Does Your Brand Have a Voice Problem?
Recently my wife got sick and she lost her voice. With three young kids, it makes it hard when you have to use your voice all day, but being sick makes it even worse. The idea of “losing your voice” was interesting as I thought about it in the sense of a business or brand. Many businesses have “lost their voice” and might not even know it. Losing your voice as a business also has negative side effects, like losing out on potential clients. There are two voice problems we commonly see with businesses, speaking too much without intent and not using your voice at all. Let’s explore these ideas.
Less Is More
Have you ever been to a sporting event and lost your voice? It’s hard not to. The emotions of the game. The liveliness of the environment. You want your team to win the game. Or what about a concert?. You're watching your favorite band and singing along with the lyrics so loud for two hours straight. The next day your throat feels gunky and you can barely whisper. It’s happened to all of us. So what does this have to do with brand voice? The most common reason people lose their voice is talking too much. With brands, this is definitely something that happens as we feel the need to put out lots of “content” on social media for various reasons. While many have good reasons for using these platforms to get their message across, they tend to “lose” their voice by having mixed messages or losing intent of what needs to be said.
They have essentially lost their voice because it’s not recognizable or coherent. A few years ago we helped a client develop a tagline to help create an emotional approach to the problem they solve as we were working on the script for their brand story commercial. They were excited about it and started using it on their website and printed materials. After six months of the project, I started seeing different messaging on their social media. Some posts would use that tagline we created and some would use other versions they had before. It was confusing to me so I could only assume it would be confusing to customers and potential customers. It’s crucial for brands to identify their voice and tone while being consistent so customers can clearly recognize it. When it comes to messaging, saying less is more. Don’t be tempted to speak so much that you aren’t adding value or building authority with your customer.
Don’t Be Afraid To Speak
The second way businesses lose their voice is by not speaking up. I have a close friend who owns a business and recently, in a business networking meeting, he was asking for names of families that had been through something tragic and would be good candidates for a “give back” project his company does every year. After the meeting I told him how much I respect that he gives back to the community even in a small way and he needed to promote that. He responded that he doesn’t do it to brag and didn’t want to come across as self-righteous. I totally understood where he was coming from. No one wants to be singing praises from the rooftops about their own good deeds; however, I gave him another way to think about it.
I asked him to imagine there are two companies selling the exact same service. Both companies offer a great experience but only one company gives back to the community. Which company would he want to buy from? He got the point. Now, the other company mentioned in this made up scenario could have easily had some sort of community service aspect to their business but if we don’t talk about it, no one knows. Our voice can be a powerful tool in this case where we promote brand values and let our actions back that up.
Use Your Voice To Build An Audience
Another way businesses don’t use their voice is having inactive social media channels or generic posts. Social media is a tool to communicate with your current customers and often potential customers, too. Brands that do this well use it as a way to build an audience and be top of mind when needed. What we say or don’t say can be a signal to a customer for good or bad. Social media can be a “We’re Open” signal that lets people know you’re actively open for business and communication is important. Like an old abandoned building or a storefront that looks weathered and not cared for, your online presence can be viewed this way when you lack the power your voice has.
