Let’s start with a basic assertion; there are more than 1.2 billion websites currently active across the World Wide Web, and this number continues to grow with every passing second.
While this proves just how popular the Internet has become among consumers and brands, however, it also highlights the challenges facing businesses that operate in a competitive market. After all, how can these entities differentiate themselves online while clarifying their proposition and the services that they deliver?
In this post, we’ll look at how you can inject your brand’s personality into the company website and the content that it publishes on a regular basis.
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Define your brand
Before you begin to infuse your online content with a unique personality, you need to personalise your brand and define its characteristics. Otherwise, how can you possibly ensure that your content relates to your brand and reflects the right kind of attributes?
To achieve this, consider attributing some relevant adjectives to your brand. These should be emotive words that relate to its identity and underlying business philosophy, and the goal here is to create a clearly defined persona. You should also solicit the opinions of your employees and consumers here, as these individuals are best placed to provide an accurate insight into your brand.
Armed with this data, you can then create a tone of voice that should be applied to all pieces of content and communications. This guideline should dictate precisely how you interact with your customers and spark conversations, whether you choose to use simplified and informative language or adopt a more playful tone.
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Strike the right balance between text and imagery
With a defined persona and unique tone of voice, you can do a great deal to convey a desired persona to your customers. You can do even more when you combine this with the use of imagery, however, as this creates a more engaging customer journey which can reinforce the use of humour, friendliness or a conversational style.
Let’s say that your brand persona is playful and conversational, for example, and looks to leverage opportunistic humour to engage customers online. In this instance, the use of concise and impactful copy alongside memes and humorous GIFs can have a significant impact in the minds of consumers, while funny images and short videos can have a similar effect.
The key here is to use rich media in a relevant way that reinforces your brand’s persona, while also striking the perfect balance between copy and imagery.
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Use an active tense and keep the tone light
When trying to communicate both a commercial message and a brand identity, it’s important to adhere to a couple of important rules.
The first of these is to write website and branded content in an active tense where possible, as this creates a sense of urgency and energy that captures the customer’s imagination. Regardless of the nature of your business or its defined personality, it’s always good deliver your messages with enthusiasm and a genuine sense of purpose.
Also, all but the most serious of professional service providers should strive to keep the tone light when creating content. Remember, the underlying goal should always be to engage and capture the attention of your audience, so it can be counter-productive to adopt a harsh edge to your tone or use aggressive humour.
It’s also imperative that you keep your tone consistent, however, across both written copy and associated images. While it’s possible to refine and evolve your persona across alternative communication channels, try not to create conflicting personas that confuse the brand identity.