Your Brand Voice Isn’t Sticking (But It’s Fixable)
Being recognized in the digital world is huge.
If someone can read your fleeting words – whether it’s an Instagram Caption, TikTok post, quick thread, sales page, email, or any of the other 1000s of ways we communicate as business owners – and instantly recognize your brand…that’s basically gold.
In our digital world of screens and socials, your ideal client is getting screamed at every single day. Research tells us that consumers are exposed to anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 ads and brand messages every single day. (Which, on its face, is just an insane thing).
That means every time someone opens an app, scrolls a feed, checks an email, or watches a video, they’re sorting through an avalanche of brands fighting for their attention.
If you can become a brand that sticks out to them with just your words – if you can become instantly familiar and recognizable and trustworthy – you’ll never struggle connecting with your people again.
Unfortunately, it’s not always going to be about how great your product is or how helpful your service is – even if you’re the absolute best {insert your expertise here} in the world, it doesn’t really matter if no one else knows it.
And if you notice that your ideal people aren’t recognizing you, I implore you to ask the tough question – are you being recognizable?
That’s where sticky brand voice comes into play.
Want to learn how to be recognizable in a slam-packed, chaotic, and loud digital world? Keep reading, pal.
LIL KEY TAKEAWAYS: THIS BLOG AT A GLANCE
Your ideal clients are scrolling past thousands of brands every day (yikes)
If your words don’t sound recognizable, people probably aren’t remembering you
Sticky brand voice is what makes people go “oh, that sounds like THEM” instantly
Being consistent with your words, phrases, themes, and isms is what builds recognition
Your brand voice should feel like the sweet spot between your personality and what your people connect with
Bland brand voice gets glazed over, recognizable brand voice gets remembered
Your voice should stick with people long after they stop scrolling
Sticky Brand Voice 101: What It Is & Why It Matters
What is Sticky Brand Voice?
I have an entire blog on sticky brand voice 101that I absolutely encourage you to read, but if you want to stay on this thought train, here are the quick highlights you need to know before continuing into this blog:
Brand voice is HOW you show up and talk as your brand. If messaging is what you’re saying, brand voice is how you’re saying it.
Brand voice is the consistent & curated personality, vibe, & attitude of your brand when presenting itself to the world.
Brand voice should be the sweet little intersection between who you already are and who your ideal people need you to be. Basically, it’s you – but you at your absolute best. It’s important that you understand when I say “best,” I don’t mean “most professional” or “most sophisticated” – by best, I simply mean the version of your personality that best connects with the people you want to work with.
Brand voice is more than just a “vibe” – it’s actionable. Your brand voice should have a personality and “vibe direction” (maybe you’re effortlessly cool or no-nonsense or chatty), but it should also have real guidelines and a dedicated dictionary full of your brand’s particular words and phrases.
Brand voice should be consistent and recognizable – that’s what makes it sticky. It’s not enough to just curate your brand voice; you need to use it at every turn and opportunity so that people can truly start to recognize you. That’s what sticks with them. I highly recommend creating a brand voice dictionarywhere you can track your brand’s words, phrases, themes, and isms, then open it up and use it every time you write something.
Why Should You Care About Sticky Brand Voice?
Every time I talk about brand voice, I go back to the same metaphor.
Your brand voice is the neon welcome sign that instantly signals to your ideal audience that you’re the perfect choice for them.
Hear me out. Let’s pretend your ideal client is driving down a dark desert road. In the distance, they see a bunch of dimly lit signs that are trying to signal to them. Tumbleweeds are flying past, cars are whizzing by, and through it all, they’re driving – the whole experience is so chaotic they’re just sort of squinting at the dim signs begging them to stop.
But then, your neon sign shows up in the distance – clear as day, bright as ever.
They can see it, they can read it, they know for a fact that you’re perfect for them. They trust you, they like you, and they’re way more invested in you. They pull over.
Your brand voice IS that neon welcome sign – your special, quirky, standout voice was so specific that it got their attention and beckoned them in.
On a chaotic road, all they saw (and remembered) was you.
It’s not unlike the reality of a chaotic digital world – where they’re inundated with the same bland, boring voices over and over, and they can’t tell anyone apart, much less discern if they’re the right choice for them.
That’s how your brand voice works on the internet. You flip on your neon welcome sign, and you start to stand out.
The Numbers Behind the Why: Your Sticky Brand Voice Factor
That metaphor is all well and good, but it also could be just a little picture I painted to try to sell you something.
I’m skeptical, so I’m not insulted by that at all – but the numbers do back up what I’m trying to say about sticky brand voice.
Researchers tell us that consumers are exposed to anywhere from 4,000-10,000 ads and brand messages every single day – most of them barely click with them.
The average person spends more than 2 hours and 20 minutes scrolling social media every day
Ads make up about 10-25% of a person’s feed on platforms like Facebook and Instagram
That means every time someone opens an app, scrolls a feed, checks an email, or watches a video, they’re sorting through an avalanche of brands fighting for their attention.
All of those point to a single reality – people’s eyes are going to glaze over your brand if it’s not recognizable, delightful, exciting, and particularly interesting to them.
If you feel like….
Your audience ignores you
People gloss right over your social media posts
You sound pretty much just like every other pro in your industry
Everyone glides on by without even giving your business a second glance
It’s completely possible that your brand voice ain’t stickin’ like it should. And your brand voice should stick with people – because if someone recognizes you, they’re likely to take a shot and trust you, and if they’re likely to trust you, they’re likely to give you a chance and invest in you. (That’s something called The Liking Principle – definitely give that a read!).
Again, you don’t have to take my word for it; the stats say:
73% of people are more likely to buy from brands they recognize
People need an average of 5-7 brand impressionsbefore they even remember a brand.
Brand visibility is reportedly3.5x higher for brands with consistent presentation across platforms
81% of people say they need to trust a brand before they’ll buy from it
86% of shoppers say they prefer an authentic and honest brand personality on social media.
That’s why your sticky brand voice matters so dang much. Your words become part of your brand recognition.
The Top 3 Reasons Your Brand Voice Strategy Isn’t Sticking (& How to Fix Them)
As a brand voice strategist, the problems I usually see with clients’ brand voices ultimately fall into these very specific problem areas:
You Don’t Know Your Own Sticky Brand Voice
You’re Trying to Sound Like Someone Else in Your Industry
You’re Not Being Consistent With Your Brand Voice
The good news? Every single one is fixable – and I’m going to tell you how!
The Problem: You Don’t Know Your Own Sticky Brand Voice
The biggest issue I run into with an unsticky brand voice (something I like to call a gummy brand voice) is that the client doesn’t know their own brand voice.
They’re bummed that their ideal clients aren’t sticking with their voice – but on the flipside, they can’t describe their own voice, their personality or vibe, or even share their brand’s go-to lingo.
If you haven’t refined, refreshed, and figured out what makes your brand voice sticky to begin with, why would you expect your people to click and stick with it on their own? That’s asking a lot of your audience – like, more than you were even willing to do!)
The Solution: Pay Attention to Your Personality & Create a Useable Guide
Ideally, you wouldn’t have to grasp at straws and guess every single time you write something. Think about it – for every other area of our businesses, we rely on brand guidelines (our logos, our color palettes, our fonts). Why aren’t we doing this for our brand voices?
The solution is to sit down and comb through your brand’s identity, voice, and ideal audience. Who are you? Who do your people need you to be? What does that overlap look and feel like?
Creating and using a brand voice guide IS the solution to this problem. Make sure it finds that sticky sweet spot of who you are and who your people need you to be.
A Few Resources That Can Help:
→1:1 Brand Voice Strategy:A done-for-you strategy sesh where we curate your brand voice – and build your brand voice guide, dictionary, and how-to steps.
→ Brand Voice Roundup (DIY):Speedy mini course that teaches you how to build and use your own brand voice guide!
The Problem: You’re Trying to Sound Like Others In Your Industry
Admiring someone cool in your industry is fine – becoming their carbon copy just makes you even less memorable than before.
When this happens, it’s no wonder no one connects the dots or instantly clicks with you – they hear you and think it’s someone else!
The Solution: Establish Your Words, Phrases, Themes, & Isms – Then USE Them
Pay attention to your personality & create a Brand Voice Dictionary filled with your brand’s special vocab and lingo.
Don’t overcomplicate it – just start a living, breathing tip sheet on your phone that takes notes of your words, phrases, themes, and isms.
How you talk about something is memorable – lean into your style and personality and use your brand’s own vocabulary consistently.
The Problem: You’re Not Using Your Brand Voice Consistently
This is one of the bigger problems I see with brands that have done a lot of legwork on curating their brand voice, but still aren’t seeing the sticky results.
Ultimately, you may not be consistent enough with your brand voice!
Consistency is the lifeblood of a sticky brand voice. You should be repeating yourself over and over and over – to the point people think of you anytime they hear your words or phrases (even if it’s out of context).
The Solution: Create Guides & Keep Them Open At All Times
Create and use your brand voice guide and brand voice dictionary all the time. Open them and use them EVERY time you’re going to write anything. Maybe it’s just a Threads post. Maybe it’s just an Instagram caption. It really doesn’t matter.
If words are involved, your brand voice guide and brand voice dictionary should be involved. Whether you’re writing website copy, blogs, emails, sales pages, anything – open up those guides and use them.
The more consistent you are with your words, phrases, and isms, the more consistently your people will hear you and recognize you.
Curate & Use Your Sticky Brand Voice – Here’s How Boundless Can Help
Here’s what I truly believe about your brand – what you’ve got deserves to pop. Let your voice do its thing so you can stick with the audience of your dreams.
If you’re struggling to pinpoint your sticky brand voice or use it consistently, I’m sharing a quick list of resources below so you can plainly see how Boundless can help you show up, stand out, and stick with your dream people.
Brand Voice Basics (Free):A down ‘n’ dirty ebook that walks you through all the basics of curating and using your own brand voice!
How to Build Your Brand Voice Dictionary (Free):A quick and easy blog (or reel if you’re more of a visual learner)to teach you how to create and use your custom brand voice dictionary.
Brand Voice Bootcamp (Free):a weeklong email challenge that walks you through taking your brand voice from blaaaah to bold.
Brand Voice Roundup ($): A quick mini course that shows you step by step how to build and use your custom brand voice guide.
1:1 Brand Voice Strategy ($$):My signature done-for-you service where I curate your sticky brand voice, create your go-to Brand Voice Guide & Brand Voice Dictionary, then share an actionable checklist with step-by-step directions to show you how to use it every day.
