Why tone of voice is one of the most important aspects of your brand
Words matter.
Especially in the built environment, where business is built on trust, relationships and years of courting before contracts get signed.
Across all of your comms, the heart and soul of your brand should come through loud and clear. I’m sure you’ll be familiar with brand guidelines for your logo and brand colours. You might even have seen the guidelines document where you’ll find the right colour codes, the correct proportions, the approved variations. If something doesn’t match the brand guidelines, it doesn’t make the cut.
But what about tone of voice? I’m willing to bet many of you aren’t aware of your companies tone of voice guidelines. Some of you might work for companies that don’t even have one. From a marketing perspective, this makes no sense. It’s words, both written and spoken, where we truly “speak” to our audience. It’s where true connection and our most important brand impressions take place.
Words are the vehicle that take us to the heart of our clients’ needs and desires. Luckily, we get to choose the nature of that vehicle. It could be an ostentation gas guzzler? A clapped out old banger? Or maybe, if we do our job right, something with understated quality, reliability and efficiency.
In this short blog, we’re going to outline the importance of brand tone of voice before outlining what you can do to ensure your brand gets yours on the right track.
It’s not just what you say
Tone of voice is how you say it. Words can be flat and informal, lively and exuberant, persuasive, dispassionate, alluring — the list goes on and on. Tone of voice is the personality, rhythm, and intention behind the words.
For example, you could have two statements about, say, announcing a new product launch. The actual facts relayed by the statements could be identical, but both will land differently depending on the tone you use.
· Formal and authoritative: We are pleased to introduce our latest offering. It will help you achieve better conversions across your leads.
· Conversational and warm: Meet our newest addition. We think you’re going to love it.
· Bold and irreverent: We’ve just dropped something new. Ready to fall in love?
Each one says something subtly different about your brand. Your audience will instinctively react to each differently even though the facts are the same.
The hidden glue of brand recognition
A huge part of brand recognition comes from the visual elements — Logo, colour palette and font. But that’s only part of the story. Many of the world’s biggest and best known brands have instantly recognisable voices.
One of the best known amongst marketing circles is Innocent, a bright food and drink brand that burst onto the scene with a positive, irreverent voice that was embedded in every aspect of their products. And when I say every aspect, I mean every aspect. From ingredients to cheeky messages on the bottom of their smoothie cartons.
This voice is now instantly recognisable. Obviously, no one is expecting every brand to as distinctive as Innocent, but it does go to show how powerful your tone of voice can for your branding.
Your aim should be for the way you say things to be recognisable as your brand. Imagine if you put out a social post without a logo or colours, would your audience still know it was you?
If your tone of voice is consistent, the answer should be yes. When your words feel unmistakably “you”, they build familiarity and trust. Over time, your audience can spot your style in a crowded feed, just like they’d spot your logo.
A shortcut to trust and loyalty
People buy from people (and brands) they like. Now in the built environment, there’s a big proviso with this. The “buying” going on is often huge contacts worth large sums of money. Relationships are one of the biggest elements in these purchasing decisions.
That being, said brand and tone of voice are massively important in getting those relationships started. Tone of voice is how you build likeability. It’s the human handshake before you’ve even met.
When you sound like you, every time, people start to feel they know you. And that’s the foundation of loyalty. If you shift tone wildly from one channel to another, or from week to week, it’s like talking to someone whose personality changes every time you see them. Distracting at best. Off-putting at worst.
Why you need consistent guidelines
Without clear tone of voice guidelines, you leave too much room for interpretation. One person in the business writes chatty, emoji-filled posts. Another drafts press releases like 1980s corporate memos. The brand experience becomes inconsistent and inconsistency is where your credibility starts to wobble.
A defined tone of voice doesn’t mean being rigid or robotic. It’s a framework. It gives everyone in your team the same compass, so whether it’s a sales email, a LinkedIn update, or a customer service reply, it’s recognisably you.
The strategic importance of your tone of voice
Marketing should be scientific and your tone of voice is no different. Your tone of voice will form a part of your overall marketing strategy and will ultimately rely on your brand’s core identity (vision, mission and values) for its foundation.
Here’s some basic examples of how a tone of voice might be affected by different variables.
· When asking for donations, a charity that’s looking to respond urgently to a humanitarian crisis will write its fundraising copy differently from one with the aim of raising funds for a summer school for underprivileged children.
· A B2B tech company who’s audience aren’t typically tech-informed will speak with a plain-speaking, jargon-free style. A company that targets tech savvy engineers and coders will take a more specialised approach.
In both cases, tone influences how people feel about the brand, how they perceive its competence, and whether they feel a connection.
Getting it right (and keeping it right)
Creating a strong tone of voice means:
1. Defining it clearly – capture it in writing, with examples of what it is and isn’t.
2. Training your team – make sure everyone understands it and can apply it to their own work.
3. Applying it consistently – across every channel, every piece of content, and every interaction.
4. Reviewing it regularly – as your business evolves, your tone might need subtle shifts to keep it relevant.
It’s not just for marketing. Your customer service emails, your invoices, your recruitment ads all contribute to how your brand is experienced.
Just like Innocent Smoothies, it has to embedded into every aspect of the words you use, both written and verbal.
Next steps
Defining your brand tone of voice isn’t something you bang out in an afternoon. It’s a process informed by research, strategy an consultation with your target market.
Sound like a lot? We get it. We know most of your didn’t get into business to be marketers.
But we did.
If you’re ready to take your marketing to the next level but need some expert help, call us today on +44 (0)161 706 1446, or email us at hello@lumamarketing.co.uk. We’ll help you define a tone of voice that is uniquely you.
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