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April 17, 2023 Content Chat Recap: How To Achieve Consistency In Your Content Branding

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A Content Chat header image that says today’s topic is how to achieve consistency in your content branding with guest Melanie Graham, who is @MG_content on Twitter.

If you took your brand’s name and logo out of your content, would your community still recognize the content as yours? For many content marketing teams, the answer is “no”—and we want to explain why that is an issue and how to fix it.

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Melanie Graham (@MG_Content), content marketing manager at Gemtem Health, to discuss how to achieve consistency in your content branding. In this recap, you’ll learn how to define your brand voice and create a content style guide and messaging framework that empowers all creators in your company to reinforce your unique branding.

Read through a few highlights from the conversation below, and listen to the full recording here.

Q1: What is meant by consistent branding when it comes to content? What are the elements of content branding?

A consistent brand carries the same voice, tone, style, and visual identity across all content.

Erika uses Super Bowl commercials to explain the importance of consistent branding. Listen to the audio recap for more on that, and to hear Erika explain how an awful experience with Chewy customer service felt like a “gut punch” and contradicts their historically inclusive brand voice.

“I think a great example of [the importance of consistent branding] is the annual Super Bowl commercials. If you asked people who weren’t already customers of whatever brand ‘who was the company that sponsored the ad,’ frequently people don’t know. And that’s because [the commercial] wasn’t consistent with [the company’s] branding, in addition to going out to an audience that isn’t the right audience. It’s absolutely critical to focus on having that consistent content branding, and having it go beyond just the logo and brand colors being on everything.”

Q2: A brand voice is one of the most important—and potentially difficult to implement—elements of consistent branding. How can a team define its brand voice?

Melanie recommends looking at your company’s core values to find voice characteristics that align with those values.

If your brand does not have defined brand values, Erika recommends you ask “what famous book or movie character would you consider to have the same kind of brand personality as the brand we’re trying to build here?”

Choose between three and four brand voice characteristics and create a chart that explains how those characteristics should present themselves. Melanie shares a template to help you get started.

Your brand voice should resonate with your target audience.

Q3: How can marketers create an effective brand voice that stands out from (and doesn’t copy) competitors?

“Your branding should not only be consistent, but it also needs to be unique. It can’t just be a copy of your competitors and what your peers are doing, because otherwise nobody’s going to notice you and you’re going to fly under the radar.” – Melanie Graham

“If you’re having trouble thinking through your differentiated brand voice, you can also start by having people share examples of something a competitor wrote or said that your brand would never do. Talk about why that [competitor content] is so off brand for you. AI is also a fantastic tool for looking at things and giving you some insight into brand voices.” – Erika Heald

While it’s helpful to analyze your competitor’s brand voice(s), your brand voice should reflect your unique values.

Speak with stakeholders across your company to understand how they perceive the brand identity.

Q4: Content style guides can be incredibly helpful for branding purposes. What are your must include (or remove) elements for an effective content style guide?

A content style guide should explain company and product naming conventions, executive titles, the general style guide you follow and exceptions, and guidelines for visuals. Check out our style guide checklist below for all the details:

“Something that I wish everybody had—and they often don’t—is every executive leadership team member’s full name, their actual job title, what you call them, and their pronouns.” – Erika Heald

Q5: What types of content can marketing teams create to reinforce their branding?

Create a rich “About Us” page that explains your company and exemplifies your brand voice.

Every piece of content or content element should reflect your brand identity. Our previous #ContentChat about why customer experience can be your best marketing provides plenty of background about how you can turn “ordinary” content experiences into something greater.

Q6: What is a messaging framework, and how can it support your content branding?

A messaging framework outlines your company’s positioning, key differentiators, proof points, and more. Melanie shares her messaging framework template below for you to use.

“Most of the messaging documents I receive are 98-page PowerPoint decks or 37 pages of Microsoft Word… but you don’t have to try to cram everything into one document of doom.” – Erika Heald

Q7: How do you recommend teams keep content branding top-of-mind throughout their day-to-day content creation?

Store your brand voice doc, style guide, and messaging framework in an easily accessible location for your team. Share these documents with all new hires and content creators.

Create a review process where someone is responsible for reviewing all content for consistent branding.

“As a consultant I’m frequently that last pair of eyes [on a piece of content], and I catch things that the folks that have been in it—people who have seen it too many times, revised it too many times—didn’t. [You need someone] keeping the brand in mind and who isn’t emotionally connected to the content.” – Erika Heald

Q8: What companies do you think exemplify a consistent brand voice?

Melanie and Sweepsify share brands that exemplify a consistent brand voice below:

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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