Pick a person who embodies your brand identity. It can be your founder, a celebrity, or even a character. You want someone who’s highly visible so you have plenty of references to draw inspiration from. For example, one of my clients is a technology vendor, but their culture is more aligned with a blue-collar type of brand — think carpenters or plumbers. To help define their brand voice, I identified Sam Elliot. He’s known for his deep, rugged voice, which is often used in commercials for things like pick-up trucks and beer. With him as our sort of North Star, we were able to work through a brand voice exercise and create an identity that was authentic to the company.
Make your brand voice consistent with the experience a customer will have when they purchase from you. Buyers spend time learning about and experiencing your brand online, and when they call to a salesperson or make a purchase, the brand experience should feel streamlined. For example, if you're selling an incredibly high-reliability product your brand voice online should include bold statements about reliability to show it's something you take seriously. To the contrary, if your support team isn't available 24/7, don't base your brand around "we're always here for you" -- even though it sounds nice and meets a customer pain, if the experience doesn't match the message, you'll immediately break trust in your brand.
Achieving an authentic brand voice that resonates with consumers is crucial for your business's success. How can you create it? Start by identifying your primary audience. Rather than trying to reach everyone, be known for focusing on a smaller group you know well and can influence. Research this persona thoroughly, concentrating on their needs, concerns, and goals. Your authentic brand voice will captivate this group because you'll say their "name", speak their "pain", with "solutions" to proclaim.
There's a quote often attributed to Casanova: "To accomplish anything, I must bring all my physical and moral faculties into play, make the acquaintance of the great and the powerful, exercise strict self-control, and play the chameleon." This concept is true when building an authentic brand voice that not only resonates with customers but also earns their trust more quickly, ultimately making it easier to achieve your goals. You must play the chameleon. Your brand voice is embedded in every piece of content you release into the market. When you're trying to break into a market and capture the attention of prospects or customers, they first need to see you as their equal. People trust those who look like them, sound like them and hold their same beliefs. When you become a chameleon, you blend into your environment to gain the trust of your market. It's crucial to note that being like a chameleon doesn't mean "faking it till you make it." It's in a chameleon's nature to blend into its surroundings—this is authentic for the chameleon. Similarly, authenticity should come naturally to you as well. The simplest way to ensure authenticity is to be genuinely curious. Engage with your market, ask questions, and observe what makes them who they are. When you approach your market with genuine curiosity, authenticity will naturally follow.
Welcome, really clear openness. Share your errors as well as your successes and the wisdom acquired over the path. This honesty helps your audience to connect to you on a deeper level, therefore transforming them from customers into committed supporters.
A voice that resonates with customers is a voice that they can trust. Two things are especially important to building a trustworthy voice: matching expectations and maintaining consistency. Matching expectations doesn’t mean doing what everyone else does — just talking to the customer in a way they relate to. If you’re coaching stay at home parents for example, your tone might be a little warmer than if you were coaching CEOs through an M&A deal. Meet them where they are and add your own secret sauce. Consistency is the true linchpin of a voice that resonates. Across channels, across media, across audiences — the tonal qualities you emphasize might shift to match your context, but the essential identity, POV, and personality behind your voice have to remain consistent. This consistency lets customers know they can trust you to be who you say you are.
Fractional Beauty Brand Strategist & Copy Director at Taylor deDiego Editorial Creative
Answered 2 years ago
To create an authentic brand voice that resonates with consumers, you first have to understand what sets your brand apart—its unique purpose, value, and story. Starting with this strong foundation allows you to develop a voice that is distinct and ownable, and is in alignment with your brand's overall goals. For example, my client Provence Beauty is modernizing French skincare staples, and their brand voice reflects this by incorporating contemporary French phrases and slang. A deep understanding of your brand's unique identity will empower you to create a voice that's genuine and resonates deeply with your audience.
Identify your unique offering (compared to your competitors) and convey that aspect of your brand in every communication vehicle. State it clearly and often, and do not be afraid to repeat it.
Embrace your quirks and imperfections—they are what make your brand unique and relatable. Consumers are increasingly drawn to brands that are unapologetically themselves, showing that they are not just another faceless corporation but a group of real people with real stories. By highlighting what makes your brand different, even if it’s a little unconventional, you create a voice that stands out and sticks in the minds of your audience. Authenticity comes from embracing who you are, not who you think you should be.
One of the key lessons I’ve learned in building RecurPost is that an authentic brand voice stems from deeply understanding and genuinely embodying your company’s core values. It’s not about creating a persona but about ensuring that your brand's communication reflects the principles you and your team live by every day. For us, this means being transparent, customer-centric, and approachable in every interaction, whether through our product, marketing, or customer support. Additionally, consistency is crucial. Your brand voice should resonate across all channels, but it must also be adaptable to different contexts. At RecurPost, we’ve found that while our core message remains the same, the way we convey it might change depending on the platform or audience segment. The goal is always to maintain that authentic connection, ensuring that our voice is both relatable and reliable to our customers.
