How to Revamp Your Brand Voice

No matter how much you’ve perfected your business’s brand voice, there will come a time when you need to reevaluate and revamp.

Things will inevitably change in your industry, your business, or the wider world, and it’s essential that you keep up. If you don’t, you risk losing touch with your audience.

The digital world is full of noise and clutter. You can’t shout louder than everyone else, but you can stand out by speaking in a tone that resonates with your audience. This is why it’s so important to keep your brand voice clear and relevant.  

How do you go about revamping your brand voice? Make changes appropriately and safely, without altering your core message or alienating your audience. Start by evaluating the effectiveness of your current brand communications and determining what needs to be updated.

How Do You Know It’s Time for a Brand Revamp?

There are a number of reasons why a business chooses to revamp its brand voice. Here are just a few that could impact yours:

Shifts in your market. To start with, you might notice a major shift in your market or industry. For example, people may have become more environmentally conscious or more concerned about where their products are sourced. This may require changes in the way you communicate with them.

Audience evolution. Aside from industry shifts, your own audience might be evolving, expressing new concerns or issues that they hadn’t talked about in the past.

Demographic shift. Or you may be experiencing a complete demographic shift among your customers, which will necessitate a complete overhaul of your brand voice.

World events. And then there are the upheavals in the world, such as an economic downturn or pandemic. These may also force you to adapt your brand voice. For example, if wages stall and prices rise with inflation, your audience may become more budget-conscious and spend less. In that case, the way you talk about pricing and costs may have to adjust as well.

How can you tell if you need to adjust?

The easiest way to identify a shift in your audience composition or behavior is to examine your metrics. Look for things like a drop in sales, changes in email opens and clicks, or changes in website traffic patterns, and behavior. For example, if you see a popular blog topic not performing like it used to, this could be a sign it’s time to review your brand voice.

How to Revamp Your Brand

The first step to revamping your brand is to assess your current branding and target market. Adjusting your brand is a major project, so you don’t want to take it on unless you have to!

Review your Ideal Customer Profile.

Start by reviewing your ideal customer profile (ICP). Is it up to date? Have there been any changes recently? If so, update your ICP, as this will give you the information you need to choose the right tone to communicate with your audience.

Research your target market.

See what your target audience is talking about online and what questions they’re asking. Keep track of conversations on social media and engage in those discussions where appropriate to get clarification.

Keep your ear to the ground.

Take a look at other content creators your ideal customers follow and make note of the tone these businesses use. At the same time, listen in on the conversations they’re having on social media with your same audience.

Assess your current brand voice.

Is the language you’re currently using still appropriate for your audience? After looking at your ICP and the content your customers consume, you can get a sense of whether it’s still suitable. Your language might be too formal or too serious. Or you might feel your tone is now too light and casual, and not authoritative enough.

Remember to adjust for scenarios.

When assessing your brand voice, keep in mind that it may change depending on the message you’re conveying. If you’re telling a serious personal story or giving advice on something important, you will speak in a more formal tone than you would if you were marketing a new product launch.

Stick to Your Core Values

Also keep in mind that your core values won’t change. What will change is the way you express these core values through your voice. Core values are important because they are often the reason why we buy from one company over another. We identify with the things they stand for and we feel good buying from them.

Think about the language you will use to take a stand on issues that are important to your customers. You’re looking to communicate these same core values in a way that resonates more with your ideal customer and how they have changed.

Be Authentic

Authenticity is crucial when bringing your brand voice to life. Does your current tone and language reflect who you really are? Brands sometimes get off track, especially if they have multiple employees on the front lines of communication.

A good way to check for authenticity is to revisit your unique value proposition and your natural strengths. Does your brand voice complement your values or contradict them? Note examples of where your current brand voice is out of alignment with your values so you know what needs to change.

Audit Your Content

Once you have established your updated brand voice and tone, audit your existing digital content and make sure everything is consistent with these changes. If you find content that no longer works, keep a running list of that content and why it needs to change. Then develop a schedule to make edits and republish.  

Part of your plan should be to clearly communicate the changes to your team and re-train them on brand voice guidelines if needed.

Even if you perfected your brand voice when you launched, the only constant in life (and business) is change. Your brand voice must reflect these shifts, or your messaging won’t get through.

Don’t Make These Branding Mistakes!

Finally, if you’re going to take the trouble to revamp your brand voice, it’s good to keep in mind the common mistakes businesses make with their branding so you can do your best to avoid them.

Failing to set yourself apart. Some companies spend all their time thinking about their brand and core values but fail to look around at the market and set themselves apart. As part of your rebranding, look at competitor brands and find a way to differentiate yourself.

Getting too trendy. It can be tempting to align your brand revamp with current trends. After all, a rebrand is an update. But try to come up with something evergreen so that it will still be relevant into the future. If your brand is too trend-driven, it’ll need another rebrand soon. And then you risk confusing your customers.

Basing your brand on personal preferences. If you get one takeaway from this blog post, it should be that your audience’s tastes and preferences should guide you in making decisions about your brand. Don’t go with what YOU think will work. Make sure it’ll resonate with your audience.

Not delivering on your promise. Your brand message is a promise you make to your audience. “Our products and services will make THIS change in your life.” Make sure your offerings live up to this promise.

Skipping the style guideline. No matter the size of your organization, you need a brand style guideline. This will keep your employees or any freelancers you hire on track, and it will help you clarify the vision for your rebranding.

A quickie rebranding. Take all the time necessary to give your company the right brand. Rebranding is not a small project! Don’t rush the process and end up with something that won’t work to achieve your aims.

Are you ready to assess your brand voice and regain relevance?

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