Trying to maintain a unified brand voice must work like a choir. You have different people from different backgrounds with each their unique vocal types working together to create a beautiful harmony.

With the prevalence of digital marketing, especially content marketing, the need for businesses for content writers has become increasingly necessary. Most of the time, these companies hire a regular team of writers, or opt to recruit independent talents. Whichever the company chooses, they will end up with different writers with different approaches to writing.

This is where making a unified brand voice becomes complicated. You want different talents with each of their unique approaches while also implementing a unified brand voice across the board. 

You might think it’s going to become a compromise between retaining your writer’s unique flavor or your unique brand voice, but that is not always the case. Moving forward, we will discuss how you can work with a diverse team of talents while staying true to your brand voice.

Choose Your Writers

Finding the right writers for your team is always a hit-or-miss process. You can always get good writers, but the best writers for your team must capture your brand voice while also maintaining their unique personalities.

Great writers are flexible and moldable and can accommodate and bring out your brand’s personality in their unique way. And yes, this means that marketers need not find only those whose writing is perfectly in line with their standards. 

A brand voice is more than just a way of writing. It’s a distinct way of storytelling that’s unique to a brand, and the perfect writers for you are those who can capture that story and deliver it to the audience. 

So how do you find the “right” writer for your brand? Explore your candidates’ portfolios, examine their writing styles and approaches. There’s a lot more you can learn about writers in how they write their own stuff (i.e. personal blogs, social media, etc.)  than the way they try to present themselves to you in the application process. 

Create a Framework and Guideline

While you don’t police your writer’s unique way of writing, both you and your writers must be on the same page on a specific framework and guideline that your article or blog post is supposed to attack. 

To maintain a unified brand voice, you must make it clear to your writers what your expectations are in their work. This includes briefing new writers about the company, your vision and mission, your audience, and your approach to content marketing. This way, your writers will develop a solid foundation when they start the content creation process.

This doesn’t apply only to new writers. Old and existing writers in your pool should also be regularly reviewed and re-evaluated to make sure that they are keeping up with the evolution of the brand over the years. 

Here are some examples of frameworks and guidelines you can communicate to your writers:

• Language guidelines 

• Formality or tone of content

• Structure of content

• Formatting of content

• Number of words required

• The necessity of links to professional studies/research/authorities

Many organizations also create a brand voice chart like the image below to give the writers a framework that will help them mold their styles into your brand voice without losing their touch.

 

Source: coschedule.com

Communication is Key

Never undermine the importance of communication. When working as a team, especially with different writers, good communication must be maintained. If our goal is unifying the organization’s brand voice, try letting the team develop the brand voice together: throw out ideas on the table, collaborate, share experiences.

One advantage of having a wide pool of writers (especially those from different backgrounds) is that each one can make up for what another one lacks. This makes communication—and the collaborative process in developing a unified brand voice— a much easier and more seamless process.

Be Authentic

Forbes emphasizes that brand voice “revolves around what is being said and remains quite consistent with the communications delivered” and that “by having an unchanging voice, users can perceive the brand as being reliable and understandable”.

This means that in the process of creating a unified brand voice, it is important to emphasize to the writing team authenticity in the way they write and the information they share. Your brand voice reflects your brand’s identity and personality, and only through authentic input will the writers convince the audience about their brand.

Refine your editing process

Not the least, but a huge factor in shaping your brand voice, is your editors. 

As one of the last frontiers before the content is published, editors are responsible for refining the creative output that the writers have produced. They are tasked with ensuring that the output is a cohesive product that falls in line with the company’s guidelines, framework, voice, and tone ready for readership.

This means that editors should think from the point of view of the organization. Does it meet all the company criteria? They should then think from the reader’s perspective. Is this content something that I can gain value from and will make me like the company?

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Making sure that your brand voice is upheld despite working with multiple writers is a challenge in itself— perhaps more than finding the right writers for the job. You can find so many good writers, but not a lot who can capture the “right” voice and tone for your brand.

Your brand voice is something that reflects your organization as a whole in terms of personality and identity. Maintaining your brand voice across the board, even with a diverse set of writers, is not difficult but requires effective coordination within the team. Even when working with multiple writers with different backgrounds, you must thoroughly guide them to reflect your brand’s personality while making their individualities shine through.