This article was written by one of our amazing contributors! Content may include promotional links.
There are billions of online businesses in the world that are competing for rental space in the minds of millions of consumers. The only way for a business to stay relevant in the minds of their potential customers is to make itself stand out from its competitors… How do you do that? Your brand needs to be authentic and relatable to its target audience by way of brand identity.
A good way to think of brand identity is to look at it as if it is the personality of your business. You know how when you meet new people, you get a vibe from them based on their personality? Well, the same logic applies to businesses as well. Consumers aren’t just going to shop with a particular business just because a store sells the products they are looking for… that customer needs to feel some kind of connection to that store before they’ll consider buying anything.
Your business’ brand identity is pretty much the values and emotions you want customers to feel when they hear or see your company name… brand identity is so much more than a mere logo. For example, when people think of Apple products, the first things that typically come to mind are quality products, continuous innovation, and cost (Apple products are more on the pricier side of the spectrum but you’re paying for great quality products as well.) Because of the numerous great qualities that Apple presents to its customers, they have a strong and loyal customer base.
As a business owner, it’s one thing to understand your brand but getting your audience to understand your brand is on a totally different level of communication. In the beginning stages of creating your business, you take the time out to create a user-friendly website and invest in marketing but where so many business owners go wrong in marketing is investing in marketing strategies that don’t connect with customers on an emotional level. To connect with customers in that way, you need to examine the tone of voice of your brand.
So now, the real question is how can you determine your brand’s voice to authentically and effectively communicate with your target audience? Well, a great way to look at it is to picture your brand as a person. As a person, how would your brand look? Would he/she be tall? Would he/she be attractive? How would he/she talk and sound?
Everything your business says and does needs to be done in a way that conveys the message and tone you want your audience to respond to on a personal and relatable level. Take a look at the most effective ways to connect with your audience.
Have a Full Understanding of the Message You Want Your Brand to Convey
The way your brand delivers a message is just as important as the message itself. Think about your brand and the products your selling… You have to think of that because consistency is key. If your brand is more on the casual side, then the way you communicate and connect with your audience will need to be done in a casual way as well. For a casual brand, you might consider using slang and even emojis to get the message across that you want your audience to receive.
If your brand is more formal or professional, you’ll want to steer clear of slang and emojis and utilize more of a professional tone and language. Just remember, the tone, as well as the language you use when connecting with your audience, needs to be consistent with the personality of your brand as well, on every communication channel.
Determine Your Brand’s Target Persona
You’ve heard the phrase “birds of a feather, flock together”… well, that saying holds true in the business world. If you can figure out your brand’s target persona, you’ll better be able to find your brand’s voice and be able to connect with your target audience.
Let’s say the products you sell are geared towards successful businesswomen. With that particular target audience, you can imagine the tone of your brand needing to be professional and quite different than that of women who aren’t entrepreneurs. In knowing who your target audience is, you can then create content that is relevant to your target audience, allowing you to connect with them on a more personal level… the content you create should be relatable to them and contribute or add to their success.
Connect With Your Audience Through Storytelling
You may not realize it or believe it but people love hearing stories, especially stories that speak of overcoming great triumphs because those stories are relatable to most people, no matter how big or small the triumph may be. According to wirebuzz.com, storytelling has four superpowers: emotion, attention, belief, and memorability. It further states that if customers can see themselves in your story, they’re more than likely going to buy whatever it is you’re selling.
The most important part of connecting with your audience through storytelling is to get your audience to make actionable moves and the way to do that is to connect with your audience on an emotional level. You wouldn’t normally think of incorporating emotions when it comes to matters of business but you have to remember that when it comes to customers, you’re not dealing with robots… customers are living, breathing beings and connecting with them on an emotional level is how you’re going to build the strongest and longest-lasting relationship between your brand and customers.
What’s Your brand Saying to Customers? In order to effectively communicate with your audience, you need to make sure that your brand’s voice is consistent and that it represents the audience you’re trying to reach. Remember, you can always put forth various efforts to get a particular message out to your audience but the real question is what are people saying about your brand when you’re not around? Do they have good things to say about it or negative comments? It’s up to you to make sure good things are being said.