At A8ency and Modern8, we perceive brand voice as the amplifier of your brand’s identity. In the dynamic landscape of content creation, your brand’s voice is an indispensable element that distinguishes you from the competition. Despite its significance, the brand voice often remains overshadowed in the strategic considerations of branding and marketing.

So why should brands spend the time, money, and resources to create one?

The Overlooked Essence of Brand Voice

While visual aesthetics play a vital role in branding, the brand voice is the subtle force that gives life to your identity. Developing and consistently employing a well-defined brand voice ensures that your messaging resonates deeply with your audience, establishing trust and fostering a lasting bond.

Elevating Perspective and Connection

A brand voice serves as a lens through which your brand’s personality is projected. It adds layers of depth to your marketing content, allowing it to shine and leave a lasting imprint. Every interaction with your audience should create resonance, memorability, and emotion which ultimately will drive the performance of the brand.

The Unseen Goal: Relatability and Memorability

Beyond captivating visuals, your brand’s voice is a conduit for cultivating relatability and memorability. By infusing your voice with distinct qualities, you create a relatable narrative that goes beyond the visual appeal. The ultimate objective is to make your brand a part of your audience’s story.

Brand Advocacy Through Voice Connection

When your audience connects authentically with your brand’s voice, they become ambassadors.  They proudly sport your logo, echo your taglines, and organically market your offerings and grow your audience. 

Internal Cohesion and Streamlined Communication

Beyond its external impact, a meticulously defined brand voice serves as a valuable internal compass. It streamlines content creation and guarantees consistency in every communication—be it within your organization or directed towards external stakeholders. It fosters a sense of unity that transcends boundaries.

A Symbiotic Fusion of Voice and Product

In the words of Lisa Gansky, “A brand is a voice and a product is a souvenir.” Your brand’s voice infuses meaning into your product offerings, transforming them into cherished souvenirs of your identity. When the voice resonates, your product becomes an embodiment of your brand’s essence.

In a world inundated with information, a well-crafted brand voice serves as your beacon— drawing your audience toward your unique identity. By strategically weaving your voice through every piece of content and communication, you create an indelible mark that lingers in the minds and hearts of those you seek to engage. Use the power of brand voice as a transformative tool that elevates your visuals, fosters connection, and resonates with the essence of who you are and your audience.

Crafting a strong brand encompasses a memorable look and feel powered by thoughtful design and aesthetics, but what does this look like in reality? Here’s a closer look at the  “how” behind creating a brand that drives credibility and professionalism while building an emotional connection that resonates with your audience.

Understanding the Essence

The first and most important step in creating a compelling brand design starts with understanding your brand’s essence. Define who you are, what you stand for, and the emotions you wish to evoke in your audience. This foundation will serve as the emotional strategy, the heart, of your design decisions, ensuring that every visual element aligns harmoniously with your brand’s core identity.

Know Your Audience

A pivotal aspect of successful branding lies in creating a genuine connection with your audience. Dive deep into understanding your audience’s preferences, aesthetic inclinations, habits, and aspirations. This knowledge empowers you to curate a design that resonates with them, capturing their attention and cultivating a strong engagement.

Creating the Visual Language

When it comes to brand design, the elements you choose should support your foundation and help convey emotion to your audience.  Colors, typography, and imagery need to appeal to your audience, and their preferences, and most importantly resonate and be memorable to them. 

Consistency

Beyond the logo, consistency in your brand elements helps make identifying you easy. It’s not just about a recognizable logo; it’s about a seamless visual experience across all touchpoints. Ensure that your color palette, typography, and design elements are consistent, reinforcing your brand’s identity and making it instantly recognizable.

Iteration and Refinement

Brand design is a dynamic and ever-evolving process. Regular evaluation is crucial to determine how your design supports your brand’s current and future goals. By iterating and refining your design choices, you ensure that your brand stays relevant, resonating with your audience as it grows and adapts.

Visual Storytelling

In brand design, imagery is an important storytelling tool. It has the capability to tap into the emotions of your audience, creating an unperceived connection. Use visuals that align with your brand’s narrative, enabling your audience to resonate with who you are and the story you are telling. Use it.

Gathering and Implementing Feedback

Though sometimes uncomfortable, seeking feedback from your audience is an enlightening step. These insights provide valuable guidance on whether your design aligns with your audience’s expectations and whether adjustments are needed. Feedback should serve as a litmus test, ensuring your brand design supports your aspirations and future goals. 

Crafting a brand design that truly captivates requires a blend of strategic and emotional thinking and creativity.  By understanding your brand’s essence, connecting with your audience, and creating and using consistent design elements, you can create a visual identity that shapes and transforms your brand for tomorrow ensuring future thriveability.

