10 Tips For Creating A Powerful SaaS Brand Voice

As a SaaS business owner, you know that branding is essential to success. But what many people don’t realize is that your brand’s voice is just as important as your logo and marketing materials. A strong brand voice can help you connect with customers and create a powerful identity for your company.
According to SEMRush, “Your brand’s voice is the consistent personality and communication style that you use to interact with your audience.” In other words, it’s how your company comes across to the people who matter most.
Creating a strong brand voice is essential if you want to build a successful SaaS company. In this blog post, we’ll share 10 tips for creating a powerful SaaS brand voice. Keep reading to learn more!
Tip #1: Know Your Audience
Before you can start defining your brand voice, you need to know who your audience is. Not just their demographics and psychographics, but who they are and what they want.
You can find this information by:
- Doing a lot of research on your target market
- Interviews with current customers and prospects
- Surveys
- Customer support tickets
- Google Analytics reports
- Content analytics tools like BuzzSumo or Ahrefs
Try to create a buyer persona for your ideal customer. This will help you understand what kind of voice they respond to.
Tip #2: Write Your Brand Script First
Now that you’ve identified your audience and some keywords, write a short script that focuses on just one audience at a time.
This script should be about 100 words long and will help you get the tone of your brand voice down before moving on to the next step.
Here’s an example of what it might look like:
“We’re here to help busy people like you do more with less. We offer easy-to-use software designed for small businesses, so you can focus on growing your business instead of wasting time trying to figure out what tools are right for your needs.”
Remember, this is just a rough draft. You can (and should) revise it as you move forward with developing your brand voice.
Tip #3: Focus on One Audience at a Time, Then Scale
When you’re first starting out, it’s important to focus on just one audience at a time. Once you’ve nailed down your brand voice for that group, you can start scaling to reach other audiences.
This will help you stay focused and avoid sounding like a different company to different people. Trying to speak to everyone at once will only dilute your message and leave people feeling confused about what you’re trying to say.
Focus on one audience at a time.
This can be an easy way to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed with all the moving parts of your business. Start by thinking about who is already using your product, then work out from there who else would be interested in using it.
Focus on one product at a time.
If you have multiple products or services, try taking turns focusing on each one separately so that they each develop their own unique voices (this will also make it easier for prospects to know which product is right for them).
Focus on one channel at a time.
Stick to a single channel for as long as possible before moving onto another channel or medium entirely. Otherwise, things can get confusing fast!
For example, if most of your marketing efforts thus far have been focused primarily around email newsletters and blog posts but now need more exposure through social media channels like Facebook ads or Instagram influencers—it may make sense just not yet since these two types of marketing require different approaches altogether. Their audiences and motivations behind why people engage with them (or don’t) are very distinct. Another factor that sets these two platforms apart is the posting times, Facebook and Instagram posting times differ since users have different needs for each platform. Usage times need to be well observed to know when your target audiences are online. In this manner, you will be more visible when you share your content online.
The same goes for message content. Don’t try creating something fantastic that resonates perfectly with both audiences simultaneously because this rarely happens successfully. And even when such successes do occur they’re often fleeting at best anyway.
Tip #4: Avoid Using Slang, Jargon, and Offensive Language
Unless you are targeting a very specific audience, avoid words that are less than appropriate for your brand. The last thing you want is to alienate potential customers by using slang or jargon they can’t relate to and potentially offending them with offensive language.
Even if you think it’s cool, don’t use it! Instead, use plain language and communicate directly with your audience in whatever context makes sense for them.
Start by imagining you’re talking to a friend, then adjust accordingly based on who your target audience is.
For example, imagine you’re trying to sell software to small businesses. You might say something like this:
“We’re here to help busy people like you do more with less. We offer easy-to-use software designed for small businesses, so you can focus on growing your business instead of wasting time trying to figure out what tools are right for your needs.”
This is much more effective than using jargon or slang that would only serve to alienate and frustrate potential customers.
Tip #5: Be Clear, Concise, and Consistent
Remember these three Cs:
Be clear
Make sure your brand voice is easily understood by your target audience. As mentioned earlier, avoid using industry jargon or acronyms that they might not be familiar with.
Be concise
Keep your brand messaging short and sweet. No one wants to hear a long-winded sales pitch, so get to the point and make it quickly.
If you’re not sure how to be concise, try this exercise:
- Take a piece of your brand messaging (it can be from your website, a brochure, an email, etc.) and cut it down by 50%. Yes, half. See how that feels.
- If it’s too drastic, try cutting it down by 25% instead.
- Then put it away for a day or two and come back to it with fresh eyes. Does it still make sense? Is the message still clear? If so, great! You’re on your way to developing a more concise brand voice.
