Your brand voice and personality complement your visual branding by capturing your audience with conversation. Need help getting started? Read on!

When creating your business’s brand identity, how much thought did you put into its logo, color palette, typography, and photos? Probably a lot.

And as you should!

Your brand’s visual identity is an important part of your customer’s experience. It helps them get a feel for your aesthetic and values and have a way to recognize you in your industry and among your competitors.

But did you also think deeply about how you want to interact with your customers? What kinds of conversations you want to have and how you want to make them feel with your words? How you greet them, refer to them, and talk about your services to them?

If you did, I’m so proud of you! Having a strong brand voice and personality is critical to capturing your audience’s attention and encouraging them to stick around.

If you didn’t, don’t fear, my friend. Diving into your business’s brand voice and personality is so fun—and it’s going to create so many positive changes in the ways you interact with your customers and how they interact with you.

What is brand voice—and how is it different from visual branding?

Brand voice is the conversation—and the personality of that conversation—someone has with your business. It’s the way your business responds to the statements, questions, and concerns a lead has with your personal brand in their heads. The greeting, the goodbye, the conversation’s tempo, the pitch of your voice…

Think about how your best friend talks. You already know how they’re going to say hi to you, ask you questions, share excitement or need a shoulder to cry on.

This is your brand voice and personality—and it’s complementary to your visual aesthetic.

Imagine your visual branding as someone’s dating app pictures and your brand voice as the conversation on the first date. The looks and aesthetic pull you in and the quality and tone of the conversation make you want to stay or close the drink tab and call an Uber home.

Images are powerful—a picture is worth a thousand words, you know? But images and visuals alone cannot bring consistent and sustainable sales to your business.

People need information to turn the initial interest and trust brought on by your visual branding. And the voice that brings that information has the ability to

• Capture attention,
• Create excitement,
• and build relationships

So, now that you know what your brand’s voice and personality are…

Where do I start creating my brand voice and personality?

Before you start listing words that describe how you want to sound, understand that brand voice goes deeper. Your brand voice and personality are more than just a representation of how you sound. They’re the guiding light of how you want to make people feel.

So, the first question you need to answer is…how do you want to make your audience feel?

Everything we do in business is 90% about our ideal client and 10% about us.

Say you’re a nutritionist. You know you’re going to want to have conversations with clients about their struggles around food, body dysmorphia, disordered eating, etc. Maybe you want your brand voice to make your ideal client feel safe enough to be vulnerable about these things.

Maybe you also want to show your client that there exists a world where she doesn’t have to worry about the food on her plate or the number on the scale—and that she can feel empowered to make it her reality.

Now we’ve identified two ways we want to make our ideal client feel. The next question(s) you need to ask yourself is…how do I make someone feel this way—and how do I do that in my own life?

How do you make people in your own life feel safe? How do you make them feel hopeful and empowered?

If I want to make my audience feel empowered, I have to hype them up. If I want to make my audience feel safe, I have to empathize and show them I get whatever it is I need to get.

Maybe you do this in your own life by sharing your story as a model for what’s possible. Or maybe you listen and repeat words back to show someone you understand. Maybe you even speak softly and gently, or with a lot of confidence.

The way you make people feel is unique to you—and how you make someone feel comfortable may not be how someone else does. And that’s OK! You don’t want to sound like everyone else. You want to sound like you.

Performative vs. genuine voice

The reason why I recommend you ask yourself, “How do I feel most comfortable showing up this way?” is because it’s easily to fall into the mindset trap that we always have to be on and performing for others.

And I think that really sucks.

When we’re dreaming up our brands, especially personal brands, we dream up the best versions of ourselves. The ones who feel excited and passionate and motivated all the time.

Except in reality…we don’t always feel this way. And it can feel difficult to show up when we feel like we have to perform.

When your brand voice and personality becomes performative, it’s hard to be consistent. We stop showing up on Instagram stories. We stop writing blogs or captions. And we stop making podcast episodes o or hosting IG Lives.

I know you’ve been there. We all have.

So keep in mind that when you’re crafting your brand voice, you should be creating a personality that feels natural and easy. One where you can still show up to make people feel whatever way you’ve identified, no matter how you might feel inside. Because those are the easiest to maintain!

Easy ways to incorporate your brand voice and personality

Now that you’ve identified

• how you want to make people feel,
• how to make people feel that way,
• and how you feel most comfortable making people feel that way

you can start incorporating those feelings and actions in your copy!

But you might be sitting here still thinking…now what? How do I make my brand voice and personality prominent and recognizable?

Well, it’s a good thing I’ve got some tips. Here are some places to start:

Come up with a greeting and a goodbye

Greeting your audience and saying goodbye with a phrase special to your brand is a great way to use copy to build brand recognition. Use it in your email marketing, when you hop on Instagram stories or LinkedIn audio sessions.

This can also include coming up with a name for your followers or community. My friend Danika calls her photography students SharpShooters, referencing the name of her educational photography podcast.

Choose a conversation style

Are you going to be the kind of business owner that shoots-the-sh*t and jokes around with your audience or do you want to be recognized by your unbeatably inspiring pep talks? Both approaches impart different feelings—one creates a loose, comfortable feeling while the other creates an aspirational atmosphere.

Maybe tough love is your thing. This might make your audience feel the kick-in-the-pants they need to stop wallowing and get to work.

Repeat a word or phrase consistently

We all know “Just Do It” is a signature phrase for Nike and “Mmmm, I’m Lovin’ It!” has been coined by McDonald’s.

Is there a phrase that relates back to your brand messaging, unique value proposition, or even your story that you can repeat strategically in your copy?

One of my past clients, Kyler Miles, uses the phrase “Make It Happen” to create an inspirational and go-getter brand voice and personality.

Name one of your content verticals

Do you have a weekly e-mail newsletter that you use to consistently communicate with your clients? My friend Laurel at Vineyard Creative Co. has branded hers with a name, the Flourish and Thrive newsletter, to highlight her belief that your business should make you feel good and at peace instead of overworked and burnt out.

My friend Izzy at Izzy Waite Design has also branded her weekly Instagram Live series with the name, “Holistically Branded” to remind you that her branding and web design processes take into account your goals for your entire business, not just one piece.

Choose your filler words strategically

If you have a personal brand, write like you talk. It helps you come across as a real human being to your readers.

Part of talking is dropping an “um” or “like” or “what?” in between words. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing this strategically in your copy! In fact, filler words like these and one-off reactive words like “OMG!” or “Crazy, huh?” or even “No way!” bring your voice on the page to life.

Don’t be afraid to use colloquial speech to show your personality.

Crafting your brand voice and personality is just as fun as crafting the visuals—and has an incredible impact on your brand recognition and ability to create relationships. I’m so excited for you to give it a try! Let me know if this post was helpful and if you want to see more on this topic.

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

If this is the first time we’re meeting—hello! My name is Val Casola and I’m a website copywriter and brand storyteller for creative and lifestyle brands who want to articulate their value and grow their business.

Come say hi over on Instagram or send me an email at valcasolawrites@gmail.com! Thanks for reading!

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash