Have you ever had friends or family say something like, “OMG you sound so different when you’re working” if they’re around while you’re talking to clients?

We’ve all experienced something like this, but here’s my hot take:

Your “work voice” doesn’t have to be different from your real voice. You are your brand, after all– your brand voice should reflect your personality!

Okay– so if your brand voice should reflect your true voice…why is it so damn hard to figure it out?

Because most of us don’t like writing about ourselves.

Last week, we talked about what brand voice actually is. In this blog, I’m going over the HOW:

• Where to begin discovering your brand voice

• How you can use AI prompts to assist you

Brand Voice Strategy: How to get started

Many things go into brand voice strategy, and we won’t get to them all in this post.

(Though I have something launching soon that will cover brand voice from start to finish. Read through this post for more info!)

This blog will get your brain in branding mode. Start with these prompts to get the ball rolling!

Creating a Brand Voice Questionnaire

Just like you ask your couples a million questions to understand their desires for their wedding better, you need to interview yourself to figure out what’s important to you.

This is the foundation on which you can build your brand voice. Here is a list of 10 essential questions to get you started. 

1. How would you describe what you do to a friend or family member?

2. What adjectives would you use to describe your brand? 

3. Who do I serve?

4. Why did I choose to serve this industry or market? 

5. How do I stand out from my competitors? 

6. What makes my services or products valuable?

7. Where do I want my business to be 1 year from now? What about 5?

8. If I had unlimited resources, what 3 things would I invest in for my business?

9. If I could snap my fingers and instantly make all of my clients understand the same 3 things about my services, what would they be?

10. If you could solve 1 problem about your market or industry, what would it be?

What’s important here is you take your time and really dive deep to answer this. Surface answers don’t give you enough information to build your brand voice.

My favorite way to do this is to answer the question and ask, “Why?” Here’s an example.

Q: What adjectives would you use to describe your brand? 

A: My brand is inviting, bubbly, and elegant. 

“Why?”

A: Inviting because one of my values is to make my clients feel pampered through the whole process. Bubbly because I love to talk and want to learn as much about my clients as possible. Elegant because my work isn’t too extravagant or bold, but has a simple, renaissance-era feel.

See how much info you can pull out if you just ask why? Write down your answers somewhere you can easily find them.

AI Prompts to help excavate your brand voice

Whether you love AI or hate it, one thing is true: it saves a lot of time and brainpower. Sometimes, we need an outside person (or computer) to help us identify trends we can’t see ourselves.

The key to using AI in your business is correctly asking the right things. Otherwise, you’ll get cookie-cutter responses that aren’t helpful at all.

First, you’ll need to find a piece of writing you feel really showcases your true voice. That could be a newsletter, an IG post, or a section from your website.

Copy and paste your writing into ChatGPT and use these 5 prompts to help excavate your brand voice:

1. I am a [title or job description] providing [services or products] to [ideal client info] in [location(s) you serve]. I would like to learn more about how to use my brand voice to better connect with my clients. Here is a piece of text that exemplifies my brand. Please analyze it for brand voice and tone. Text: [paste your copy here]

2. What adjectives would you use to describe the tone of this voice?

3. What trends and common phrases can you find in my text?

4. Based on all the information you’ve gathered, what is my brand voice missing? How can I sound more [brand adjective] and [brand adjective]?

5. I am looking for my [marketing platform or “copy,” i.e. website] to accomplish the following things: 1. [goal #1] 2. [goal #2] 3. [goal #3]. How can I use my brand voice to create copy that accomplishes these?

These prompts should help you gain insights about your brand you may not have thought of before.

Sort through the responses, take what makes sense, and leave the rest. No human or computer knows your brand as well as you do.

Why your brand voice is important

You know my voice is bold and unfiltered if you’ve seen my website. And that’s exactly how I am in real life. I curse, I tell you how it is, and I’m not afraid to share my opinion.

Not everybody is like that, and that’s totally fine. What’s important is you stay true to who you are.  As a wedding professional, you’re not just selling your services– you’re selling yourself.

So why would you shove yourself into a box just to sound “professional?”

If the person couples “meet” on your website matches the person they talk to during an inquiry call, they’re a million times more likely to book.

Why? Because they know exactly who they’re getting when they inquire.

The goal is to feel so confident with your brand that marketing and booking are a piece of cake.

If you’d like to dive deeper into your brand voice and strategy, I’ve got a new resource just for you.

It’s called Psychic Seller, and it will be available to purchase (at a HUGE discount) on October 16th, 2023.

You can hop on the waitlist here. In the meantime, take a look at these free resources to start building your brand strategy:

Blog Post: What is a Brand Voice?: Unleash the Power of Your Brand’s Personality

Free Download: 25 Things to Put on Your Website That Actually Show Your Personality 

And, of course, you can always hire me to do it for you if you don’t have the time (or simply don’t want) to do it yourself. I’ve got ya either way!