3 Ways to Build a Unique Content Voice

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We all know the importance of good content. Brands are all publishers now, and creating compelling content on different online channels is paramount to building and holding onto a loyal following. But what does your content say about your brand? Does what you post on Twitter align with the style of your company blog posts? If you’re not sure, it’s time to do a little thinking about brand personality and building a unique and cohesive content voice. Here are three ways to get started on defining and implementing what you want your content to say about your brand.

1. Decide on your brand personality

What is your brand’s voice? Is it serious and authoritative or quirky and conversational? Every brand should have its own unique personality, and it’s up to you to decide what that is and make sure it comes across in all of your content. If you don’t know where to start, try writing down the first adjectives that come to mind when you think about your company, your culture, and how you want to be seen by the world. Build up a list of adjectives for your brand, and then think about how that should affect your content style. If your brand personality is direct and authoritative, then you might want to take a concise approach to writing and give your audience actionable advice. If you want your voice to be more personal with a sense of humor, then try telling stories with your content and including humorous anecdotes. Once you’ve decided what your brand voice should look like, it will be a lot easier to design a content strategy that exemplifies that to the fullest.

2. Make a style guide

The bigger your company is, the more important this step will be. You may feel good about your new brand voice and how to get that across, but chances are there are more than a couple people on your content-creation team. By creating a style guide for everyone on your team to reference, you can much more easily present a united brand voice no matter who is doing the writing. Create a living style guide that includes the basics of grammar, formatting, and how you use company terms, but also be sure to include some information about your brand voice and how to achieve that style in your content. What is the level of formality? Should your writers focus on real-life examples or use creative storytelling to get their points across? Who is the exact audience that they should focus on addressing? Make sure anyone on your content team understands the approach that you want to take. Having an accessible style guide for your contributors to reference can help keep everyone on track with creating content that is indicative of your brand voice.

3. Implement it across all channels

Your company blog may be the most obvious place to concentrate on brand voice, but in order to for that voice to make a serious impact on your audience, it needs to be consistent across any and all content channels. Whether you are writing an “About Us” page for the company website, a post for the corporate blog, or Twitter and Facebook posts, there should be a clear sense of continuity in the style of your content. Different channels require different approaches, sure, but your content on every different channel should always relate back to that original brand personality that you created. Even though this will not be the case for most brands, it should feel like the same person either created or had a hand in your content on every different channel.

Knowing your brand’s personality is critical when you are a content creator. Creating a cohesive strategy for everyone to follow will help your brand build a consistent and unique voice that will then build trust among your followers. Your audience will come to know you and your brand for a certain style and personality, and that will keep them coming back for more. It’s a lot easier to become invaluable to your audience when your brand feels like a trusted old friend with personality to spare.

-Kelly