It's not just what you say, but how you say it

Your voice is how you present your personality and represent your brand. The words you speak, the posts you post, the content of your websites, how you answer the phone and write letters...

People don’t always remember the words and images you use, but they will remember the impression and the feelings they created. So how you say things is just as important as what you are saying. The right words delivered in the right way can influence your customers and persuade them to choose you.

Everyday your business personality and voice is being delivered through your website, leaflets, adverts, social media, emails, phone calls, letters, meetings, etc. So have you looked at all these things recently? What are they saying about your business.

Your business needs the right personality and voice.

To get new customers, you need to appeal to them. To appeal to them, you need to create the right impression. To create the right impression, you need to speak the right language and portray your business in the way that will appeal directly to that target audience.

Your business’ personality and voice needs to reflect who you are and directly appeal to your target audience. It needs to be:

·         Honest - a true representation of you and your business

·         Clear - create a strong impression

·         Distinctive - set you apart from your competitors

·         Consistent - so it becomes recognisable and memorable, building familiarity and trust

Setting the tone.

Giving your business the right voice and personality is not easy, as you very often don’t have an actual person delivering the words. Written (typed!) words do not come with body language, facial expressions or different tones of voice.

So it is vital to clearly define your tone and then help deliver it by:

·         Using the right imagery to influence the tone and impression of words

·         Making potential customers feel like they are dealing with actual people

·         Appealing and speaking direct to your target market

·         Evoking positive emotional reactions – don’t just provide endless information

·         Exciting and enticing, not preaching and boring

·         Being consistent across all forms of communication and interactions

Try this.

1.       What adjectives describe your brand?

2.       What adjectives describe what you stand for?

3.       What adjectives describe your target audience?

4.       What adjectives describe what your products/services do?

(There is a list of adjectives at the end of this blog for you to pick from)

Your answers will outline your business personality (formal, informal, fun, focused, professional, experts, authoritative, approachable, innovative, etc.), and therefore the voice you need to deliver this.

Understanding your personality is understanding your target market’s perception of you. Create the right personality to create the right impression.

Here are some adjectives which may help you...

Able

Adventurous

Affectionate

Agile

Aggreable

Amazing

Ambitious

Amusing

Artificial

Awesome

Balanced

Beautiful

Big

bold

Brave

Bright

Brilliant

Careful

Casual

Cautious

Charming

Childlike

Chic

Clever

Confident

Conservative

Contemporary

Cool

Co-operative

Courageous

Curious

Decisive

Delicate

Devoted

Direct

Discerning

Discreet

Dramatic

Dynamic

Eager

Earnest

Easy-going

Edgy

Efficient

Elegant

Emotional

Energetic

Enterprising

Enthusiastic

Established

Excellent

Excitable

Experienced

Fabulous

Fashionable

Fast-moving

Fiery

Flashy

Formal

Frank

Friendly

Funny

Fussy

Generous

Gentle

Good

Glamorous

Grave

Great

Hearty

Helpful

Hot-headed

Humorous

Imaginative

Impatient

Impressive

Impulsive

Independent

Industrious

Informal

Inspiring

Intelligent

Interesting

Inventive

Jovial

Joyous

Keen

Kind

Leader

Level-headed

Lively

Local

Logical

Lovable

Lovely

Luxurious

Mature

Methodical

Meticulous

Modest

Motivated

Musical

Mysterious

Natural

Neat

New

Noisy

Normal

Obliging

Old-fashioned

Orderly

Outgoing

Outspoken

Passionate

Passive

Patient

Peaceful

Pensive

Persevering

Picky

Plain

Plain-speaking

Playful

Pleasant

Plucky

Polite

Popular

Positive

Powerful

Practical

Predictable

Pretty

Proficient

Professional

Progressive

Proud

Provocative

Prudent

Punctual

Quick

Quiet

Quirky

Realistic

Reassuring

Rebellious

Reliable

Reluctant

Reserved

Resourceful

Respected

Respectful

Responsible

Ridiculous

Rugged

Rural

Sassy

Saucy

Sedate

Self-assured

Sensible

Sensitive

Sentimental

Serene

Serious

Sexy

Sharp

Shrewd

Shy

Silly

Sincere

Small

Smart

Snazzy

Sophisticated

Soulful

Spirited

Stable

Steady

Stern

Stoic

Striking

Strong

Stylish

Sturdy

Subtle

Surprising

Sweet

Tactful

Talented

Thinking

Thoughtful

Timid

Tolerant

Tough

Traditional

Tranquil

Urban

Versatile

Vigilant

Warm

Warmhearted

Wary

Watchful

Well-behaved

Well-developed

Well-intentioned

Well-respected

Well-rounded

Whimsical

Willing

Wonderful

Worldly

Youthful

Zealous