24: Part 1: Increasing sales with an Impactful Brand Voice

In the first part of this three part series, I am diving into the foundations that every brand voice needs to be able to stay rooted and grounded in purpose and alignment.

I also share the three t's that make up a brand voice's generic code: Tone, Tempo and Terminology.

A solid brand voice and messaging strategy is one the best gifts you could ever give your business. Not only does it make your marketing and copywriting so much easier, but it also gives you the confidence to show up and speak authentically about what makes you unique to everyone else out there (aka your secret sauce).

If you would like to book an absolutely-free-no-strings-attached chemistry call to find out what you can do to create a magnetic brand voice, please click here. I'd love to meet you: https://hello.dubsado.com/public/appointment-scheduler/62cdc47142311c7c703d5c0a/schedule

With love, 
Lira xo

Come say hi to me on Instagram @merakimessaging or take a peek at my website for more information on our website copywriting, sales funnels, business energetics coaching programs (and so much more): https://merakimessaging.com/

Just feel like hanging out?

Come say hi to me on Instagram @merakimessaging or take a peek at my website for more information on our website copywriting, sales funnels, business energetics coaching programs (and so much more): https://merakimessaging.com/

Click here to book your free clarity call anytime!

Transcript

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If you are struggling to sell out your products or book out your services, then it may be time to look at one of the most underrated, undervalued and underseen elements of your business. And I am talking about, of course, your brand voice. This is one of the components of any business that can turn things around. Really, really quickly. It's the difference between knowing what to plug into chat GPT to get the most efficient result that sound just like you and getting something that just sounds wishy washy, like you've just copied the girl next door and you are like everybody else. Your voice is your secret sauce. It is the one thing that makes you stand out in a very, very busy and a very competitive marketplace. And fortunately, there are a couple of steps that you need to get right in order to nail your voice. In this two part series, I'm going to be taking you through all of those steps so that you can create a brand voice that will help you to turn heads as you walk into the room. Thanks for watching! As a business owner, creating a brand voice is one of the best gifts you could ever give yourself. It is an investment that will continue to serve you for years and years to come. And if you ever decide that you reach the point and you want to hire team members, maybe someone to handle social media, someone to handle your marketing. You might not foresee yourself reaching that stage right now, but you never know when that decision and that choice is around the corner. So having a clear messaging strategy and a clear brand voice is something that is going to be your north star, your guiding star. It's going to be something that you hand over to team members, to service providers, and it'll just make sure that your voice has that consistency across all your marketing platforms. And ultimately that consistency is what creates trust and builds credibility. So We are going to be diving into brand voice curation today. And it is something that has become kind of one of those elusive topics that everyone is talking about. And yet so many business owners are just so confused about no one really can say what a voice is, right? Your brand voice and your brand story. It's your, it's your personality. It's the way you come across. It's your signature. It's your thumbprint. You could even say People can take your color palette your logo Your fonts your imagery all of that stuff can be replicated But when it comes to your authentic story And your why and the reason why you wake up every day and why you do what you do in the way that you do it That is always going to belong to you. So Your brand voice and your brand story. It is the heart and soul of your business, right? So today we're going to be looking at a lot of the foundations that it takes to create a brand voice. And we always, always begin with values. Right. So values are your North star. It's the deep why as to why you do what you do. And there's a lot of why's in that sentence, right? So for instance, if you are a mother and you have started a business and your reason behind it was because you wanted to spend more time with your daughter, that would be a brand value freedom, like freedom to make your own choices, freedoms to create your own schedule. A freedom to work around yourself in a way that feels comfortable and safe for you so that you're not bound to a clock or bound to a desk and you can have the flexibility to be with your family that would be a deep seated value. So for instance, if you were a creative designer that value would come in as saying I value freedom and I'm here to help other mothers do the same and I provide design services for these mothers who want to start their own business so that they can take back their time. Right. That would be a very big value. Another example of this was something that I shared on my podcast ages ago. And, um, that was after I moved through my divorce, a big value that came about for me was independence. Having that financial independence to be able to look after myself, to be able to have choices available to me, that became very, very important. And I am so aware. That there are people in my community, um, people that have turned into clients already. Where that is a big value for them as well. You know, they want that independence to be able to make their own choices, to be able to live from anywhere and pay their bills, to be able to travel when they want to, or invest, or, you know, do the things that they feel called to do, whether it's buying a house. A new pair of shoes for their children or, um, you know, a course or a book that is going to help them to awaken or to take themselves deeper into a topic that they're excited about. You know, it's, it's having those choices available to you. So that would be. a very deep seated brand value. And that would come across in the offering that I do. So copywriting, right? Copywriting is telling your brand story. It's getting your story out there onto the internet so that you can sell your art, your offers. And I'm here to help my clients do that so that they can create financial independence, financial freedom for themselves. So your values are what we. Create the brand voice on it's the foundation, right? Then we also going to look at the mission. So what is your brand's mission? What are you here to do? Every, every business has a purpose, right? And even if it's not clear now, it will come about. As you move through the business over the next few months, over the next few years, but it's really about who you serve, why you serve them and how you are here to serve them, right? Bringing that all into one statement, your North star statements that you are going to pin to a wall, put it on your vision board, put it all over the show. But it's kind of like that, that is what you do. This is why. You have started what you've started because at the end of the day, business is not always a walk in the park. Sometimes it gets difficult. Sometimes it gets really lonely and having that mission statement available to you is just your sacred reminder of the direction you're moving in and the ultimate goal for this, for your life, for your clients. For the planet, right? So a mission statement is very, very important. And