How Messaging Impacts Brand Perception
Your brand isn’t just about the visuals. The words you use matter.
A picture is worth a 1000 words - but how do you know the right picture to use if you don’t know the words you want to convey?
The Importance of Your Messaging
In a previous post I described the 5 key elements that create a visually cohesive brand:
Logo
Typography
Color Palette
Secondary Visual Elements
Messaging
Messaging is one that can be easily overlooked, but remember that people SEE your words just like they do an image.
Your words create an emotional response in your viewers - they can be a turn-on or turn-off. They can empower, enrage, encourage or excite.
Whether it’s the captions on social media posts, the headlines of blog articles, tweets, email responses, bios, text messages - your messaging is EVERYWHERE.
People can judge just from your words whether they think you’re friendly, helpful, confrontational, serious or aggressive. And from there, they can decide if they want to follow/learn/buy from you or move on to someone they like better.
When you have a team working for you, defining your messaging is extra important to maintain consistency and authenticity. If you decide to hire a virtual assistant or social media manager to respond to comments or write posts for you, then you want to make sure they actually communicate the way YOU would. Otherwise it will seem off or inauthentic to followers who’ve known you for awhile.
Let’s break down the 4 key parts of your messaging and how to make sure it aligns with your brand.
Tone of Voice
Brand Words
Brand Vision
Brand Stories
Today, I’ll go over Tone of Voice and Brand Words.
What is Tone of Voice?
Tone is the attitude you use when you speak.
The way you phrase words, use punctuation, and apply capitalization give meaning or a certain feeling beyond the actual words written.
Like co-workers who type whole paragraphs in all-caps so you always feel LIKE THEY’RE ALWAYS SHOUTING AT YOU BECAUSE OMG IT’S AN EMERGENCY BUT IT’S REALLY NOT!!!!
It’s stressful reading a bunch of text in all-caps. That could actually be your intention - but if it’s not, then you should rethink which words you really want to emphasize and why.
Here’s a great example from Grammarly demonstrating different tones that could be used in response to being invited to a party:
What’s YOUR tone of voice?
To find your desired tone, it’s helpful to define 2-3 words that describe the way you communicate to others. Of course you can have different ones based on the situation you’re responding to, but what’s the overall tone you want to maintain?
Choose words from the list below or use the list to brainstorm others:
Aggressive
Bold or Direct
Casual
Cheerful or Joyful
Down-to-earth
Dramatic
Encouraging or Empowering
Excited
Epic
Flirty
Fun
Friendly
Informal
Informative
Inspirational
Positive
Polished
Sarcastic
Sassy
Soothing
Sympathetic
Teasing
Thoughtful
Vulnerable
What are Brand Words?
Brand words describe how people feel about your brand.
Try this exercise:
List 5 words to describe how Disney makes you feel. I’ll give you a minute.
Here are mine:
Magical
Family-friendly
Nostalgic
Happy
Creative
Were any of your words similar to mine? If I had to guess, magical was probably on your list, too. That’s because Disney has been consistent in sharing content that reinforces the "Disney magic,” the sense of wonder people feel when visiting their parks, watching their movies, or meeting favorite characters.
Now it’s your turn:
Ask at least 10 people to list 5 words that describe how your brand makes them feel.
Do they have similar responses or wildly different ones? And are you surprised by what they say?
If the words are similar, then that’s a good sign you’re consistent in what you share with others. Consistency breeds trust.
If the words are wildly different, then perhaps what you share is too scattered and people don’t have a clear idea of what you do and what you value.
How to pick meaningful brand words that also work for your niche
Brand words serve as a compass for the overall direction of a brand. Here are some tips to help you narrow down to 3-5 words which will help create that connection between you, your business, and customer.
For inspiration, study the language used by market leaders in your industry. These businesses typically have invested both time and money to perfect their messaging and have gained a large audience as a result. What combination of words and phrases tend to generate the most engagement?
Compare reviews and testimonials you’ve received. Look for any common words or feelings you evoked from multiple people. These usually highlight your strengths.
Stay away from words that are over-used or taken for granted. A designer is expected to be creative - so using that word all over my website doesn’t really help me stand out. It’s not that you shouldn’t embody these words - it’s just that they’re so commonly used on resumes, bios and headlines that it starts to blend with everyone else. Words like:
Professional, go-getter, hard-working
Organized, efficient, punctual
Pick words that resonate with you. At the end of the day, your gut tells you which words feel right.
My brand words are…
Educational
Empowering
Dependable
Resourceful
Strategic
100 Brand Words To Help You Brainstorm
Obviously this is not an exhaustive list but it’s a good starting point if you have a hard time coming up with words from scratch.
I want my audience to feel that my brand is:
Accessible
Active
Adventurous
Ambitious
Athletic
Authoritative
Awe-inspiring
Bold
Brave
Calming
Caring
Clever
Comforting
Community-driven
Competitive
Convenient
Colorful
Confrontational
Cutting-edge
Daring
Devoted
Detailed
Determined
Diverse
Driven
Dynamic
Educational
Elegant
Eloquent
Emotionally-driven
Enduring
Energetic
Environmentally-conscious
Entertaining
Empowering
Epic
Eye-opening
Fair-minded
Family-oriented
Fantastical
Fearless
Flexible
Genuine
Groundbreaking
Happy
Healthy
Heartfelt
Honest
Hopeful
Humble
Inclusive
Innovative
Inspiring
Intimate
Intuitive
Liberating
Light-hearted
Luxurious
Magical
Modern
Motivational
Nostalgic
Nurturing
Open-minded
Outrageous
Outspoken
Patriotic
Peaceful
Powerful
Proud
Quirky
Refreshing
Relaxing
Resourceful
Resilient
Romantic
Safe
Serious
Sexy
Soulful
Smart
Straightforward
Strong
Stylish
Supportive
Strategic
Sympathetic
Thrifty
Thoughtful
Thought-provoking
Traditional
Trustworthy
Unbreakable
Unconventional
Unifying
Vibrant
Well-informed
Well-spoken
Witty
Zany
I’ve picked my words…now what?
Start weaving those words throughout your platforms. You don’t have to include all the words at the same time but use them when writing captions, headlines, ads, sales page copy, emails, etc.
Let me know your tone of voice and brand words in the comments below!
