How to define your brand’s tone of voice in B2B marketing
If you’re not sure what your brand’s tone of voice is just yet, then you’ve come to the right place. Developing a brand tone of voice is one of the most important first steps in content marketing. Your TOV represents you as a business, it should emulate the personality and values you want your customers to think of when they see your name.
Having a defined TOV ensures that communication across different platforms is standardised, which is highly important when you consider that revenue is estimated to grow by 23% in brands that present themselves consistently. Even if you have more than one person working on content, everything should flow cohesively. Re-defining your TOV can also be a great way of giving your brand a little refresh. But where should you start?
Centre your customers
There are a few different routes you can take to find the perfect TOV. A good first port of call is to really nail down who your ideal customers are, as 66% of customers expect brands to understand them and their needs. Developing a set of personas that represent your core audience types can be an amazing tool to utilise throughout your content marketing strategy. A set of target personas can help keep messaging on track. When building personas consider:
- Job role
- Demographics
- Pain points
- Aspirations
- Barriers to aspirations
Once you have a better idea on who your customers are and what they want and need, it will be easier to consider the best way in which to speak to them.
What is your personality?
You should consider what you want your brand personality and ethos to be. Do you want to sound insightful and straight to the point, or witty and relatable? A good TOV can perfectly communicate a brands philosophy. For example, if you’re working with sustainability solutions and explaining the effects of emissions on the planet, chances are you’re aiming to sound informative and passionate, not cracking a joke in your social copy. Find out more about marketing sustainability products in our blog ‘The Rise of Sustainable Marketing’.
Core Messaging
Finally, a good way to keep yourself on track and consistent in utilising your decided tone of voice is by creating a bank of core messaging and wording. This can be done by developing a number of phrases that work in relevance to different aspects of your product or service. Also simply listing words you like will be a good addition to your core messaging bank for those moments when you can’t quite think of the word that’s sitting on the tip of your tongue.
Having writers block? Market research is an amazing asset to you when developing a TOV. If you’re stuck for good words or phrases to use, doing a little research into brands who either offer a similar product or service to you or have a tone of voice and personality which you love can give a wonderful boost of inspiration.
Help from Halston
Still need a hand with kicking off your content marketing? Our PR and Content team have a breadth of experience in elevating a brand through content and tone and voice. Get in touch with our specialist team, we’re here to help.