Your brand voice will set the tone for all of your communications; but is often overlooked by organizations when they develop messaging and redesign their brand.  As a result, depending on who the author of any given communication on your behalf may be, your communications can sound haphazard and jarring to your audiences – creating inconsistencies that are confusing and even uncomfortable.

A good brand guide should not only address basics like color palette, elevator speech, tag lines, logos, and visual identity. Your brand guide needs to cover the voice and style in which your organization addresses the audience.  Some elements of your voice might differ depending on the channel – for instance, your voice on Facebook might be more informal and fun than your voice on your website, a blog, or your content resources.

Nevertheless, your audience should always be aware that it is your organization talking.

A consistent brand voice requires you to educate all of those in your organization. Any member of your staff can be a brand ambassador, but only if they know about the voice and the messages that are important to you.

Check out the Cleveland Clinic branding site.

Cleveland Clinic goes beyond the basic brand guidelines for their staff. Their OnBrand website helps to educate their brand ambassadors about their history, mission, and “pride points” – helping staff to visualize what kinds of stories will support the organization best when shared with customers.

OnBrand does more than just act as a resource for staff. Cleveland Clinic’s brand team goes proactive, with educational pushes about their branding messages and elements, on their intranet.