Be consistent
Once you’ve found the right voice for your brand, stick with it! Consistency is key when developing a strong brand voice. Keep the following in mind:
- Don’t be all over the place, using a lot of jargon or slang, offensive language, or all caps
- Don’t overuse exclamation points! This can be seen as being too conversational and not professional enough for business-to-business software marketing materials like landing pages, blogs, and email blasts. This holds especially if you’re targeting enterprise clients who expect more traditional writing styles from companies that sell to them.
Tip #6: Be Wary of Implied Tone
Your audience is smart. They know when you’re trying to make a point, and they know how to interpret the words that you use. This is called implied tone. You can use an implied tone to make your copy more formal or informal, positive or negative.
When writing for SaaS software, it’s important to be careful with any negative language because your customers are paying money for access to your product or service—they don’t want to feel like they’re being sold anything!
The same goes for positive language. If there’s anything that comes across as blatantly promotional, it could put off prospective customers who are looking for an unbiased recommendation from someone who has already used the product firsthand (and liked it).
Tip #7: Don’t Use All CAPS Unless You Absolutely Have To
CAPITAL LETTERS ARE FOR EXCITING MOMENTS.
No one likes to see all caps. Not the reader, not your audience, not even you. If you aren’t shouting, don’t use it!
Writing in all caps makes us look like we are shouting and is considered rude. It also makes us appear as if we’re yelling at our readers and that’s no way to make friends or influence people.
So unless you’re using it for emphasis (and even then, use sparingly), don’t do it.
Tip #8: Don’t Overuse Exclamation Points!!!
Now, you might be thinking: “What?! I should NOT use exclamation points? That’s ridiculous! How am I supposed to get my customers excited about our product if I can’t use them?”
The answer is simple. You aren’t supposed to. Exclamation points are not a way for you to convey excitement or emotion in your brand voice; they are a way for your customers to convey their excitement and emotion.
Using too many exclamation points is seen as being unprofessional, and can make your brand look like it’s trying too hard. So unless you want to be known as the company that overuses exclamation points, we suggest you keep them to a minimum.
Tip #9: Keep it Conversational… But Not Too Much
As we mentioned earlier, conversational language is a big part of building a brand voice that connects with your audience. The trick here is to strike the right balance between formal and informal communication styles. You don’t want to talk down to your readers or use slang or offensive language; however, you also don’t want to come across as rigid and stuffy either.
Find a middle ground that you’re comfortable with and that conveys the personality of your brand. Then, be consistent with it throughout all of your marketing materials.
Tip #10: Test Your Voice in Different Scenarios
You should also test your voice across languages and mediums. Try making a video or recording an audio ad that uses the same language as your target audience (if you’re targeting English speakers, for example).
Google Translate is super helpful here if you don’t know what language they speak! You can also try testing out the different formats that are most popular among your audience—are they more likely to read articles or watch videos? What are their preferred social media channels? Once again—Google Analytics is your best friend here!
Once you’ve determined which format and channel are most popular among your audience, create content that uses your brand voice and see how it performs. If you’re happy with the results, great! If not, it’s back to the drawing board.
It’s also important to test how well your brand’s voice translates into other countries where customers live and work. Brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s have done this with great success by launching localized campaigns around the world that resonate with local audiences while still maintaining core messaging from corporate headquarters.
When it comes to your brand voice, the only way to know for sure if it’s working is to test it out in as many scenarios as possible. So don’t be afraid to experiment!
Final Thoughts
Writing a powerful brand voice is about knowing who you are, knowing your audience, and being consistent.
As you begin to draft your brand voice, it’s important to:
- Know who you are and your audience. The more specific and precise you can be about the person or group of people who will be reading what you write, the better. Knowing your audience well is crucial for creating a powerful brand voice because it gives context for everything else that follows — from tone and style down to word choice.
- Know your brand voice. This includes knowing what style of writing works best for conveying messages from your company or product and how much jargon should be used versus plain language in different contexts (e.g., marketing copy versus user documentation).
- Be consistent across all messaging — don’t just say one thing in one place and something else somewhere else! Consistency leads to trustworthiness. If potential customers see inconsistencies between what they read on one page vs. another page on your site, they’ll likely wonder whether there’s any truth behind anything at all that you say.
- And finally, don’t forget to test everything! The best way to know if your brand voice is having the desired effect is to try it out in different scenarios and see how people react.
Have you put any thought into your brand voice? What strategies have you used to ensure that all of your company’s communications are consistent? We hope the tips above will help you get started on writing a strong brand voice for your business!
Don’t forget to read our blog for more SaaS marketing tips. And if you’re looking for help with your marketing, contact us today! We’re happy to chat.