the final thing that we're going to look at before we actually dive into the voice elements is your demographics and your reach. And a lot of the time, and it drives me insane sometimes, but brand voice is positioned as something that is a little bit more fluffy and right. It's creative. It's like, is your voice fun or is it inspirational or is it, you know, groovy? And those are, those are adjectives. Those are descriptive words. Those are not. A brand voice, a brand voice is very much based on market research. It's based on strategy. It's taking a look at what's going on in the industry. Who's buying, where are they buying from? What causes them to buy? How do you speak to them? Right? There's also a big difference between brand voice and customer voice. Your customer voice is how your customers see you. So for instance, if you were at a Your, the way that you introduce yourself, the way they say, hi, I'm Susie Marie from whatever, that would be your brand voice, how people perceive you, that is your customer voice. So your customer voice is a collective of the way every one of your people in your community sees you. And it's so important to gather that data before creating your brand voice, do the market research because that is going to determine how your brand voice is structured, right? Because you don't want to be creating a voice that's just something that you would like. Because you're not buying from you. You're, you're doing the work. You're creating the art. You are the creator, but you are not the buyer. So the voice needs to speak to the buyer. So this is where market research becomes so, so important. And when we do market research at Meraki Messaging, we look at All the things overused words in the industry and the used words, what type of brand we are trying to create. Is it something a little bit more fun? Is it more trendy? Is it luxurious? The glossary of phraseology and the terminology that we choose to use is very, very much based on this research. So this is a part of the brand strategy. Right. We are creating a strategy that is going to set you up for success. And it is only once we have moved through all of these foundations, and there are a couple more, but just to keep this short and sweet, I'm going to dive into those three to start with. But then once we've done that, we can start looking at the voice. And this is when it starts to get a lot of fun. So, Brand voice cut is composed of three different things. You have your tone, you have your tempo, and then you have your terminology. So let's break it down. We're going to start with tone. Tone is the way that your brand sounds, right? It's your personality. It's that underlying characteristic that comes through in the way that you speak. And to give you an example, I'm sure we've all had that one friend with that really dark sense of humor that just works for her,? If any of us try to replicate that, it just looks dark. It looks gross. It looks gringy, but when she does it, it's just funny. Or you have another friend that just has an underlying sense of sarcasm whenever she speaks and it just suits her like you've been Gotten to know her for that sarcasm. If we tried, it just seems forced. It seems fake, but for her, it just flows. It's natural. So it's the way that you say things and keep in mind, tone is not always going to be the same. Right? So when you are using a tone to create a sense of, empathy, maybe there's something sensitive that you are talking about, that tone is going to sound very different as opposed to when you're speaking about your summer sale. Um, Right, so tone varies according to the medium and the marketing platform that you're speaking on. And then we have the tempo. So tempo can be understood as a rhythm, so like a drum beat it's the cadence It's how your words fall together to create a certain vibe or a certain experience for the reader. And to give you an example, so I had a yoga teacher who came on board as a client a couple years ago. And we really wanted to create that feeling of breathing. So deep in a breath. Deep out of breath and then to have that movement in between so we would alternate between longer sentences, shorter sentences, longer, shorter, and that created a natural state of rhythm. Right, so tempo is very much based on how you use your sentences, how many words you kind of condense into that to make it longer or shorter. It's also determined by repetition, so how many times you could repeat a couple of words or repeat phrases. Um, you can use alliteration to affect the tempo. And a strong cadence can really make your content more engaging, more memorable, and more persuasive. So it's very, very important. And lastly, we move on to the third pillar of creating a strong brand voice. And this is terminology, right? And whenever we are creating a messaging strategy and a brand voice for our clients, we We always include a glossary of phraseology. And this is where we can have so much fun because you've gathered all the market research, you know, what your customers want to hear from you. So how about creating your own dictionary, your own unique words, your unique phrases that you will use repetitively throughout your copy. So that when someone hears your copy or reads your copy, they immediately know that it's you. And this is the secret to building a memorable brand voice, someone should be able to read something and immediately know, Oh, that is so and so brand, right? It's your fingerprint. It's your signature. It's everything that we spoke about earlier. So creating your glossary of phraseology is really going to be the cherry on top of this entire process. Um, The fun thing about brand voice, which I'm just going to dive into briefly, is that it can be measured. So, for instance, the Hemingway app, it is absolutely fantastic. I love this tool. But it's so important that you plug your copy into the app. Make sure that it is all aligned with your brand voice, your values before you post it. And most readers read at about a grade three to grade six level. So if your voice is a little bit more basic, you may be like a best friend at the bar, you're breaking things down for people. If you are an interpreter and you are trying to interpret different information and make it simple and easy to understand, then this is so important for you because You need to make sure that your writing is easy to comprehend for people that don't understand, but if you have maybe a brand that's a little bit more of a, like a godly brand, Or one that I call the embodied goddess or the investigator These brands would lean on a longer cadence and they would lean on more advanced vocabulary So it's really about understanding where your brand fits into the scale And in the next episode i'm going to be diving deeper into the different types of brand voice. So There are nine types of voice and understanding which one you fall into is really going to help you create magnetic copy that speaks to your mission and speaks to your ideal client. So remember to tune in for next week's episode and please drop me an email if you've got any questions about this. If there's anything you would like me to clarify next week. And if you would like to work with our studio to create a brand voice, that is just so memorable, so magnetic, and really just helps you sell, please do get in touch We have so many options available. We have a done for you process, and we have a do it yourself process, which gives you the template and takes you through it step by step. So really options for every price point. And the reason why is because not knowing what to say or how to say it should not be the one thing stopping you from making sales. So until next week, have a beautiful week. Whispers in my head What you gonna do?