How to define your brand tuning tone (+ model) (2023)

What is intonation?

Tone of Voice is how a brand communicates and connects with its audience through messaging and customer interactions.

It helps companies stand out from the competition and communicate their brand values ​​to the outside world.

Old Spice, for example, is known for its humorous tone.

Her absurd and memorable ads set her apart from others in the personal care industry:

The tone of voice includes the words and images you choose (and the order in which you place them) in all content formats. Including emails, landing pages, ads, social media posts, blog posts and more.

At the end of this article, you will learn how to:

• Identify your brand values
• Find the perfect voice for your business
• See how your audience is communicating
• Create and implement a tone-of-voice guide

Ready to start?

Use our template to trace it.

First, let's cover some examples.

Examples of tone of voice

Nike's voice is serious and powerful. They have run many campaigns over the years to encourage athletes to do their best.

Here is an example of it.Craziest Dreams campaign.:

Many brands also show a more playful side, like Dunkin' Inthis post on Instagram:

Old Spice, Nike and Dunkin' show how the tone of voice can vary dramatically from brand to brand.

Why is the tone of voice important?

The words and images you use shape how your customers see your brand.

Which is crucial because88% of respondentssaid in a recent survey that it's important to buy from brands you trust.

Think about creating a personality for your brand: how do you want your brand to “speak” to others? What message should be conveyed?

Setting a specific tone of voice will help you:

• cutting competition
• Build your brand (and authority).
• Emulate face-to-face communication

cut through the competition

Many brands fall into the trap of adopting a tone of voice that someone in their industry “should” use. However, your goal should be to stand out so customers remember you.

Take the BlenderBottle for example. They avoid the typical hyper-masculine tone of protein powders and fitness brands:

Build your brand (and authority).

Here, let's look at Duolingo as an example. They took TikTok by storm, gaining more than four million followers and becoming an ongoing meme on the site.

His videos always feature "Duo", the green owl who is often spotted running around the office, feeling sorry for his crush (Dua Lipa) and following the latest TikTok trends:

Duolingo took a risk by being completely disrespectful and silly with this app, but it was clearly worth it. They now have a massive organic presence on users' For You pages and have become a familiar figure to many on TikTok.

Emulate face-to-face communication

Today, customers often contact brands through social media or online chats instead of calling a customer service number.

You can also use this time to reinforce your tone of voice.

Many brands go one step further and proactively respond to complaints mentioning their brand on social media.

Here's an example of how Spotify does this on Twitter:

Spotify es “really protective tone of voice.” Each member of the social media team undergoes rigorous writing checks, and the brand has dedicated Twitter accounts dedicated to customer service.

Brand Voice vs Tone of Voice: What's the Difference?

Brand Voice represents your brand's unique perspective and the values ​​it represents. In other words, this is the overall personality of your brand.

Your tone of voice relates to how your brand communicates with your audience, which can include word choice, communication style, and emotional tone.

This means your tone of voice can change slightly depending on what works best for the situation.

Let's use Volvo to demonstrate the difference. From thembrand voiceit's about security that explaindon't give them:

From themvote tomCommunicate the importance of security by making it a focal point in most of your marketing materials.

Specific seat belts aren't always a big selling point for vehicles, but Volvo makes it a central point in its advertising:

Volvo does a good job of emphasizing its core values ​​and putting the customer and their safety first. Of course, they have a defined mission statement and communicate this externally (more on this below).

How to find your brand's tone of voice

Now that you understand what a tone of voice is and why it's important to businesses, let's show you how to find yours.

Step 1: Define your core values

To define your core values, reflect on what makes your company unique and what your brand stands for.

Let's look at an exampleExplanation of Zappos Core Values. Not only do they list their ten core values, but they also explain what they stand for and why they chose them.

This makes it easy for employees and customers to know what to expect when interacting with Zappos.

To start defining your core values, you need to do two things:

1. Create a mission statement
2. Establish a brand message architecture

To see how:

Create a mission statement

Write a concise brand mission statement that shows your users who you are, what matters to you, and what your brand is doing to achieve their goals.

Strong mission statements answer these questions:

• What are the goals of your company?
• How do you want to achieve your goals?
• Who is your target audience?
• What do you want your company to be known for?

Write down your answers to these questions and work with stakeholders to create a mission statement based on the findings.

Here is oneMicrosoft mission statement:: “Our mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more”.

Grounds & Hounds, an online coffee shop, has its own siteyour mission statement:

Grounds & Hounds' mission statement demonstrates that the company is driven by purpose. TOZeno study groupshows that customers are four to six times more likely to support and buy from companies with a purpose.

Once you have a mission statement, you can share it on your website, with your audience, and with your employees.

Establish a message architecture

Brand message architecturealigns all your brand communications and brand values ​​across all your content creators.

A message architecture is a set of communication goals (usually a list of terms, phrases, and statements).

For example, your message architecture might include goals like “friendly and entertaining” or “professional and authoritative.”

Here is an exampleoptimalReunited through Facebook:

To create your own news architecture, compile a list of up to 50-100 adjectives that describe your industry and arrange them into three groups:

• About Us
• Who do we want to be?
• who we are not

After sorting the adjectives, focus on the words in the "Who we'd like to be" category. Group the adjectives into categories and rank them by priority (like the Facebook example above).

You can expand them with sub-items and color code them as needed to make their meaning clear.

Finally, update your content strategy with your full architecture.

Step 2: Define your brand voice

Now that you've identified the "why" behind your business, you can begin to create a unique tone.

To start defining your tone of voice, create adjectives that describe your tone of voicedesired tone.

