Finding Your Brand Voice — How to Write Copy That Sounds Like You Here's how to nail your brand voice so you can differentiate yourself and build your business in an authentic way.

It seems like "brand voice" is the buzzword of 2023, but it's more than just a trend. Nailing your brand voice is key so you can differentiate yourself and build your business in an authentic way.

The problem is that understanding your own brand voice is arguably one of the most difficult tasks for an entrepreneur.

So, what is brand voice?

Brand voice is made up of your personality, your stories, your values, your messaging and your writing style. It should be consistent across all your marketing channels so that your audience recognizes your brand with just a whiff. Think about famous brands such as Apple or McDonald's — you'd likely recognize their marketing messages even if they weren't branded.

That's the power of a strong brand voice.

Related: Why Having a Strong Brand Voice is Important For Any Business

I recommend your brand voice be a reflection of your real-life personality to help you stand out from your competitors who may be selling the same services.

Also, when you leverage your own personality into your brand, you can create marketing that's personable, unique and human to help your customers connect emotionally.

And since consumers who connect with a brand emotionally have a 306% higher lifetime value, it's possible to increase your revenue and profitability just by showing up as yourself online.

In fact, I'm convinced that the reason my launch copy gets such good results for my clients is because their voice is personable, authentic and resonates with their audience.

So, I'll show you my top three tips to write copy that sounds like you.

1. Uncover your character traits

To create a personal brand, it must feel human. To do that, incorporate human qualities into your messaging.

If you're a solopreneur, then I recommend using some of your own personality traits. Even better? It means when you're showing up online, you're just being yourself, which will make your marketing even easier.

If you're struggling to articulate your own personality, I have a simple exercise:

Ask 10 friends and/or family members to describe you, and analyze the results.

You'll likely have similar (or exactly the same) answers that you can group together and use to form the basis of your brand personality. Ideally, you want to end with three to five key character traits.

Then analyze the brand traits of your competitors — if any overlap with your brand, consider tweaking them so they're different.

The point here is that instead of choosing random traits from a list on Google, you're strategically selecting them based on your real self (and setting yourself apart from your competitors).

Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Maximize Their Brand Voice Through Video Marketing

2. Record yourself

Whenever you have a blank page in front of you, it's easy to feel stuck or procrastinate. When I'm coaching business owners on how to write like themselves, I ask them to describe out loud what they do and who they serve.

Do they struggle with speaking it? Of course not!

When you remove the blank page, magic (and messaging) happens.

To take this exercise one step further, imagine your best friend (or partner or dog) is in front of you — someone who you can be truly yourself in front of.

Grab a dictaphone, the recording app on your phone (or video app), and record yourself speaking to your friend.

Transcribe it, and then listen to what you actually said. I'll bet when you're relaxed, you use slightly different lingo. Maybe you use slang or words you only use in real life.

The point is, when we remove constraints around our writing, we can feel free to be ourselves.

3. Experiment with your style

Just like your fashion sense, you won't just find your brand voice immediately or seamlessly begin writing in that way. It can take time to become second nature.

Your style will likely evolve as your brand does, but that doesn't mean you should skip this step.

Always refer back to your key three to five character traits, and consider how your writing style showcases these.

There are so many ways you can show style. Here are some examples:

• Language:

  • How do you stylize the actual words? For example, do you remove Gs (i.e., "winging"), or do you place asterisks in swear words?

  • Are there any words you always use that feel like you?

  • What language would you never use?

• Grammar:

  • Keep grammar rules as fluid as possible (you're not writing a college paper!) and feel free to break them.

• Humor/ personality:

  • From using emojis to show an emotion to GIFs to adding something unexpected or using italics to add in funny one-liners, there are lots of ways you can add in humor.

• Pop culture references:

  • Pull some TV shows, characters or trends that you can plug into your copy to make it feel more fun and make your audience feel like they're in your inner circle.

• Sentence length:

  • This is rarely considered, but sentence length changes the pace of writing. Short sentences are faster.

• Punctuation:

  • Is there punctuation you never use?

  • What do you use all the time?

Writing copy that sounds like you can be a major stumbling block for many business owners. But with a simple process and a bit of practice, you can create a consistent brand voice so your copy feels like you and attracts your right-fit customers.

Related: What Is a Brand Personality? Here's How to Develop One.