Building Your Brand Voice

Some people bristle at the idea of a brand voice – they feel like building a brand can be inauthentic. The truth is that it’s necessary in a world in which people are constantly bombarded with content.

Whether you are working to elect a candidate, advance a policy initiative, or sell a product, it’s important to determine what you want to be associated with – your top policies, priorities, or benefits.

Policies and Benefits

If you are running political campaign, you’ll want to think about what your top line message is – what differentiates your candidate from the rest? Perhaps your candidate is a veteran running for Congress. You could use your candidate’s years of service and military experience to highlight their commitment to serving their constituents and bringing a lived foreign policy perspective to Washington. Service and lived foreign policy experience could be two major messaging focuses. Once you’ve identified these, make sure they are incorporated into all content. Include them in talking points, earned media, paid ads, social media, website content, and more. Repetition will help build candidate’s brand as the veteran running to better serve his community and bring foreign policy experience to Washington.

If you are selling a product, you need to find the central problem that the product solves or what sets it apart from other products. This is known as a “value proposition.” Develop sales copy, emails, and landing pages that highlight how your brand solves this problem or is different from its competitors. Build value proposition language into all your content so it becomes synonymous with your product. If you are operating in a crowded marketplace, unique messaging or benefits will be important to set your product apart.

Voice

In addition to policies or benefits, a brand voice can be a powerful way to define yourself. It’s more common for products to develop a distinct brand voice – perhaps it’s laid back and fun to fit the product or lifestyle of the customer. In other cases, it might be more professional. If that is the case, you’ll want to make sure your social media copy and emails reflect this voice. The more you use it, the more customers will associate the voice with the product.

While brand voice is more common for products, candidates can absolutely have a strong brand voice. Maybe your candidate is no-nonsense so any social media posts should reflect this style. No formal policy points, but instead straight to the heart of the problem, calling out the failures, and proposing alternatives. Or maybe the candidate is younger and therefore speaks in a more informal style. Find what this brand voice is and work to ensure all content reflects it.

Style

Similar to voice, style – which includes the aesthetic, colors, and design of your social media, emails, and website – can be a powerful way to define your brand. For example, when Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez first appeared on the scene as a candidate, it was her bold, fresh poster that grabbed peoples’ attention. The poster’s style and colors reflected the youth and energy of her candidacy and has since become synonymous with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez.

You don’t have to pick trendy styles either – if your brand aims to be more timeless and reliable, you might want to pick a more simple, clean design. This kind of branding will be used on your website, social media, and campaign materials.

Post often and communicate consistently

The key to brand-building is consistent messaging. Make sure that once you’ve developed a brand, it is present throughout all communications. You should be posting 2-3 times per week at the very least and those posts should include your branding to further reinforce your message and begin making a mark on your target audience.

As mentioned earlier – people need to be exposed to something many times before it takes root. It might feel repetitive, but that should be a sign you are on the right track. Repetition works.

Create a content calendar that includes social posts, emails, newsletters, earned media like interviews or op-eds, and paid ads. Make sure that, in addition to timely posts or topics, you are deploying your branding priorities at least a few times per week.

Conclusion

Building a brand is a way to preserve your longevity and awareness. Whether you’re campaigning for office or marketing a product, creating a brand helps people remember who you are or what you stand for, and can be an effective way to build trust with your audience.

Policy priorities, messaging, tone of voice, and style are all ways to build and reinforce your brand and to make a mark. Branding can be a powerful way to create a legacy that reinforces your work and highlights what you’ve accomplished.

Patience and consistency are key to building a successful brand. Start outlining your brand vision today and develop implementation strategies to reinforce your work.