My guess is that most of you reading have either created or been a part of designing a brand at one point or another. It distinguishes you from the competition and helps you connect with your audience, even if sounds like it shouldn't... One aspect of branding that's often overlooked however is the tone of voice you use in your communication with your potential customers. I'm not going to pretend I'm a guru in this field but I can show you something that is currently working for me.

I very recently launched https://Roastd.io, a service to roast landing pages, improve conversion rates and get people more customers. The point isn't what I do though, it's how I'm doing it. Before I started building the site I took a little bit of time to focus on what output the business will have, I must confess I did 0 market research to see what was out there because of how quickly I wanted to get this idea out of my head and into reality. So after some time I concluded that I'd be telling people bad news in the form of a critique, pretty often and as a designer by trade there's so much political bureaucracy that you have to tiptoe around on a daily basis with colleagues and clients and it's actually one of the worst parts about working in tech (I can sense some of you nodding at screens). I hate it and wish it didn't exist but does it have to? That was my train of thought when ideating for Roastd, because I enjoy giving feedback but wanted a way to do in that it wouldn't confuse the client or even affirm them because of some false sense of status in any way, just raw feedback. I kept thinking about tone of voice, how you express your brand personality in your messaging with words, language and emotions you convey. How people would perceive and connect with my content.

So the idea of being unfiltered began to fester and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it, however raw feedback can be super robotic. If I'm giving only factual, emotionless advice I then lose the political masquerade often seeked out in a traditional business environment. I'm confident I have a shrewd design acumen and want to portray that but somehow need to convey it in a way that resonates with my audience and with me. What the F!*# was I to do?

...Exactly that.

If I was going to roast peoples hard work for a living, then I thought I should lean all the way in to it. I'd give the most brutal, snarky, no nonsense advice they couldn't get anywhere else. What might take months with a consultant or listening to friends, because you'd have to filter out all the noise. I'd do within 2 days and the advice would be so unfiltered, raw and unapologetic with a snarky twist that you'd never want to go anywhere else. Now I know it's not for everyone but ultimately no brand is and as with any unconventional tone of voice you're always taking a risk but so far that risk is paying off for me. When people think of getting website feedback, I want them to remember Roastd instead of just getting lost amongst the waves of competition and tone of voice is my ace in the hole. So my advice if you're looking to do any or all of this is:

• Really understand what output

• Know what field you play in

• Be consistent

• Don't shy away from the unconventional

• Test it (I've iterated since starting)

• Stay true to you or else you'll hate it

• Kick some a**

Good luck 🔥