You can use the Nielsen Norman Groupfour dimensions of toneTo map where your brand falls into each category:

• funny x serious
• Formal x casual
• respectful vs. disrespectful
• Enthusiast vs practical

You can use these as well"tone words"to define how your brand should communicate:

Decide where you want your brand's voice to fall on each spectrum to determine the right intonation.

Here is an example ofthe adventurersthis is on the disrespectful side:

You can also paste your existing content into oursSEO writing assistantTo see how your current sound is displayed:

Now let's look at some examples.

Formell x Informell

Using a formal tone can help make your brand feel more authoritative, but it can also come across as impersonal.

Casual language can help create a sense of personality and friendship. On the other hand, too casual a tone in the wrong context can make you come off as inexperienced or unprofessional.

It is tweeted byPradait's formal and straight to the point. It contains no emojis and has more serious editorial photos showing the look.

It is tweeted byDolls with healthy rootsit has a more playful tone. Contains an emoji and funny pictures:

funny vs serious

When choosing between a funny tone and a serious tone, remember that a funny tone doesn't suit every business. And humor shouldn't get in the way of communicating with your audience.

YieldThe 404 page is modeled on a comic and contains a joke:

Designer-NewsHe gets more serious with his 404 page, which adds a touch of creativity but keeps the tone pretty dry:

respectful vs. disrespectful

It's good to be respectful of your audience, but don't overdo it either. It may not seem genuine if you are always flattering your users.

Using a irreverent tone, on the other hand, can make your brand appear confident and fun. But be careful not to intimidate or offend your audience.

security wingkeeps things on the respectful side. The overall design and tone isn't stuffy or serious, but it maintains its practical and direct tone.

deadly happyHowever, the homepage of is the epitome of the irreverent tone. It's funny, unexpected, and atypical for the insurance industry:

excited vs. prosaic

An enthusiastic tone can help you appear helpful and friendly. But if used at inappropriate times, it can irritate your audience.

While the prosaic language conveys a sense of honesty and simplicity. But if executed poorly, it can be viewed as indifferent or lacking in personality.

First let's see8000 loot, a brand of hemp shoes. His copy is enthusiastic, with some ironic moments in just a few lines of text:

from the clock, an eyeliner and false eyelash brand, is more practical. You thank the customer for their purchase and include helpful links in the message.

Now let's use these examples to create your brand's tone-of-voice profile.

It could look like that:

Step 3: Observe your audience

Now that you know how to define your tone of voice, let's discuss how you can customize it for your customers.

Customers expect brands to understand their needs and expectations. a great way toknow your customersis to find out which social media platforms they use and how they interact with each other.

First, find out which channels your target audience prefers.

The best way to do this is to go straight to the source, be it Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or elsewhere.

But how do you know which websites your audience is using? Start with a Google search.

Use the "Site Search" method, which looks like this:Location: www.website.com your brand here

When you search this way, Google only shows results from sites that include you.

You can search on various websites including "OU".

So if you want to see what people are saying about Chipotle on Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram, it would look like this:

Advice: You can also use Semrushmarket researcherTool to learn more about your audience demographics.

Take the time to research your findings and take notes. What positive things are people saying? What negative things? Are there trends?

You can use this information to customize your overall tone or even plan your social content.

If your brand is new or you don't get many results this way, you can also search with your competitor's brands.

Notice how your audience communicates with each other

Now that you know where your audience is online, pay attention to how they are communicating and use their vocabulary for inspiration.

Facebook groups can be a mine of information.

To get started, go to Facebook and type your keyword into the search bar (we chose “SEO”).

Once you get the results, click "Groups" in the left navigation to show only Facebook groups.

Join relevant groups to see how members are talking about brands in your industry. This is a great place to start learning how your audience communicates.

Reflecting how your audience communicates can make your content more relatable. If done right, it canlead to an increase in sales.

Here are some questions to consider when analyzing your customers' voices on social media:

• Do they speak in full sentences or more informally?
• Do they contain emoji?
• What kind of slang do they use?
• Do you speak directly to the brands?
• What generation are you?
• What do you like?
• what you don't like

It's also a good idea to answer the same questions about your competitor's audiences. Learn from your past successes and failures to determine what might work for your audience.

Here's an example of howChipotleSuccessfully mirrors the tone on TikTok with a casual offbeat Gen Z tone:

And another example ofWendysSin Instagram:

Keep in mind that this is not a "one time" step. Social media trends and jargon are constantly evolving.

Spend some time each month researching social media as you plan your social media posts.

And of course, constantly interact with your followers. This is for research and building a voice for your brand. A win-win situation.

Step 4: Create and implement tone-of-voice policies

To successfully implement your tone of voice, start by establishing clear brand guidelines. Check them out from time to time, especially if your audience changes.

Start writing your policies in the branding language you define; This creates a perfect example of correct usage.if you write.

Add right and wrong examples of your tone of voice to show your team members what to do and what to avoid.

Your internal policies should include:

• A portrait of your audience and your voice
• Your brand's attitude towards its audience (i.e. how formal or informal it should be)
• Your brand's core values
• your mission statement
• The architecture of your message
• to use vocabulary
• to avoid vocabulary
• grammatical rules

After creating the first version of your style guide, share it with your company.

Create your own tone-of-voice guidelines

Your tone of voice is how you connect and interact with your audience. The best way to do this is to align it with your brand's values ​​and mission, as well as the voice of your audience.

Once you have an idea of ​​what you want it to look like, match your tone of voice to the content format you're using to communicate.

If not already doneCreate your own tone of voice guidelines with our free template.

Don't be afraid to be creative - the goal is to stand out from the competition. And by maintaining a unique and consistent tone of voice, your brand can gain authority (and popularity) in your niche.