Copywriting is a craft with a lot of moving parts. One of the easiest to forget—and also, interestingly, easiest to disregard—is the brand voice. Today, we’re talking about what makes the brand voice so important.
Today’s question is from Frank P., who asks, “Do businesses really care that much about a brand voice? How much of that should I consider when I’m applying to work for them?”
So, the short answer is: Yes. Businesses very much care about their brand voice. It needs to be a major factor in whatever you write for any client.
As for the longer part of the answer, here’s why:
When the internet was young, (baby internet here) companies could just put their products out there and people would buy it. There was very little competition and people were still amazed at this whole idea of buying products and services over the net.
Fast forward to today, of course, and things are VERY different. Our internet has grown up into a surly teenager.
Competition is fierce – and not just for sales, but even for attention! The market is flooded with companies that look alike and probably even do or sell something similar.
And, in one sense, that’s good – it means that there is a market for what that company is selling.
But that competition makes also building and growing a business very hard. It’s getting harder and harder for people to distinguish between one company and its competitors.
It’s even harder for them to understand what a company does differently.
And a target audience that can’t immediately understand what makes a company different and special, well, they’re not going to buy. No matter how much a potential customer needs what that company has to offer and is actively searching for a solution, they won’t buy from that company if they don’t know what makes them different; if they don’t understand that company’s unique benefit.
A company can have the most beautiful website in the world, the most stunning photography, and the coolest graphics, but if their message doesn’t connect with their audience and spell out why that needs to purchase from them instead of anyone else, that company won’t be successful.
People look at a company’s website and photos to see if it seems professional, but they read the copy to see if they connect with them, to see if the company has experience in the business, to see if they can trust the company, and to see if they want to buy from that company.
One of the best ways for a company to set itself apart and encourage those purchases is by crafting an effective brand voice. A brand voice is the tone and style of the copy that’s used in every piece of messaging.
It’s a brand’s personality.
A brand voice is what helps people connect with a company – what makes the company feel like a group of real, living and breathing people to them, instead of just some amorphous Business-with-a-capital-b with a website. Think about it: Do you want to buy from a stranger, or do you want to buy from a friend?
The personality that a business infuses into is messages—no matter how big or small that business is—is what sets it apart and what makes people connect with it.
Your turn! What are some companies with great brand voices? Let us know your favorites in the comments below!
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