As digital marketers and branding professionals, we frequently get introduced to successful organizations that have little to no digital presence. When these businesses decide to make the necessary push towards being more active on digital platforms, it’s an opportunity to make it a branding exercise to establish a digital voice to best attract their target audience. When developing a strategy, it’s important that this voice reflects the customers or audience that you are trying to appeal to.

When we say voice, we are referring to what type of content are you placing on your digital billboard. Possibly, your audience expects a ‘curator’ style. Where, for instance, up to date articles are posted on relevant topics. Or, perhaps, your audience seeks the data that your company collects. Consider the voice of an e-commerce business compared to that of a political organization. Both are looking to attract and inform their target audiences. Their voices, however, need to be entirely different. The e-commerce business should take the approach of more of an ‘advertiser’. They would promote their products in an exciting and fun way. The political organization, on the other hand, needs to be more of a ‘mobilizer’, encouraging their audience to take action.

Discovering your voice

As with all marketing tactics, an organization must be prepared to test different voices. This helps positively separate themselves from competitors. Before diving off the deep end, testing all potential voices, it’s best to have an open conversation with staff to hone in your audience’s expectations. Several questions to start this process include:

– Do we have the time or resources to create original analysis of topics?
– Does our organization have access to data that our followers would find interesting?
– Do we have a unique perspective that potential followers would find compelling?
– Would our audience appreciate the use of humor, satire or storytelling in our voice?

Discovering answers for these thought experiments can help your business set expectations for the digital team. Keep in mind that this is often the start of a new chapter in your strategy as a company. So it’s not something to take lightly. Introducing a digital presence to your business often requires the help of a professional to determine your best plan of attack.

Your business is not alone in developing a voice

Brainstorming different voices boils down to your individual strengths as a business and the type of audience you’re communicating to. These variations often require an experienced approach and that’s where a digital branding agency like Savy comes in. With the depth of knowledge learned from working with a wide array of clients, digital marketing professionals have a unique perspective to look at your organization and determine the voice that is best for your target audience.