P3 Recovery Team - Tone of voice, brand voice, brand personality

When you developed your brand, did you take the time to consider your brand voice? People often get caught up in the visual aspects of a brand and completely forget about the words that will accompany it.

Brand voice is the language and tone you use when creating any content for your brand. In every encounter a customer has with your product or service, they should hear your brand voice loud and clear. That includes your website, marketing, social media, printed materials and even, to a certain extent, your customer service communications.

In many cases, a brand’s voice is handled internally by a business, perhaps left to the owner or handed to someone within the company who is deemed to be good with words. The result is most often poorly thought out content which may be grammatically correct but lacks a clear voice.

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Brand voice, tone of voice and brand personality

Brand voice, often called your tone of voice, is one of the very first things a customer experiences with you. It’s how you speak, how you make people feel, and how you write everything from a headline to an email signature. It underpins all of your communications, and it’s a vital part of how customers match with you and decide to choose you.

It’s also deeply tied to your brand personality. If your personality is the character of your brand, your tone of voice is how that character actually talks. The two shape each other: a playful personality needs a playful voice, an authoritative personality needs a measured, confident one. Get them aligned and your brand feels like a real, coherent person. Get them out of sync and it feels off, even if customers can’t put their finger on why.

The best way to think about it is this: your brand voice is almost your purpose, vision, mission and values personified and brought into the real world. Everything you believe as a business, expressed in words your audience can feel.

Why does your brand voice matter?

The language you use is how you connect with your target audience. Choosing a voice that appeals to your audience and reflects your company’s values will help you to stand out and establish an emotional connection between them and your brand. Since people make purchasing decisions based on emotional connections, your brand voice has the power to make or break your overall success. However, it needs to be consistent across all mediums. Without consistency, you weaken that potential for connection.

Consistency is the part most businesses underestimate. A voice that’s warm and witty on Instagram but cold and corporate in its emails sends a confusing signal, and confusion erodes trust. When your voice stays recognisably you everywhere, it compounds: people start to recognise you from the words alone, which is a big part of why they choose you over a competitor who sounds like everyone else.

So, how do you get it right?

There are a few starting steps to shaping the voice that is going to best suit your brand.

1. Identify your target audience

Since the only aim of your brand voice is to connect with your audience, it’s pretty important to know who you’re trying to talk to in the first place. Are you talking to other businesses, professionals or the general public? Consider characteristics like age, marital status, life stage, location, career path and culture as this will shape the language and voice you choose. The better you know your ideal customer, the easier every other decision becomes.

2. Turn your brand into a person

If you had to personify your brand, what kind of person would it be? Would they be charismatic, old, young, witty? Try to narrow it down as best you can. You may find using brand archetypes useful. A handy test once you’ve done this: imagine that person walking into a room. How do they greet people? That’s your voice.

3. Use adjectives to describe your brand

How would you describe your brand? Fun, authoritative, playful, serious? How would you describe your brand’s culture? Get your team involved, if you have one, as everyone will have their own take on it but hopefully you’ll begin to see some patterns emerge. A useful trick is to pick three or four core adjectives, and for each one, note what it does mean and what it doesn’t, so the voice has clear edges.

4. Listen to your audience

All the best conversations start with listening. Get out there to wherever your audience is lurking (social media is a great place to start) and listen to how your customers communicate. Are they formal or informal, precise or casual? Take note of the colloquial language they use and weave this into your copy if you can. Speaking your customer’s language is the fastest way to make them feel understood.

Tone of voice examples

Stuck for words? Here are some common tone-of-voice styles and how each one tends to sound in practice. Most brands land on a blend of two or three rather than a single one:

Tone of voice How it sounds Example phrase
Professional Polished, precise and authoritative. “We deliver tailored solutions that drive measurable results.”
Casual and conversational Relaxed and friendly, like chatting to a mate. “Let’s face it, nobody likes a clunky website.”
Down to earth Plain-speaking and practical, with no jargon. “No fluff. Here’s exactly what you get.”
Approachable and warm Welcoming, encouraging and human. “We’re here to help you every step of the way.”
Australian and laid-back Easygoing, dry humour, a bit colloquial. “Fair dinkum advice, no corporate waffle.”
Playful and witty Cheeky, fun and clever. “Warning: our coffee may cause excessive productivity.”
Bold and confident Direct, punchy and unafraid of an opinion. “Most logos are forgettable. Yours won’t be.”

Your brand voice is too important to leave to chance or to whoever happens to be “good with words”. If you’d like a hand defining a voice that sounds unmistakably like you, a free brand audit is a good place to start, or explore our brand messaging work.

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FAQs

What is brand voice?

Brand voice is the consistent language, style and tone you use across everything your brand says, from your website and marketing to your social media and even your customer service. It’s the verbal expression of your brand, the words that go alongside the visuals. A strong, distinctive brand voice is one of the clearest ways to stand out and build an emotional connection with your audience.

What’s the difference between brand voice and tone of voice?

People often use the two interchangeably, and that’s perfectly fine. If you want to be precise, your brand voice is the constant: the underlying personality that never really changes. Your tone is how that voice flexes to suit the situation, more upbeat in a celebratory post, more measured in a serious email. Think of voice as who you are and tone as the mood you’re in. The personality stays the same, the delivery adapts.

How does brand voice relate to brand personality?

They’re two sides of the same coin. Your brand personality is the character of your brand; your brand voice is how that character speaks. A playful personality calls for a playful voice, while an authoritative one calls for a measured, confident tone. When the two are aligned, your brand feels like a real, coherent person, which makes it far easier for the right customers to connect with and remember you.

Why does brand voice matter?

Because the words you use are how you connect with people, and people buy based on emotional connection. A voice that reflects your values and speaks your audience’s language helps you stand out, build trust and feel human. It’s often one of the first things a customer experiences with you, so it shapes their impression from the very start. Get it right and consistent, and it quietly drives your whole brand’s success.

How do I find my brand voice?

Start with four steps: identify exactly who you’re talking to, personify your brand as if it were a real person (brand archetypes can help), pick a handful of adjectives that describe its character, and listen closely to how your audience actually talks so you can mirror their language. From there, document what you land on so anyone creating content can stay consistent. The goal is a voice that’s true to you and magnetic to your audience.

What are some examples of tone of voice?

Common styles include professional, casual and conversational, down to earth, approachable and warm, Australian and laid-back, playful and witty, and bold and confident. Most brands settle on a blend of two or three rather than a single one. For example, you might be approachable and down to earth with a playful streak. The key is choosing a combination that fits your personality and resonates with your audience, then expressing it consistently.