’t share your opinion, you don’t make an impact through your message.

Brand Values

What you stand for influences your brand voice because it determines what you talk about. What you stand for is partially related to what you do, but it’s mostly related to why you do it. For example, what I do is help service-based, women business owners build and boom their personal brands. Why I do it is because I stand for women building lives where they can leave a legacy, control their schedules, make an impact and earn awesome money doing what they love.

These days, more than ever, your potential clients want to build relationships with brands they feel aligned and connected with. Kind of like how we like to make friends with people in real life who share similar values -  we're looking to support businesses that share similar Values too.

When you know what you stand for and what your values are, your brand voice becomes focused and clear.

Choose How You Want People to Feel

People are driven by feelings. So, if you want your potential clients to engage with your brand, follow you on social media and remember you as the go-to expert who can solve their problem, in addition to communicating attributes, you've got to paint a clear (and tangible) picture of how working with you will make them feel. When you choose how you want people to feel after an interaction with you, your brand voice is easy to find.

Do you want to leave people feeling inspired? Well then, your brand voice might be motivating, encouraging, confident and passionate.

Do you want to leave people feeling nurtured? Then your brand voice might be gentle, compassionate and soothing.

Brand Promise

Your Brand Promise is the thread that ties everything you do and say in your business together, creating a consistent experience your clients and audience grow to expect. 

Your ability to consistently deliver on your Brand Promise across every platform where your business shows up, ultimately determines the success of your brand.

Decide How You Want to Be Remembered

Imagine you are at a networking event or you’re on stage talking to a group of your ideal clients. How do you want them to remember you when they leave?

Do you want them to remember you as someone who is spiritual, yet grounded? If you do, then how can you convey that through your tone of voice and the words you use?

Do you want them to remember you as someone who is uninhibited and makes them laugh? Then how can you convey that through your words and tone?

Deciding how you want to be remembered will shed light on your brand voice.

Identify the Common Words and Phrases You Already Use

You might not be aware of it, but you probably already have the foundation of your brand voice intertwined in your daily language. I bet that if you paid attention, you would notice that there are words and phrases you use regularly.

These words and phrases are already part of your natural vocabulary, so when defining your brand voice, don’t leave them out! Keep a notebook with you for the next week and write down every unique word or phrase that you hear yourself say. 

If you’re struggling to identify your own common words and phrases, a tactic to try is to ask a close colleague, friend, or family member who knows you well enough to reflect your common words back to you. Your Power Profile results and Brand Archetypes can also help you come up with ideas for words and phrases that are aligned with your personality to incorporate into your brand messaging.

Listen to What Your Ideal Clients Say

Always pay attention to the words you hear your ideal clients say. When you integrate the words your ideal clients use with your brand’s tone of voice and the words and phrases that you already tend to say, your brand voice will be most powerful. 

When you use language that your ideal clients use, you become that much more relatable to them, and they will immediately feel more connected to you as a leader, as well as to your personal brand and the services you provide.

Understanding the audience your brand aims to attract is KEY to ensuring that your brand's visuals, voice, offerings and marketing strategies not only reflect your truth, but also meet your ideal client where they are. 

Want some more guidance and resources for setting your brand up for success?

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