Hi there. Nice to meet you
In any type of marketing, whether it be content, digital, email or guerrilla, a business needs to develop a brand persona. Believe us when we say, it’s absolutely necessary. How else will you design the most effective type of content - blogs, videos, podcasts, social media, the list goes on - if you don’t know two things: who you are and who your customer is.
Personality plus
Who are you? Who are you as a brand? Who are you as a communicator, as an educator, as a helper? Developing your brand persona is so crucial when it comes to ensuring your customers have a clear understanding of your brand and what it does.
Many will tell you that you need to create a ‘person’ for your brand. But perhaps that is simplifying it a bit. Rather, you need to provide human-like attributes to your brand. These personality traits, attitudes and values will stretch across everything from email communication through to social media posts and for product-based businesses, even how you package the product to send for online orders. It also includes how your logo is designed and any other visual elements of the business. Everything you do should be in line with your brand persona.
You could say that the brand persona is the ‘heart’ of the brand.
Coming up with the goods
When you think about your brand, what personal adjectives spring to mind? There are four different elements in play here – character, tone, language and purpose.
Character: Is your brand trustworthy, youthful, energetic, mature, helpful (we can keep going here)?
Tone: Funny, intelligent without being condescending, approachable, personal? This, of course, will flow into your brand’s tone of voice.
Language: Inspiring, whimsical, simple and direct but technical when it needs to be, strong or empowering.
Purpose: What is the purpose of your communication. Do you wish to inform or support your customers, what about engaging them or entertaining them?
Another way to come up with your persona is to consider five words that describe your brand.
A good tip here: what inspired the company in the first place?
Remember though, that you need to really consider the industry you’re in. For example, financial services companies really should be personified with descriptions such as ‘authoritative, intelligent, straight-forward but friendly’. A sustainable coffee pod company, in contrast, has a bit more leeway when it comes to cheekiness.
Of course, rules are meant to be broken – as long as you know why you’re breaking them!
Now, use it!
It’s all well and good to come up with your all-important brand persona, but it’s then time to implement it. You want customers, clients and even readers to feel like they know your brand – who you are, what you stand for and how you’ll help them.
You want them to understand that you’re there to guide them.
Get it right, and it can really help in the long run, as customers, clients and readers associate these personality traits with your brand. Make sure anything you choose really embodies your story and what you stand for, and a brand persona that will, above all else, connect with your customers.