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Bring Your Company Voice to Life

 

Rover gets the importance of knowing “your voice.” He practices his “voice” every time a car drives past or whenever there’s a treat in site!

 

Before the beginning of the year, spend some time thinking about your company’s “voice.” What is your company culture? What do you want it to be? How do you want customers and prospects to see you? A fun company? Bold? Serious? Caring? Formal? Casual and approachable? Then take that “voice” and bring it life by applying it throughout your company.

 

Creating Your Company Voice

 

How important is it to have a company voice? Just ask Dick Costolo of Burningdoor.com, an online media agency, who recently received a package from Moosejaw.com, an outdoor gear retailer with a strong online presence. The pre-printed paper note that was packed with the shipment started out:

“If you are actually reading this note you should be super happy. First, you have received your order, reading is fun and getting something in the mail (even if you bought it yourself) has got to make the day better. Second, I put your order together all by myself.”

Dick explains that the note is not only fun to read but makes him like Moosejaw more because of it. "Is it silly? Sure, it’s a silly note and it’s pre-printed, so I know that everybody else gets one. Why does the note make me like Moosejaw more? People like it when companies have personalities. It makes us feel like there are actual people on the other side of the communication. It’s fun to be the customer of a company with a personality. This seems totally obvious, and yet you too rarely see companies with distinct personalities really grab your attention in the marketplace. Why is this? It’s actually hard to remove personality and character from communications. So, instead of saying that companies don’t take the time to have personalities, it’s probably more accurate to state that companies don’t allow themselves to show their personalities."

 

Often it's because companies find it to be too risky or are afraid their customers and prospects won't understand or appreciate their personality. Combine that with the fact that we're trained to believe that business is serious and that we have to speak with an oh-so-serious tone to be taken seriously. That's why we expend so much effort depersonalizing our communications to the point that no one wants to read them.

 

Take RedRover for example. Rover is our voice. He explains our sales and marketing philosophies, keeping them interesting with the obvious overuse of dog-gone corny doggy expressions (e.g., working like a dog, double dog dare ya') combined with the occasional dog command like speak or fetch. Rover is a hybrid of the often unusual personalities of the firm's managing partners. We bring this voice to life in our written communications, website, company voice mail, and even in our office decor.

 

At a time when you're looking for a way to stand out from your competition in an economical way, there may be no better avenue than creating a unique voice in your market. Companies that demonstrate personality have an instant leg up because people want to embrace other people, which is difficult to do when a company's voice is bland, stodgy, or uninspiring.

 

When determining your voice, don't think that it has to be silly, fun or cool. You can take a more serious tone that still carries a unique quality, making your customers and prospects feel closer to you.

 

Integrating Your Voice Across the Company

 

Once you've determined your company's voice, map out a strategy for making it heard through every conceivable channel, including all your communications (from internal memos to external press releases), customer correspondence, your individual and corporate voice mail messages, your email signatures, your business cards, your website, your presentations, and even the way you decorate your office. Give special consideration to the tone and inflection of the person's voice you use on your company voice mail, as this has such a strong impact on your perceived company personality.

 

Contact RedRover for:

        1. Support in determining a voice that's a good fit for your company and market, including deployment of a brand personality survey to your team to get you started.
        2. Recommendations for integrating that voice across your company, including into your sales and marketing strategies.

 

Click here for other Rover Treats -- low cost sales and marketing tips to keep you leader of the pack in an economy that's gone to the dogs.