Building Stronger Brands: Identity & Voice Across the Interwebs
Having a strong brand is everything! In the digital age we live in, it is essential to create a brand that is cohesive and stands out. As a business owner, one of the main goals you should prioritize is to make an impact across all channels you operate on. While creating a strong brand should focus on making meaningful content, having an inspiring brand aesthetic, using a consistent brand voice, and providing real value to your clients and customers. Establishing an identity that is true to you and your values makes it easier to connect with your target audience. Today, we’ll be delving into the importance of building a stronger brand, exploring the concepts of identity and voice, providing valuable tips and strategies, and giving insights on how social media agencies can assist you in crafting and maintaining a compelling online presence. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Understanding Brand Identity
What’s a Brand Identity Anyways?
Brand identity refers to the collection of elements that distinguishes your brand from its competitors and shapes how it is perceived by the intended audience. It includes a lot of different aspects of running a brand, such as
Name- what kind of feeling does your brand name elicit to those who hear it?
Logo, Color, Typography- what’s the look of your brand online and in person?
Voice & Tone- do you joke/ play around with your customers or are you serious? Are you fun and cheeky or formal?
A well-thought-out brand identity takes all of these into consideration. It sets the stage for a solid, recognizable brand! A strong brand identity also fosters trust and credibility with your audience. It allows your follower base to get to know you and how your brand operates. Your brand identity is who you are as a company.
Defining Brand Values & Purpose
Before you work hard on establishing your brand’s identity, it’s essential to define your brand’s core values and driving purpose. Asking questions is a helpful tool when defining your brand’s values. Here are some questions to get you started:
What does my brand stand for?
Who do I serve? Who would benefit from my brand?
What problem does my brand solve for my audience?
What do I want people to know about my brand?
How do I want to interact with my clients & customers?
By asking yourself questions like this and answering honestly, you can understand the underlying principles that drive your brand and your “why” for when moments get tough. By staying true to these principles, you can shape a brand that resonates with you and your target audience.
Crafting Your Visual Identity
Once you know your “why” and your principles and values are clear, it’s time to start crafting your brand. There are a couple ways to go about this, but it always starts with deciding how you want your brand to be displayed and starting to brainstorm. Crafting visual elements is essential to creating a brand you’re proud of. It plays a significant role in establishing your brand identity and standing out online. You want to remain as cohesive as possible and create a memorable logo, pick a color palette that fits your brand’s personality, and choose typography that is easy to read and aesthetically fits your brand. Choosing social images that are the same across platforms also helps your brand be more recognizable to people when they come across your content on their curated feed.
Step 2: Understanding Your Target Audience
Do you even like, get me???
Understanding your target audience is crucial. Like in life, you need to know who you’re talking to before you begin to speak so your message can be understood and received effectively. Research your target audience's demographic, interests, and preferences. By understanding their needs, dreams, and problems, you can tailor your brand’s voice to connect with them on a much deeper level.
Developing Your Brand’s Voice
Brand voice refers to the tone, language, and communication style you use on your website, social media, and anywhere else really. It allows you to humanize your brand and focus on connecting with those seeing your content. It lets your audience know there’s a real person behind a company name. The best way to think about brand voice is to question, would an accounting firm or a law office talk to their clients the same way a wedding planner would? What about a clothing brand? What about a company offering mental health services. When you’re developing your voice, ask yourself some of these questions:
Would my audience like if I joked with them?
Does my audience take sarcasm well?
Do I sell/ offer serious or formal products or services?
How playful can I be while being respected in my industry?
Do I need to take people’s trauma into consideration when developing my brand voice?
These questions allow you to get to know your audience better. For example, you wouldn’t make jokes as a therapist working with people who have experienced trauma. You would consider their possible triggers and speak gently and from an academic perspective. If you were a wedding planner, you have more chances to be fun and playful. If you were a clothing brand, you could go whichever route you wanted depending on the clothes you offered. There are a ton of different directions you could take your brand, but at the end of the day, you always want to make sure to stay true to yourself!
Defining Your Brand Guidelines
Once you understand your audience and you’ve developed your brand voice, it’s time to set down some guidelines so that everything remains consistent if you have someone else writing your copy or handling your socials. Clearly outline the language, tone, and style that align with your brand’s personality. Provide examples of captions, emails, blog posts, and web copy that you write yourself. Create a list of your brand’s adjectives. Outline any language that is NOT appropriate for your brand. Indicate your expectations for formality and sticking to grammar rules strictly or bending the rules to have some fun with it. Make sure whoever is contributing to your team has no confusion when they go to write your copy.
Step 3: Leveraging Social Media Influencer Agencies
Strong Brands, Say What???
Social media influencer agencies are valuable partners in helping companies and influencers build stronger brands. Agencies are experts in influencer marketing, content creation, and brand management and sometimes even offer blog post writing, websites, branding photography, and more. Many agencies provide a ton of services- all to help build stronger brands.
Identifying Beneficial Influencer Partnerships
Influencers help amplify your brand’s message and get you in front of more people in your target audience. Social media influencer agencies have vast networks of influencers that can help support you and your mission, your “why.” Agencies can help you identify which influencers will best represent your brand. They ensure the influencer’s values, target audience, niche, and voice complement your brand’s. Collaborating with influencers is a great way to enhance your online presence.
Content Creation & Strategy
Content- content, content, content. I know you may be tired of hearing it, but creating captivating content is vital in a world of short attention spans and short-form video content being as popular as it is. Social media influencer agencies can provide detailed strategies and ideas for you to utilize on your social media accounts. Some even have social media management divisions that can handle everything for you. Good content translates into good engagement, which helps grow your brand online. Crafting engaging content that aligns with your brand’s voice will help it resonate with your audience. Being consistent and impactful across all your channels will ensure growth across each platform you post on.
Your Online Reputation
Reputations are important. You want to have a reputation that your brand cares about customer service, puts forth good products/ services, and is honest and transparent with people who purchase from you. Social media influencer / management agencies can monitor and manage conversations about your brand online. You want to have your brand voice consistent when responding to both positive and negative customer feedback. You cultivate a strong and trustworthy brand image by addressing concerns, questions, and feedback promptly and with an open mind.
To sum this all up…
Building strong, solid brands means taking careful consideration when crafting your brand, and sometimes that means making some updates across platforms. If you're starting out and seeing this, that's amazing! You have the opportunity to start off on the right foot. If you've been in business a while and read this, you may need to straighten up your digital space. This means deleting content that no longer resonates with your brand, doing a branding refresh, getting new headshots, updating your bio and website, and some other things depending on the current state of affairs. Defining your brand's identity, whether new to the game or settled in your business, developing a compelling brand voice, and leveraging social media influencer agencies are all fantastic steps towards having a successful business- both online and in real life! By implementing some of these strategies, companies, brands, and influencers can effectively engage with their audiences, build trust and loyalty, and drive success. Embrace who you are and what you stand for, and watch your brand flourish!