How Brand Design Builds Credibility and Emotional Connections with Your Audience

In today’s competitive business, good design and a good brand is just good business. “While design was once largely thought of as a way of making products more attractive, it is now a way of thinking: a creative process driven by the desire to better understand and meet consumer needs,” says McKinsey and Company in a late 2018 study. At the heart of a strong brand lies a carefully crafted look and feel, powered by thoughtful design and aesthetics. Brand design plays a vital role in influencing the credibility and professionalism of a company through the emotional connections it creates with its audience.

A strong brand is more than just a name and a logo. 

A strong brand is an experience. The look and feel of a brand beyond its identity are what make it stand out in the sea of competitors. When your audience can easily find you, remember you, and feel a connection with your brand, they are more likely to become loyal customers. Design is the tool that enables you to create a visual identity that resonates with your target audience, leaving a lasting mark in their minds.

Consumers buy on emotion and justify with logic. 

Human decision-making is driven by emotions, and brand design has a profound impact on how people feel about a brand. When customers feel an emotional connection with your brand, they are more likely to choose your products or services. Emotions are largely controlled by design and aesthetics, making it essential to invest in creating a visual language that speaks to your audience’s feelings and desires.

Brand design conveys professionalism and credibility. 

You only have a few seconds to make an emotional connection and impression, and your marketing content is often the initial point of contact with potential customers. A well-designed brand and marketing materials convey professionalism, competence, and attention to detail. When you invest in design, your audience is more likely to associate el of quality with what you offer, building trust and credibility in your brand.

In the digital age, attention spans are shorter than ever. 

You have only a few seconds to grab your audience’s attention before they move on. Design is often the first thing people see, even if they don’t consciously realize it. It’s the visual hook that pulls them in and compels them to explore further. With well-crafted and intentional design, you will connect and maintain your audience long enough to share your message about why they should choose your product or service and not your competitors.

Effective communication is the foundation of any successful brand. 

Good design can enhance the experience of your audience and make your messages more accessible and engaging. Clear and well-structured design elements help convey complex information more effectively, creating a seamless and enjoyable user experience.

Design as a Visual Language. 

Renowned designer Saul Bass once said, “Design is thinking made visual.”

Visual elements are the entry point to how we respond to the world around us. Whether it’s a logo, a website, or a social media post, design is the language that communicates your brand’s story and values to your audience.

Investing in design is not just about aesthetics; it’s about building credibility, making emotional connections, and leaving a lasting impression on your audience. A well-designed brand and marketing content create a compelling experience that captivates your audience, fosters trust, and sets you apart in a competitive market. Let your design be the visual storyteller that speaks on behalf of your brand and sparks a meaningful relationship with your customers.

In recent years the topic of CRO, or conversion rate optimization, has grown in popularity and become a pillar for many businesses serious about their online marketing effectiveness and strategy. While the importance of composing proper website messaging with an authentic brand voice has been embraced since the beginning of the digital age, focus on optimizing a website through CRO is a newer addition to the mix. 

Both CRO and messaging have their own unique value on a website. In this case, both elements complement each other, while proving a long accepted dynamic within successful marketing – that being the delicate symbiotic balance between the art and the science.

Think of messaging, or the copy on your website as the art. The words utilized must flow and have a creative spark to them that compliments any imagery displayed, while also telling a compelling story that should always be clear and concise. If crafted properly, the message should resonate with website visitors and prepare them for the next steps of the customer journey. 

It’s been said that website messaging should educate customers or clients of two imperative ‘why’s’. The first being “why you”, meaning why should they choose your product or service over that of the competitions. The second why, “why now” should persuasively outline why taking action immediately would be to their favor. 

By taking a careful, artistic approach to your website’s messaging, the end result can be a masterpiece in its own right. 

Shifting focus back to CRO, or the yin to the yang of messaging, we shall give the spotlight to the science in this equation. Conversion rate optimization, if established and maintained correctly, will use well crafted messaging as a springboard for increasing desired actions on the website. It will enable visitors to morph into interested followers, purchasers, and repeat buyers. 

By maximizing conversions while minimizing potential drop-off points along the customer journey, CRO can essentially transform the digital assets we call websites into powerful tools that create demand and can generate consistent revenue. 

Depending on what you read, the average conversion rate on a website is anywhere between 1% and 4% – which leaves plenty of room for improvement. But to capture any meaningful progress, there must be a clear understanding of how visitors interact with the website they visit. By providing visitors with more features that they enjoy utilizing, and offering the types of content that best capture their attention, a better experience can be shaped, and greater brand trust and loyalty can follow. 

By regularly reviewing data points like bounce rates, exit pages, cost per conversion, and other key metrics, CRO effectiveness can also be increased. Additionally, researching the competition may provide insights as to how other brands are capturing the interests, engagement, and purchases of potential customers and clients. 

Regardless of the balance between the art of messaging on your website and the science of proper CRO, one notion should always be embraced: a website should constantly be evolving. 

It’s likely time to inspect your website with a fresh set of eyes. Dream big, but focus on fundamentals, and always, always, keep updating for increased effectiveness with right brained artistry balanced with left brained computation.