Your brand voice communicates for you.

Did you know that it takes literally less time than the blink of an eye for your potential clients to pass judgments about your branding? Well… it does. You’ve got milliseconds to make an impression. Which feels scary! I mean that’s not very long, at all. But I bet you’ve had that experience yourself – you’ve been scrolling on Instagram, and seen an ad, and immediately decided you were going to keep scrolling without even pausing, because it just didn’t appeal to you. It didn’t grab you. It didn’t speak to you.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about. It takes so little time for our brains to decide what we’re interested in, and what we’re not. And a whole ton of that decision comes from split seconds of just looking at it. When your brain is making that lightning-speed decision for you, those visuals its taking into account are the voice of the brand for the business you’re looking at. The colors used, the words used, the way they use hierarchy to draw you to one thing or another in the graphic in the ad. All of those things work together, to attract that business’ ideal clients. And if you’re not their ideal client, congrats to that business, their brand did the right thing. But if you are… and you weren’t drawn in… that’s their brand voice FAILING.

You’re not a branding expert… so how do you know?

So the brand voice for your business should call to your ideal clients, we know that. But how do you know whether your specific brand voice is speaking to the right people? How do you know whether it’s clear, and it’s doing what it should be doing?

There are a ton of small, subtle indicators that your brand voice is clear, and communicating with the right people, and today we’re going to go through a few of those.

1 – The customers who reach out to you are a good fit.

The first big sign that your brand voice overall (visual and non-visual!) is talking to the right people, is the customers who reach out to you are the right ones. They’re the people you’re hoping to hear from, they’re well suited for your work, and they want to move forward with your services.

But what if you’re not a service provider, and you don’t actually hear from most of your customers? What if your business is product based, like an e-commerce store? You’re not out of luck here, you’ve got strategies too. A lot of it relies on metrics and performance of ads, and how well you retain the customers you get. So if your business is product based… you’ll want to look at how well your ads are converting. Are the people who your ads get in front of, hopefully specifically targeted by your ad delivery settings, actually clicking? If they are… are they buying? Obviously there’s more to the whole “are ads converting” thing than just the graphic and the brand tone, but it plays a huge role. And if your ads aren’t converting, then it’s pretty clear that your brand voice could use some work. It should be talking directly to those customers who are your ideal client – the ones the brand tone was designed for in the first place. And if it’s not, then that’s going to show in your metrics.

So moral of the story, is if the clients reaching out to you aren’t a good fit, or your ads are performing really poorly… it might be a sign your brand voice could use some work.

2 – The questions you’re asked are relevant to what you do.

Asking good questions means being informed. You know that, it’s the case for like, everything under the sun. Can’t ask relevant questions if you don’t know what you’re asking ABOUT. And one of the signs that your brand voice isn’t communicating clearly in the written content you put out there in the world, is people ask you questions that just… don’t make sense.

Part of your brand voice, is the written stuff you post, share, blog – in fact your brand voice stretches to include literally anything that communicates about your business. Your website, your social media posts (both the visuals and the captions) – all of it. Even things like ads, both online and physical. And if your customers/clients, whether your business is service-based or product-based, are asking you questions that don’t even relate to what you do? Something is getting lost in translation. The same thing is true if people are asking you questions that are super easily answered through your online presence, and they looked at that online presence. Just another sign that things aren’t being communicated clearly, and you might need to tighten up the brand voice you’re using for your business!

On the other hand, if people are asking totally solid, relevant, fair questions… you’re doing the thing, and you’re doing it RIGHT.

3 – Your presence feels cohesive.

Like I’ve said, brand voice is visual AND written. But being honest, the visual side of things is a little easier to see from a 40,000 foot view. If your social presence (like your Instagram) and your online presence (like your website) and your printed materials and all the things at your physical storefront (if you have one!) feel cohesive, like they all belong together, then you’re probably on the right track. That, or you already have a super clear brand voice, that shines through in your content.

Now there’s a little caveat for this one, because you can absolutely have a CLEAR brand voice, that doesn’t actually talk to the right people, in things like your visual posts and video content. That’s why this one is last on the list. Because believe it or not, visual cohesion and consistency doesn’t convert all on its lonesome, you need MORE. That’s where the questions you’re asked, and the basic profile of the people who reach out to you or buy your products come in!

If none of these are true… then you might need to make adjustments!

If the people reaching out to you about the cool stuff you do aren’t the right people, the questions you’re being asked are low key frustrating because you’ve already answered them or they don’t make sense, and your visual presence feels all over the place… it’s definitely time to make some changes. Those are all key indicators that your brand voice isn’t doing its job, and your presence needs tightened up!

But if you’re getting the right people interested, and the questions you’re asked feel like they fall in line with what you’d expect, and your visual presence feels like one big happy family of social profiles and web resources… you’re doing all the things right, and you should keep doing them.

Need some help honing your brand voice?

Needing help with your brand voice isn’t the end of the world – even though it might feel like it, because one of the signs is not making sales! But you can ABSOLUTELY start the journey to getting your content lined up where it needs to be, and part of that journey (especially if your visual cohesion needs work!) is getting a package of branding photos from a pro who GETS IT. And I would love to be that pro! So, if you need some more clarity in your brand voice, reach out. I would love to chat about how I (and possibly my team of collaborators!) can help you get where you want to be, and bring the clients you want to work with into your business.

Bonus: Take a look at just a few results that my AMAZING team of collaborators and me have gotten for our social media management clients!