Your brand voice: what does your business sound like online?

Two bakeries post the same photo of the same bread. One writes: "Our artisan sourdough bread, carefully prepared according to a traditional recipe." The other: "Four hours of rising. Once a week. Out of the oven today at 7am."

Same bread, same photo. Completely different story. That difference is your brand voice, and it's the only thing about your content that a competitor cannot copy.

What a brand voice is not

It's not a slogan. It's not a visual identity. It's not "professional yet approachable," because everyone says that and it means nothing.

It's the way your business sounds when it speaks. Consistent, recognisable, and so distinctly yours that a loyal customer would know a post came from you without seeing a logo.

The exercise: three words, and three you are not

Choose three adjectives that describe how you want to sound. But here's the trick that makes it useful: write down what each word is not.

"Warm, but not cloying." "Direct, but not blunt." "Skilled, but not preachy."

That second half is where the real guidance lies. "Warm" on its own is empty. "Warm but not cloying" immediately tells you to cut the three heart emojis.

Find your voice in what you already say

You already have a voice. You use it every day at the counter, on the phone, on the job site. The problem is that most people swap that voice for a stiff version the moment they start typing.

Try this: pick up your phone and record yourself explaining a new product to a regular customer. Play it back and transcribe what you said. That is your voice. Usually shorter, more concrete, and more human than anything you would have typed.

The four dials you can turn

Formal or familiar. Sir/Ma'am or first names. Choose once and stick with it. Switching is the only real mistake.

Serious or playful. A funeral director and a toy shop don't sit at the same point on this dial, and they don't need to.

Restrained or exuberant. How many exclamation marks, how many emojis, how many superlatives. The higher your price point, the more restrained it usually needs to be.

Jargon or plain language. Do you talk about "hydration percentage" or "how much water goes into the dough"? Either works, depending on your audience.

Write it down, even if you work alone

Half a page is enough. Your three words with their opposites, your four dials, five sentences that sound like you, and five words you never use.

That list of forbidden words is surprisingly powerful. For most local businesses, it includes things like "innovative," "solution," "experience," "unique," "the best." Anything everyone says cannot set you apart.

Do you work with staff or have someone help with writing? Then that half page is the difference between one business that speaks with one voice and three people each saying something different.

The test that decides everything

Take your last five posts. Remove your name and your logo. Show them to someone who knows your business.

Do they recognise them? Then you have a voice.

Do they say it could be from any business? Then you write like everyone else, and there's no reason for anyone to remember you.

Being consistent matters more than being perfect

A voice that isn't ideal but always sounds the same builds recognition. A voice that changes every week builds nothing, no matter how good each individual post is.

So choose something you can sustain. Not the voice you admire from a brand with four copywriters on the payroll, but the voice that's still yours on a Tuesday evening at ten o'clock.

The conclusion

Your brand voice is the cheapest form of differentiation that exists. It costs you half a page and the courage to write the way you speak.

Competitors can copy your prices, imitate your product, and replicate your photos. How you sound, they cannot.