Go to your website and mask your logo. Read your homepage.

Do you sound like you? Or someone else?

Or worse… exactly like your competitors?

Too often, business owners don’t spend much time focusing on the tone and voice of their brand. How do you want to come across to your ideal customer?

You can use your voice as a marketing strategy to be able to attract the right customer. It’s a strong advantage, because many small businesses aren’t really even thinking about their voice and their impact on their client.

Here are some important key things to consider when finding your tone and voice.

Define what makes you… you.

A lot of times, marketers call this your “mission statement” or your “brand positioning.” I like to tie it into your unique value proposition.

Ask yourself a few of these questions when considering your voice:

How do you want your customers/community to feel while interacting with your business?

What makes your business special or unique?

What’s special or unique about your products/services?

What sets you apart from your competitors?

I’ll be Exhibit A; I think I’m funny, witty, and sometimes hilarious. I crack corny jokes, but I’m also understanding and personable. And I believe that’s likely why clients want to sign up with me.

I’m someone they can relate to. I listen, understand, note their problems. We work together to find a solution, and there in starts the project.

Style your words.

Take those words and make them into a style. Why do you want to be edgy? Caring? Trustworthy? Creative?

Put reason behind those words. What problems do you solve with those words? What sets you apart? How does being ________ benefit your customer?

Think outside of the box.

Don’t think about your voice in terms of your social feeds. Those are so common that you’d want to think about what’s going to set you apart.

Maybe that means coming up with something catchy for your 404 page, or maybe it’s something quirky with your product descriptions. For example, here’s Mailchimp’s 404 page:

Imagine your business was a product in a jar. You have the perfect branding, the perfect colors, the perfect product…

If the label fell off… would people know it was you?

Until next time,

The tinydragon