You may not be paying attention to your brand's tone of voice (TOV), but your audience is. If you're not creating a relevant and consistent TOV, you may be confusing your audience, underselling your products and minimizing the impact of your marketing program.

Tone of voice represents a critical, albeit frequently undervalued, element of brand strategy.

Choices, Choices, Choices

If your brand isn't giving main character energy, what are you even doing? It's literally how people vibe with you and decide if you're legit or not.

Not loving that copy? How about this approach, instead —

Man, your voice is like the soul of your scene, you know? It lays down the groove that tells the world what your gig's really about. Without it, your brand's just blowing smoke.

Ugh. That's even worse. Let's try it again.

Tone of voice represents a critical, albeit frequently undervalued, element of brand strategy. It serves as the immediate vessel through which a brand's values and point of view are communicated to its audience. Its significance is inordinate.

Better? Maybe. But it's not particularly engaging. I can barely get through it without feeling like I'm sitting in a lecture hall. Let's try one more.

Tone of voice moves brands from forgettable to unforgettable. It moves messages off the page and into the hearts (and heads) of your audience. It's what turns a company into a character — and a product into a promise.

Ooh, that feels like the Pepper Group brand.

To put it simply, every brand has a persona, or personality. Knowing that personality and ensuring all your touchpoints share it defines your brand. There's a reason Nike sounds different from McDonald's, which sounds different from Ford. When you eat a hamburger, do you want to "Just Do It"? Unlikely. When you eat a hamburger, do you want it to be "Ford Tough"? Of course not.

Every brand has a persona. Effective marketing starts with creating yours.

Let's Create Your TOV

Think of your brand and what you want your clients, customers or prospects to feel about it. Is your brand laidback? Professional? Friendly? Caring? As you think of the words that define you, certain imagery takes shape. A company that sounds serious will give off a very different impression and resonate with a very different audience than one that sounds casual and neighborly.

For example, Nike is empowering, while McDonald's represents family and fun. In the B2B world, Salesforce messaging is clear and inspiring, while Mailchimp's is conversational and whimsical. Every word that makes up their marketing enforces these perceptions.

Consider that:

• A consistent TOV immediately influences one's perceptions of the brand.
• An inconsistent TOV creates confusion. This can result in a lack of brand building and customer trust, as the brand will lack authenticity.
• Because a brand should always be cohesive, TOV can also influence the company's design and graphics.
• TOV will ultimately influence all marketing communications and can even impact company culture.

Also, keep in mind that the TOV today may not be the same one needed to move forward, especially in a rebranding. Voice should be forward-thinking, not backward-looking. It's always a good idea to periodically evaluate a brand's TOV to ensure it still represents the brand's aspirational voice.

To find your company's TOV, you need to understand your audience.

How To Find Your TOV

To determine your company's tone of voice, you'll need to understand your brand's core values and personality, as well as your target audience, including their demographics and communication styles. Here are a few steps you can take.

1. Define Your Brand's Core Values and Personality

Looking at your company's mission statement and values is a great starting point. Don't have them? Pepper Group can help define and refine them. Additionally, consider your company's culture and ensure that your communication style aligns with it.

2. Look at Other Brands

Think about brands whose tone of voice you admire and analyze what makes them effective. Don't limit yourself to competitors — in fact, it's a good idea to steer clear of them. You don't want to sound like everyone else! Find brands you trust and like in completely different industries and see if their voices fit your company.

3. Understand Your Target Audience

Identify your target audience's age, gender, location, education, interests, values and online behavior. How do they communicate, and what kind of language resonates with them? You want to be authentic to your brand, but you also want your voice to relate to your prospects.

4. Create a Style Guide

Document your tone of voice guidelines in a style guide to ensure consistency across all your communications. If you don't have one, we can help.

5. Track Performance

Monitor metrics like bounce rates, time on site and click-through rates to see how your tone is performing over time, and refine that voice, if needed, to be sure it resonates with your target audience.

Valuable Workshop Exercise

One way to enhance results is for key leaders to select adjectives that define their brand today and how they want the brand to be defined tomorrow. We have a large assortment of adjectives, such as "modern," "old-fashioned," "direct," "relaxed" and "passionate." We may even include words like "stodgy" or "arrogant." We encourage a cross-section of participants from the company to pick the words they feel define the company today, and the words that they want the company to represent in the future. The commonalities in responses can help pinpoint how the messaging can be refined so that it, along with the voice, can overcome misconceptions and better position the company for growth.

Pepper Group helps companies like yours create an authentic voice.

So, What Is Your TOV?

Like, if you're not totally sure, don't stress. Pepper Group's got you. We'll help you sound like you, all the time, everywhere.

I don't think that's right. Let's try that again.

Hey man, what's your vibe? Your tone of voice — groovy or just noise? If you're feeling fuzzy on it, swing by Pepper Group. We'll tune you up, so your message plays smooth and steady.

Yuck. That's worse. How about this?

If there's ambiguity in your tone of voice, it's likely affecting the consistency of your messaging. At Pepper Group, we specialize in aligning communication frameworks with brand identity to ensure clarity, cohesion and strategic resonance.

Zzzz. Sorry, that put me to sleep. Let's try it one last time.

Not sure how your brand should sound? We'll help you find your voice — and make sure it speaks loudly, clearly and consistently. Let's shape a tone that defines your identity, sharpens your positioning and gets your audience listening, clicking and buying.

OK, that works. Contact us to get started here.