Michelle Polizzi

More than a tagline or a logo, your brand story is made up of intangible things that can’t be seen or heard. Just like a human personality, your brand’s story exists in the tiny details – the feelings, emotions, and ideas that fill people’s minds when interacting with your brand.

Here’s how to define your core values, build a brand voice, and elevate your language to create a brand story that people remember.

1. Define Core Values

When we think about our values as people, we have a pretty clear idea about what we believe in and how those values influence our everyday lives. To start thinking about your core values as a brand, here’s a quick three-step exercise to follow:

1. Make a list of positive adjectives that describe your brand. Write as many as you can think of, then narrow your list down to 3-5 that resonate best.
2. Take the core values you’ve selected and elaborate upon each one. What do they mean to you and why?
3. Write down a few examples of how your brand can embody each mission in everyday life. Consider every aspect of your business, from modeling new products to interacting with customers. 

This will help you understand how your values and beliefs can become actionable, making it easier to showcase those ideas to the world.

Your brand’s story exists in the tiny details – the feelings, emotions, and ideas that fill people’s minds when interacting with your brand.

2. Craft a Mission Statement

To make sure your brand mission is clearly defined, here are a few questions to ask yourself and your employees:

• What unmet need does your business fulfill?
• How does your audience relate to this need?
• How does your brand make a difference in the world?
• Why should your customers trust and believe in your brand?
• What inspires employees and partners to rally behind your brand?

Once you’ve honed in on these ideas, work to craft them into a succinct, memorable tagline that embodies your brand mission.

3. Build a Brand Voice

Now that you’ve spent time understanding and defining your brand mission, you’ve laid the foundation for creating your brand voice.

Tone of Voice

Your brand’s tone of voice is what helps your brand’s personality take shape.

If your brand was a person, how would you describe him or her? Think about adjectives that you’d want people to use when describing your brand:

• Is it funny and helpful?
• Informative and passionate?
• Professional and straightforward?

Another way to guide your tone of voice is to look at brands that inspire you. If you love getting emails from MailChimp, or you can’t stop obsessing over HubSpot’s blog, dig deeper into this content to see what it is about their brand voice that you love so much.

Language

Your brand language includes the words and phrases that you use to speak to your audience. When a brand uses the right language, they have a much better chance of tapping into audience desires and establishing meaningful customer relationships.

Your brand language is largely dependent on the tone, values, and mission you’d like to get across, but you should also consider the words that your customers are using. This is particularly important when describing your products and services.

For example, if you’re always explaining your jewelry business as “high-quality silversmithing designs” but your customers are typing in “durable silver jewelry,” there’s clearly a disconnect in language.

To get a feel for what your customers are saying – and how they’re saying it – start browsing their language across platforms such as:

• customer emails
• support tickets and chats
• social media posts, including comments and hashtags
• phone calls and conversation notes
• blog posts by industry influencers

Look for particular adjectives they use to talk about your products and services. Peppering these words into your daily language, whether on social media or across product descriptions, can help you establish a stronger audience connection.

How did these exercises work for you? Let me know in the comments below or send me a note anytime!