Brand Voice & Identity- How do you build it?

 

Consistent content that is also engaging to your audience is one of the most effective ways to build awareness for your brand and also garner long term loyalty.

But in this extremely cluttered and competitive world- it’s not an easy task to stand out with your brand voice and get heard even. What we have realised over the years is that to build trust in your brand/product/service you have got to show transparency beyond the glossy exterior and offer authenticity and ‘realness’ which people are seeking more than ever before. With this, your customers get to know you better through your brand’s story; vision and values and that’s what builds the real connection.

Define brand identity 

What really goes the distance is having a clear cut vision for your brand; its values and its standards.  So get granular on this from the offset or do it now even if you’re already established.  Then look – or take another look – at your brand voice and tone. So now you know what you’re communicating and how you’re communicating, across all your channels. To get your target audience to understand and connect to the essence of your brand, you have to first define not just the USP which differentiates you, but what actually makes your brand authentic, what was the initial inspiration behind it? How did it come about? Most likely it have a unique story and there were challenges along the way, which were faced and overcome.  This can inspire your audience and may even be aspirational.

The Process

A combination of strategic and creative processes evolve the brand to express and it’s personality takes shape when you reference your brand to something that’s larger than just purely the commercial aspect: the selling of a product or marketing of a service.  Think bigger picture. How does your product or service actually serve?  How does it enhance or improve peoples’ life?

This also means that it’s not just about implementing a great digital marketing strategy, but using these tools to cultivate and build loyalty, while fostering meaningful – and possibly long term – relationships with your audience. One could say it’s also about integrity: walking your talk. People can normally sense it.

Choose your content creation tools

The tools of the trade matter. There are a plethora of content creation tools from graphic design, video editing, animation, podcasting, blog platforms, and social media management tools.  From videos and images, gifs to infographics, ebooks and webinars, they can all contribute to brand engagement that draw your audience in.

Identifying your audience

What’s key is to have a feel for your audience and how does your brand’s voice appeal to it. To create value and give your audience a reason to come back to engage with your brand is not about just creating the pretty social media posts, or writing word-perfect content, or even simply presenting solutions for your audience, it goes beyond this. Even though all of these matter too of course, but they should come second to all the aforementioned aspects.

Test and optimise your content

Testing and optimising your content to see what tuning it needs is again key in determining how your brand’s content is being perceived, accepted and engaged with. Every marketer is focussed on measuring performance via KPIs and metrics, and it’s important to keep testing your content and never rest on your laurels, as we’re in an ever evolving landscape. You can get amazing analytical insights into the brand’s reach and the kind of audience that it is engaging with Analytics (Google), performance surveys, social media insights etc.

Ultimately consistency and due diligence is the best way to understanding one’s brand audience: their preferences and tastes, plus market dynamics, needs, pain points and this then sets the benchmark for your branding and comms to constantly evolve.

Taking one’s audience and customers for granted is a very common and a big mistake brands can make. Your brand has to continue to drive value, educate, and inspire. Simple!

Here at  Elixir we sit with you and understand what your brand needs, your vision, mission and target audience. We work closely with you to ensure your brand is supported right from the word ‘go’.

https://www.elixirholisticconsultancy.com/services/creative.html

Our digital strategist & brand founder Chetan Jha is the author of this blog. He leads passionately through disruption, change and innovation across the board.  To find out more how we can support you to level up, email us: 

London@elixirholisticconsultancy.com 

 

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