How to Capture Brand Voice in Content Writing

The McDonald’s golden arches in the form of the letter “M,” the first letter of the fast-food giant’s name. Its highly recognizable bright yellow and red color scheme is internationally recognized by its repeat customers.

But if you read a McDonald’s branded article or overheard one of their radio commercials, would you still recognize the company?

Chances are that you still may have a few clues that if you hear language that they have marketed themselves with over the years, such as, “I’m lovin’ it” and their lengthier slogan,” Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.”

The moral of the story is just like McDonald’s. has expanded its branding voice over the decades, and you too can establish your brand voice in Content Writing to be more than just your logo symbol, but a company that consistently speaks to its audience in a consistent brand voice with these tips. 

Start with a Content Sample 

Has your organization already hit the bullseye with on-target articles that captured the spirit of your company? Yes, the spirit, because you need to view your brand voice as belonging to a living organism that grows, expands, has a history, and connects directly with a particular audience that has gained interest in the products and services being offered. 

Take any examples of excellent writing that is on-brand for your company that has been written about your business, has mentioned it in a particularly inspiring way, or even writing samples that speak about another company that feels like a twin spirit to your business analyze them.

Describe the Brands Voice 

Describing your brand voice could involve getting feedback from multiple departments within your organization, such as marketing, product development, public relations, sales, and customer success.

Not only do all of these individuals have their view of what the company would sound like if it had a mouth to speak with, but they also engage with different segments of the customer experience, giving them new ways to see your organization from the customer’s point-of-view. 

Review the best-selected content pieces that best represent your organization and divide them into the brand voice you want to embody. Discuss common themes across all of those pieces. Finally, group the examples into three thematic areas. 

What three themes or adjectives would you use to describe your company as if it was your favorite famous athlete?

Is your company the down-to-Earth company that could be your buddy from down the street?

What does your brand and domain name reflect in terms of niche associations?

Would you consider your company reliable and able to be trusted when it is most needed?

For the third example of a theme, would you describe your company as witty with a sense of humor that brightens everyone’s day?

Sticking with these three adjectives, “down-to-Earth,” “reliable,” and “witty,” think about how you can have original articles written that incorporate your company’s core morals and lifestyle of being down-to-Earth, reliable, and witty. 

Make a Chart for the Brand Voice 

Now it is the point in your brand voice creation phase where you can dig deeper and build out definitions that illustrate your business’s three central traits by fleshing them out in a brand voice chart to be used later to keep your content continually speaking the same language.

Create three rows for each of the primary characteristics accompanied by three columns; the first one is labeled as “Short Description, ” the second column is labeled “Do’s,” and the last column is labeled “Don’ts.” 

Your brand voice and tone chart should walk writers through how to speak like your company by it containing not just the chosen adjectives, but also sample sentences of how to write like your brand, a sample sentence on how not to write like your brand, and an explanation as to why it should be written in this style.

Put the Brand Voice in Action 

Now that you have defined your brand voice and tone to its most basic elements and developed a simple-to-understand chart, it is time to meet with your team to walk them through it, explain why these descriptions have been used and why the choices were made, and get them geared up to put it to good use. 

Team members and content writers can benefit from having this brand voice chart nearby when they implement any communications that are an extension of the company’s language to ensure that nothing feels off-brand. 

Update the Brand Voice Chart

You can give meetings with your team every three months to revisit the brand voice chart and figure out if any brand attributes aren’t working well anymore or more relevant additions that should be factored in. 

In the same way that you may speak with the same accent consistently, you use new words that become popular in your world as you evolve.

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Ann Smarty
Ann Smarty is the brand and community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas, founder of MyBlogU.com and manager at ViralContentBee. You can learn more about Ann here.