6 Simple Steps to Build Your Unique Brand Voice in 2026

Your brand voice is the tone, style, and language your brand uses in every piece of communication, from your website and social posts to emails and ads.

It reflects who you are, builds trust, and makes your brand instantly recognizable.

Let’s break down the six simple steps to develop a voice that’s both clear and consistent.

1. Know Exactly Who You’re Talking To

Before deciding how your brand should sound, understand who you’re speaking to.

Do some research to understand your ideal and existing customers, their age, interests, values, challenges, and behaviours. You can use surveys, interviews, or focus groups for this.

Once you’ve gathered insights, create detailed buyer personas that represent your different audience types. These personas will guide how your tone and language should feel.

2. Study Your Competitors

Next, look at how others in your industry communicate.

Read through your competitors’ websites, blogs, emails, and social media posts. Notice their tone, formal, playful, bold, casual, and identify what they do well and where they fall short.

This will help you spot opportunities to stand out and find gaps where your brand voice can sound fresh and unique.

3. Define Your Brand Identity

Now combine what you know about your audience and competitors with your own values and personality.

Imagine your brand as a person: How would it talk? What kind of energy would it have? What would it wear, believe in, and care about?

This exercise helps shape a voice that genuinely reflects your brand’s personality and connects emotionally with your audience.

4. Set the Tone

It’s time to describe what your brand sounds like.

Choose around five key traits that define your tone, for example, friendly, confident, educational, witty, or professional.

Keep it simple and consistent. Whether your tone is serious or playful, formal or relaxed, make sure it always matches your brand’s values and resonates with your audience.

5. Create Brand Voice Guidelines

Once your voice is defined, document it so everyone on your team can stay consistent.

Your brand voice guidelines should include:

• Personality traits (who your brand is)

• Tone of voice (how you express that personality)

• Rules for adapting tone to different channels

• Grammar, phrasing, and language preferences

• Real examples of “do’s and don’ts”

These guidelines help every piece of content sound like it comes from the same brand.

For more ideas and examples, check out my detailed guide on creating a distinctive brand voice.

6. Keep Your Brand Voice Evolving

A strong brand voice isn’t static; it grows with your business and audience.

Review your guidelines regularly and gather feedback from customers to see if your tone still feels right. Adjust as needed to stay relevant and relatable.

Keeping your voice fresh ensures you keep building trust, loyalty, and lasting brand recognition.

With these six steps, you’ll have a clear, memorable, and human brand voice, one that your audience instantly recognizes and connects with every time they hear from you.

If you’re ready to create or refresh your brand voice in 2026, let’s talk. It’s one investment that will only keep paying back, year after year.