Your brand voice is your brand’s personality. It’s defined by things like your tone, your word choice, your style, and more.

But how do you define your brand voice? And what’s the best way to incorporate it into your website?

We’ll get to that in a minute.

But first.

What is brand voice?

If you’ve ever heard something said about a friend and thought, ‘but that doesn’t sound like X,’ then you my friend already understand what a brand voice is.

Your brand voice is your brand’s personality. It’s made up of things like your tone, word choice, and style.

But your brand voice is so much more than this. It’s also defined by the things your brand is not — words, phrases and stylistic choices you would avoid.

And how exactly do you find this voice?

Gif - The office Kelly and Stanley seated in a meeting

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Great question.

While your brand voice is only part of your overall brand, it’s significant. It’s also often overlooked or left for later.

But not anymore. Starting today, you’re going to take this seriously. With the help of the Tutorial Tuesday video below, you’re going to ask and answer critical questions like:

  • What tone best represents my brand? (Playful, cheeky, helpful, smart, sincere, informative, formal, etc)
  • Are there any specific phrases or words that are a big part of my brand?
  • What sentence length and structure sounds most like my brand? (Short punchy sentences with smaller words vs more complex sentences with longer words)
  • How important is punctuation? (Yay or nay)
  • What’s my style? (Bold text, italics, underlined text, etc)
  • Do I rock with emojis? (Hell yeah, sometimes, definitely no)

And once and for all, you’re going to define your brand voice.

Bringing your brand voice to life on your website

Now that you have the tools, it’s time to learn 4 ways to bring your brand voice to life on your website. With examples of course.

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Your website is your big opportunity to make a good first impression.

So you need your website copy to sing with your personality.

…when you exclusively exist online, branding is critical to the growth of your business……when you exclusively exist online, branding is critical to the growth of your business…

Because not only is that the ONLY way that potential customers will find youbut it’s also the only way that you can really stand out from all those others out there that do-that-same-thing-you-do.

So it’s not just critical to the success of your business—it’s also critical to your wallet.”

Sarah Ancalmo, Founder & Brand Strategist/ Creative Director, Public Persona

1 – Sprinkle it into your home page copy

Typeform‘s home page copy does a good job of embodying their brand voice. The brand has always been committed to ‘being human’ with a focus on ‘people first.’

Typeform brand voice - screenshot of homepage above the fold

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This shines through in the simple solution-oriented nature of their copy. They are committed to being helpful. And it shows in the conversational nature of their headlines and supporting sentences.

Typeform brand voice - screenshot of homepage below the fold

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2 – Make that about page a little bit about you

We’ve heard the saying a thousand times — your about page is not about you. It’s about what you can do for them.

But by using your brand voice to add more of your personality to the copy, you can achieve both goals at once.

You can make it about you while also making it about them.

Entrepreneur and coach Nicole Walters starts her About page by talking about her family. They are a big part of her brand, and she always mentions them affectionately as ‘the Tinies’ and ‘the Hubbin.’

Nicole Walters brand voice - screenshot of About page above the fold

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Authenticity and transparency are a big part of her brand and she embodies this by sharing her background.

This is an effective way for her to connect with her audience.

Nicole Walters brand voice - screenshot of About page with photo of Nicole as a baby with her mom

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Another word that is a big part of Nicole’s brand is the name she gives to her tribe — “Richfriends.” And she explains this on her About page as well.

Nicole Walters brand voice - screenshot of About page section with photo of Nicole and friend

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3 – Add some personality to your product descriptions

Product descriptions are another great place to really incorporate your brand voice.

Wendy’s does this exceptionally well with this copy written for their fish sandwich.

The heading is a play on a popular childhood game we all know and love while the description includes nods to millennial sensibility with slangs like ‘fam’ and well played.’

And the Call to Action (CTA) is just *chef’s kiss*!

Wendy's brand voice - screenshot of home page fish sandwich product photo with copy

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Old Spice also does a good job with product description copy on their website, in accordance with the brand voice defined for them by branding powerhouse Landor.

The cheeky verbal identity developed in the Manbook was extended to packaging, advertisements, and in-store displays, bringing Old Spice’s celebration of men to every touchpoint.

Landor
Old Spice brand voice - screenshot of product page Beard Wash product photo with description

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4 – Put a little more of ‘you’ into your informational pages

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and other informational pages are another great opportunity for you to bring your brand voice to life on your website.

Again, Typeform does this well.

They keep the copy conversational, easy to digest, and helpful — all elements of ‘being human.’

Typeform brand voice - screenshot of FAQs page

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Your turn to bring your brand voice to life on your website

As you’ve seen from these examples, adding your brand voice to your website copy is very doable. And when you’re ready, there are several ways to tackle it.