The key to creating an authentic brand voice is to be human and relatable. Speak to your audience the way you would speak to a friend, using language that feels genuine, approachable, and true to your values. Consumers today are savvy and can easily spot inauthenticity, so make sure your messaging reflects your company’s true personality, rather than just following trends. For example, if your brand values community and sustainability, let that shine through in every communication, from social media posts to customer service emails. Share stories that demonstrate these values in action, and engage with your audience in real conversations, not just promotional messaging. Authenticity builds trust, and trust is what keeps customers coming back.
For a brand voice to be authentic, it must consistently reflect what your company believes in and stands for. Consumers today are highly attuned to whether a brand is being genuine or just pushing a message for the sake of marketing. For instance, with my Bible Chat App, our core mission is to help people connect more deeply with the Bible and their faith. Every piece of content we create, whether it's a video, social post, or interaction with users, reflects that foundational belief. We don’t just talk about features; we talk about why those features matter to people’s spiritual journeys. That’s the heart of our voice, and it’s something that resonates deeply with our audience because it’s aligned with their values too. To develop this kind of authenticity, I always encourage brands to ask: "What do we stand for beyond our product or service?" Once you understand that, everything you communicate should flow naturally from it. Whether it’s the tone of your writing, the images you use, or the way you engage with customers, staying true to those values builds trust and creates long-term loyalty. It also allows your brand to have a consistent voice across all channels, which helps consumers feel connected to who you are at a deeper level. In my experience, trying to mold your voice to fit trends or mimic other brands only leads to a diluted message. Authenticity is the key to standing out and forming real connections, and it’s something that can’t be faked. Staying focused on your values will naturally guide you to a voice that is not only unique but also resonates with your audience in a way that feels real and lasting.
Be genuinely consistent and transparent in your brand messaging. Authenticity stems from a brand's ability to stay true to its values and communicate consistently across all touchpoints. Ensure that your brand voice reflects the core values and mission of your company, and maintain transparency about your practices and purpose. For example, if your brand advocates for sustainability, ensure that this commitment is evident not just in your marketing messages but also in your product choices and business practices. By aligning your brand voice with your actions and consistently engaging with consumers in a genuine manner, you build trust and create a deeper connection that resonates with your audience.
Creating an authentic brand voice is more than words on a page. It's the unique personality that permeates every interaction with customers. Choose a core message and develop comprehensive style guides around it. This will serve as a roadmap for maintaining a consistent and cohesive voice across all departments. These guides aren't about stifling creativity. They provide essential guardrails – tone, spellings, preferred terminology – to ensure our core identity shines through in every written, spoken, and visual communication. This allows each team member to authentically interpret brand messaging authentically, fostering a unified voice that resonates with your audience.
To create an authentic brand voice in affiliate marketing, it's essential to deeply understand your target audience. Conduct thorough market research to grasp their demographics, preferences, and pain points, then segment them based on behaviors. Engage your audience through relatable storytelling that reflects their values and aspirations, fostering trust and relatability, which can significantly impact purchasing decisions.
Incorporating storytelling into your brand strategy is an effective way to convey originality and authenticity. Engaging narratives draw people in, capturing their attention and making them eager to hear your story. This approach helps your brand feel genuine and relatable, steering clear of overly sales-focused messaging.
The key to creating an authentic brand voice is to stay true to your core values and let those values guide every communication. Consumers can tell when a brand is genuine, so focus on honesty, transparency, and consistency in your messaging. Share your story, show your passion, and make sure your voice reflects the real people behind the business. This approach helps build trust and creates a deeper connection with your audience. Ultimately, authenticity is not just about what you say, it is about how you live it in every aspect of your business.
Creating an authentic brand takes time, so don't rush to put something out until you feel absolutely confident that you have distilled the essence of your brand into a clear, unique voice that will stand out amongst the competition. Specificity is important, as well as catchphrases or figures of speech that are unique to your brand and that can be repeated in your marketing materials. Consider you're brand's values, personality, and what you can offer to customers. How do you want to be perceived to your potential customers? Who are your potential customers? It's important to understand your target audience and how to speak to them effectively.
To create an authentic brand voice that resonates with consumers, focus on aligning your messaging with your core values and the needs of your target audience. Start by identifying what makes your brand unique and consistently reflect that in your tone, whether it’s conversational, formal, or playful. Authenticity comes from speaking in a way that feels genuine, transparent, and relatable, avoiding jargon or overly promotional language. This helps build trust and fosters a deeper emotional connection with your audience.
When a clearly identified purpose communicated through a personalized archetype will build trust on a psychological level. This creates brand congruency — who you are is who you say you are. Speak with passion about what you believe and why the world needs your company to exist. You can’t be safe. You must be unabashedly authentic so you attract the right people for all the right reasons.